A sudden thunderstorm off Whidbey Island blew Gene Edgar's educational plans off course one day a couple of years back.
The squall came up just before the UW professor of special education was about to take a group of undergraduate students sailing as an exercise in integrated instruction, or gleaning several different types of lessons from a single experience.
Edgar views education holistically, and had arranged this outing as a way to get his students considering interdisciplinary questions of math, science and even history in a practical, informal setting. But the weather had different plans.
Undaunted, Edgar's response to the situation is one of many clues as to why this 30-year veteran of the UW College of Education was named the first-ever recipient of the James D. Clowes Award for the Advancement of Learning Communities. The award is named for a popular lecturer in the Comparative History of Ideas Program who died of cancer recently, and honors faculty or staff members "who transform undergraduate learning by creating or sustaining learning communities among students."
Quickly improvising a Plan B on that stormy day, Edgar passed out butcher paper and got the students talking and writing, sharing their views. Before long, the group had passed through the shared-knowledge stage of discussions — a cornerstone of Edgar's work with groups — and moved to the deliberation stage, then to a decision, and finally action. That action? They decided to form a new student group called the Future Educators Club, which remains active today.
"They're delightful people," Edgar said of the undergraduates with whom he works. "They thrive on a bit of nurturing, and give back more than you would expect."
Indeed, Edgar is known for his work with and for students, whether it's overseeing the Zesbaugh Scholarships, creating and maintaining tutoring opportunities in public schools or holding informal seminars to help UW undergraduates get acclimatized as they head toward possible education majors.
He says his career trajectory was not always quite as student-focused, however. Edgar describes how a mid-career adjustment realigned his professional goals.
"For 20 years or so I viewed my role as a university professor primarily as a person doing research and getting grants," he said. "I always enjoyed teaching, but I didn't have the time to just be with students. So I decreased my grant work and did things differently."
That meant more time spent on the practical applications of education, including teacher and principal preparation. It also meant more hours logged in the hallways of real public schools. Edgar worked at Madrona K-8 School, which, unlike most elementary-level schools, hosts young students through eighth grade instead of sending them to middle school in sixth grade, and at Stevens Elementary, organizing undergraduate tutors at both Seattle schools to help the children prepare for the all-important Washington State Assessment of Student Learning (WASL).
Rickie D. Malone, principal at Madrona, with whom Edgar worked closely, sings his praises heartily in a letter supporting his nomination for the Clowes award. She says his tutors have helped her students face the WASL with greater confidence and success.
"Instead of focusing on the content of the tests, these college students, after working with Gene, began to teach our students how to take the test," Malone wrote. "These tutoring sessions are helping our students see that they can and will succeed when faced with academic exams, a concept many of them never believed before."
Even this year, while on sabbatical, Edgar is staying abreast of public education, studying student habits at Snohomish High School.
Former students, too, speak highly of Edgar in letters supporting him for this prestigious new award.
"He has created an opportunity for undergraduates to connect and work with faculty members, which has been beneficial to everyone involved," wrote Shannon Anderson, a graduate student in the College of Education. "I know that many, including myself, would have been lost without Gene's help."
This returns to the notions of shared knowledge, of integrated instruction, learning communities and of improving the pathways of undergraduate education, not unlike Edgar's actions on that stormy day on Whidbey Island. Such themes remain important in Edgar's continuing work.
After all, as he puts it, "Everyone is a learner — and everyone is a teacher."
