希瑟·博瑟特·坎宁安博士.D. ’89 Helps Teachers Focus on Cultural, Racial Awareness in the Classroom
From an early career experience as an English as a Second Language teacher, Heather BOSSERT Cunningham ’89, Ph.D. knew that education would be the focus of her professional work—and, 更重要的是, 这是她的激情所在.
她最近获得了终身教职，并被提升为艺术学院的教育学副教授, 科学 & 查塔姆大学商学院, 她的研究重点是培训K-12教师，以支持因种族而被边缘化的学生, 贫困, 语言或种族. 她开展了一系列名为“对种族和民族的批判性自我反思”的研讨会, 旨在帮助教师理解他们用来看世界和看班上孩子的文化和种族视角. The program helps teachers reflect on cultural and racial self-awareness, classroom culture and management, 以及恢复性实践. 在查塔姆工作之前, Heather was a K-12 teacher in public schools, 首先在华盛顿, D.C. 然后在匹兹堡. She has also worked in education in Honduras and Malawi, and served as a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) education contractor in Washington, D.C.
She has also remained connected to Ellis. Heather was part of an alumnae panel on National Girls and Women in Sports Day in February, 她向中学生和高中生讲述了《澳门新葡新京官方》的重要性，以及她自己作为老虎队曲棍球守门员的经历.
希瑟拥有博士学位.D. in Instruction and Learning: Language, Literacy and Culture from the University of Pittsburgh; a Master of Arts in Sociology, International Training and Education from American University; and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Sociology from Allegheny College.
You’ve focused your career in education, but you studied sociology and economics. Did you always want to be a teacher?
No! So, I graduated from Ellis and started at Allegheny as a computer science major. I had a wonderful teacher [at Ellis], Mrs. Powlick, who got me really interested in software and solving problems with software, and so I spent my first year at Allegheny as a computer science major. I realized at the end of the year that it just wasn’t really for me, but I always liked problem solving and big picture thinking. I had taken some econ classes and so I moved into economics, 但我一直喜欢经济学的国际发展部分，这也是促使我进入社会学的原因. I really looked at the two of those together. 我在阿勒格尼大学有一位非常棒的社会学教授，他给了我一个想法，让我可能想成为一名大学教授，但我仍然没有真正想过要做我后来做了13年的事情, 哪个是教高中.
I remember my eighth grade interview to come to Ellis. 我的家人为此取笑我, 但当他们问我长大后想做什么时，我说我想在拉丁美洲教宠物护理. 慢着瞧, 去拉丁美洲的愿望一直伴随着我，所以当我从阿勒格尼毕业时，我在一家非营利组织担任志愿者，在洪都拉斯农村的一个儿童之家工作了一年半. I’d always taken Spanish classes, and Patricia 什锦菜 [at Ellis] was hugely inspiring and encouraged my love of Spanish. All of that worked together to get me to Latin America. 当我在那里的时候，我最终进入了英语作为第二语言(ESL)的教学职位. That was my first dip into the world of teaching. After that I still thought I still wanted to get my Ph.D. 搬到华盛顿特区.C. 美国大学. 我开始了他们的Ph值.D. 但是我更喜欢国际培训和教育项目的应用性质. I got that degree, but I really didn’t want to move internationally at the time. I really missed the 1:1 interactions with students, 所以我辞去了国际发展方面的工作，获得了双语英语语言和社会研究教师的资格，并在华盛顿特区工作.C. 在公立学校读三年. 太棒了. I got my certificate and stayed in teaching. I just really enjoyed that experience.
You’ve spent so much of your career in education—did you enjoy being a student, yourself?
我所做的. I like the cerebral nature of being in schools. I have the kind of brain that likes thinking about problems and solving them. 我需要那种刺激.
你说过你感兴趣的领域之一是让教师们准备好支持因种族而被边缘化的学生, 贫困, 语言或种族 in the K-12 classroom. 这种需求在增长吗?
In the field of education overall, 87-percent of K-12 teachers are white women like myself. 然而,, 美国学生，尤其是公立学校学生的人口结构正在发生变化，现在有色人种学生比白人学生多. 有这个必要吗? Yes, and even more so every day. 事实上，宾夕法尼亚州有一项新的立法，要求新教师通过国家项目来培养对文化反应性教学的意识，并意识到种族、贫困和阶级问题在课堂上是显而易见的，无论我们是否能说出它的名字. All my classes at Chatham have that awareness built in.
你的另一个兴趣是在全球可持续发展的框架下研究k -12学前教育. 这对你意味着什么? k -12学前班的学校和老师怎么能从他们每天的工作中思考这个问题呢?
回来wards planning is something we talk about a lot in teacher ed classrooms. 当你开始计划一节课或一个单元时，你要确保你在考虑你的最终目标. 这些最终目标越是与现实世界的问题相一致，比如可持续性问题或公平问题, then the more engaged y我们的学生 will be. 年轻人比我这个年纪的人更热衷于谈论和探索气候变化等问题, 所以我认为，对于教师来说，尽可能多地将我们的星球和我们的社区发生的事情联系起来是很重要的. The more you align your classwork to that, the more y我们的学生 will graduate to be problem solvers of these types of problems.
What have you continued to learn the longer you’ve served as a teacher?
这是关于学生的. 我想很多人, 包括我自己, who go into secondary education like high school, do it because they love the content. 你可以喜欢这些课程的内容——我可以随心所欲地喜欢社会学或经济学——但当你是一名教师时，你真正要做的是理解学生，了解他们的处境，支持他们的学习和经历. I feel like 我所做的n’t learn that until the end of my 13 years as a high school teacher. There were some teachers at Ellis who really got that. Dr. 诺玛·格列柯是我的英语老师，她鼓励我攻读博士学位，因为她知道这将为我打开一扇大门. Ms. Robin Newham总是支持我的创意和想法，我想在工作室艺术课上实现. She really let me develop as the human I was and explore the ideas that I had. I loved having Spanish class with Mrs. 什锦菜. 我觉得通过这门课，我看到了我小时候在匹兹堡从未经历过的世界.
What were the experiences you most enjoyed as an Ellis student? How did they influence you on the path to your career?
I have fond memories of our trip to Ontario to see the Shakespeare Festival. It was the first time I’d left the United States, so it felt like a very big deal. I enjoyed playing field hockey all four years I was here. 我也有一个独特的机会成为阿勒格尼县联合之路的青年代表. I was a youth board member for them, being selected through Ellis. 每学期我都要和经验丰富的商界人士一起参加几次大型董事会会议，并就匹兹堡地区的青年项目以及联合劝募协会应该把钱花在哪里发表自己的看法. 我的大四, 正因为如此, 我和里根总统一起参加了一个特别的招待会，表彰我们社区的青年领袖. I got to fly on a plane with the United Way to participate in Washington, D.C. 这是件大事! The other thing I really liked doing here was Model United Nations. 有机会离开匹兹堡，结识新朋友，去其他地方——我觉得那很棒. 模拟联合国适合停留在经济学和社会学以及思考国际问题. 还是今天, although my research work all tends to be looking within the United States, it tends to be about cultural and racial diversity and things you can look at globally. 这些对我来说是下一个层次的机会，让我看到了我们城市的运作方式，以及成年人如何做出政策决定之类的事情. 它确实帮助我弄清楚了我毕业时想要达到什么水平，以及我能看到自己在哪里.
Is there any advice or encouragement you’d like to share with current Ellis students?
Follow whatever you’re passionate about. Find out what those things are and keep with it. Take advantage of every opportunity that Ellis gives you. (在澳门新葡新京官方)学生在做困难的事情时需要很多一对一的鼓励. I hear people say “we can do hard things” and at Ellis I felt like I could. I was given the right support to make that happen.
