San Francisco State University Associate Professor Jeff Duncan-Andrade will present “Note to Educators: Hope Required When Growing Roses in Concrete” at 7:30 p.m. today (Nov. 25) in Room 180, Prince Lucian Campbell (PLC) Hall.
Duncan-Andrade’s visit, sponsored by the Oregon Humanities Center through the Luther S. and Dorothy Cecilia Cressman Lecture in the Humanities, is part of the center’s yearlong “vulnerable” series. The lecture is free and open to the public. It will also be live-streamed at ohc.uoregon.edu.
Duncan-Andrade has dedicated himself to radically reforming a system that he refers to as “educational malpractice.” He has applied concepts from both teaching and coaching to develop a pedagogical approach for students in inner-city schools, “Step to College.”
He has been practicing this approach for more than 20 years as a high school English teacher in East Oakland, Calif. Teaching 12 basic “life principles” in addition to critical thinking skills, he creates a foundation that allows his students to make sense of school in the broader scope of their lives.
The results of Duncan-Andrade’s approach speak for themselves: 100 percent of his students go on to college. They also make a commitment to return to their communities and contribute in some way once they have earned their college degrees.
An associate professor of raza studies and education, Duncan-Andrade is also the director of the Educational Equity Initiative at the Institute for Sustainable Economic, Educational and Environmental Design. He has lectured around the world on the elements of effective teaching in schools serving poor and working-class children.
In addition, he continues to work as an English teacher at Mandela High School in East Oakland. He is currently engaged in designing and launching a new K-12 charter school in East Oakland, with plans to open in fall 2015. The school will employ some of his former students as teachers.
For more information on this lecture or the Oregon Humanities Center, call 541-346-3934 or visit ohc.uoregon.edu.
- from the UO Office of Strategic Communications