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Lit,
Ira
Assistant Professor of Education
Director, Stanford Elementary Teacher Education Program |
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"We need to uncover, examine, and reconsider long-held assumptions and proclivities in teaching that may not foster the needs of our students. Such might include the organization of students into narrow, age-graded cohorts or the continuing penchant for a pedagogy that is teacher-directed and passive in nature. Can we rightfully expect one classroom teacher charged with the care of twenty to thirty diverse pupils to meet all of their disparate needs as well as the curricular demands of state and federal policy makers? Might our students be better served, for example, by teams of teachers with a shared responsibility for student development, each of whom possesses a narrower, but deeper knowledge base? In so doing we may find new and more fruitful pathways to reaching a wider range of students in our classrooms. We are more likely to engage and foster success in all of our children through a conception of teaching and schooling that respects and encourages the imaginative and the exploratory; one that is less concerned with codes, rules, and competition; and one that engages the social, physical, aesthetic, affective, and moral realms of human development as well as the intellectual. The current tenor of the educational times, with a hyper-attentiveness to a narrow range of academic pursuits and a focus on high-stakes testing, even of our very youngest students, pushes in the opposite direction, to the detriment of our children and the diminution of our larger society."
- from his forthcoming book, "The Bus Kids"
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* Ph.D. (Curriculum Studies and Teacher Education) Stanford University, 2003
* M.S.C. (California Multiple Subject Credential, Clear) College of Notre Dame, 1994
* M.A. (Education) Stanford University, 1991
* B.A. (Political Science) Stanford University, 1990 |
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* Executive Director, Teachers for a New Era, Bank Street College of Education (2005-2007)
* Associate Director, STEP Elementary, Stanford University (1999–2004)
* Elementary Classroom Teacher (1993-1999) |
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| * Since 1986 |
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| * teacher education; elementary education; educational equity; design and purpose of education and schooling |
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* Elementary Teaching Seminar/Practicum
* Exploring Elementary Education (A): Introduction to Issues in Teaching and Learning
* Exploring Elementary Education (B): Introduction to Issues in Schooling, Curriculum, and the Education of Diverse Learners
* Qualitative Research Method (Asst.)
* The Principles of Learning for Teaching (Asst.)
* Civil Rights, Education and Poverty Issues (Asst.) |
| Current Syllabus: DRAFT.fallprac.syllabus.doc |
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* Lit, I. (2009). The ‘Bus Kids’. Yale University Press.
* Lit, I. & Snyder, J. (2007). "Teaching quality, community partnerships, research and innovation: a cycle for success." In Robinson, S. & Brown, M. (ed), "The Children Hurricane Katrina Left Behind: Schooling Contexts, Professional Preparation, and Community Politics." |
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* Phone: (650) 725-2221
* Email: iralit@stanford.edu
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