NCREST Publications

In September 2010, Jackie and I invited Ann Lieberman, one of the founding Directors of NCREST, to talk with us and the NCREST staff about her work and career. We asked Ann to reflect on some of the key ideas behind NCREST's early projects as well as to share some of what she's learned from her more recent work. The conversation emphasized NCREST's early commitment to the idea that there is knowledge in practice. At the time, Lee Shulman and others were talking about the "wisdom in practice" and the need to recognize and build on teacher's knowledge of instruction and pedagogy, but NCREST embraced the view that teachers, administrators and other school staff also had knowledge of how to improve and restructure schools that needed to be recognized and shared.

For Ann, who grew up in a family engaged in the political and civil rights battles of the times, this work in schools involved both helping educators to reflect on what she often refers to as their day-to-day "struggles" and about helping to overthrow predominant views that researchers and administrators knew what needed to be done and teachers just needed to do it. As Ann and NCREST's work grew, however, it became clear that simply helping educators to articulate knowledge was not sufficient. Knowledge of practice is not necessarily practical knowledge: knowledge that can be used easily to support significant improvements in classrooms and schools. As a result, Ann's work began to focus more and more on exploring the relationships and conditions that could enable teachers and administrators to share their learning.

Since leaving NCREST, Ann has worked with a variety of organizations like the National Writing Project and New Teacher Center that rely on practices like mentoring and networking to help practitioners both articulate and share knowledge. That work along with recent visits to a variety of countries around the world have demonstrated that educators can't be expected to talk about and learn from their struggles - what's working and what's not working in their own lives and schools as a whole - unless they can do so in collaboration with their peers and without fear of penalties and retribution.

-- Tom Hatch

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Ann Lieberman Interview