This website was created for University of Northern Colorado Course EDF 685-90: Philosophical Foundations of Education Spring Semester, 2014
The Noddings Center
A Center of Care
When daughter Vicky was asked to describe her mother’s essence, she replied, you are “…always there for anyone who needs you, for your husband, your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren, your spare relatives, students, colleagues, neighbors, pets, and, of course, your plants” (Video 1, minute 13:00).
Video Link
Video source: http://youtu.be/tk9isLA_ODA
An Unconventional Biography for Dr. Nel Rieth Noddings
From Inside the Academy, Interview from May 4, 2012:
Nel Noddings grew up in New Jersey. She attended, what she calls, a progressive school where “there was lots of art, music, drama, and no homework….”(Video 1, minute 1:00). Her husband of over 60 years passed away in 2012*, together they had 10 children--5 biological and 5 adopted--30 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren. Of her children she felt she “[had] been rescued by them" (minute 4:00) and without them she would “have become an intellectual snob" (minute 4:00). Having a family and her first teaching experience impacted her scholarship.
Nel Nodding’s educational career: She spent 17 years as an elementary and high school mathematics teacher. Received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physical science from Montclair State College, a master’s degree in mathematics from Rutgers University, and PhD in education from Stanford University. Won the Teaching of Excellence at Stanford for three years. Served as past president of the National Academy of Education, the Philosophy of Education Society, and the John Dewey Society. Awards: Contributions to the Education of Women – Harvard University and the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Received a medal for Distinguished Service from Teachers College Columbia, the Lifetime Achievement Award from AERA, and the Distinguished Leadership in Education from Rutgers University. At the time of the interview she had five honorary doctorates.
Influences: Martin Buber’s I and Thou, John Dewey, William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience, Pearl Buck’s biography of her mother, The Exile and of her father, Fighting Angel.
Favorites:
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movie - Casablanca
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actor - John Wayne (not his politics, but his movies)
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book - Bleak House
Click here for transcript from Arizona State University, Inside the Academy [Interview file] Retrieved April 20, 2014 from http://insidetheacademy.asu.edu/nel-noddings
*James A. Noddings, Obituary. Legacy.com
Graphic Source:
http://insidetheacademy.asu.edu/wp-content/gallery/nel-noddings-gallery-pictures/noddings10r.jpg
Words of Wisdom (From Video 5):
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“Find a topic or issue that fascinates you. Analyze and apply it over a wide range of related subjects” (minute 1:00).
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“Integrate your research and teaching” (minute 2:00).
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“Your dissertation is important, but it is an academic exercise. And if you want to publish your dissertation, you will have to rewrite it because no one wants to read a book that has the form that a conventional dissertation has. It’s boring, you know. Really boring” (minute 3:00).
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“Keep expanding your repertoire with stories, poetry, history, and biography” (minute 5:00).
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“Don’t settle into a narrow niche” (minute 6:00).
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“Don’t use last year’s lectures” (minute 8:00)
"Nel Noddings is currently the Jacks Professor Emeriti of Child Education at Stanford University; she also holds the John W. Porter Chair in Urban Education at Eastern Michigan University. From 1949 to 1972, Noddings worked as an elementary and high school teacher and administrator in New Jersey public schools. During that time, she conducted research in mathematics education, though she later changed her focus to the broader realm of educational theory and philosophy. Noddings was deeply influenced by her own experience of being taught. In her writings, she has listed three categories of things that she knows matter to her because of observing herself: domestic life, learning and writing, and living life as a moral quest. She is a former president of both the Philosophy of Education Society and the John Dewey Society" (Teaching Tolerance).
© 2014 by Becky Reed.