The Prospect School and Center for Education and Research Fund supports a fellowship initiative that is designed to encourage faculty, independent researchers, students, classroom teachers, principals, administrators, and other community members active in school affairs to benefit from the Prospect School and Center for Education and Research Archives.
The Practitioner Fellowship Program taps the riches of the Prospect Archives by engaging fellowship recipients over a week-long program in study of the Archive of Children’s Works using Prospect’s Descriptive Processes as the method of inquiry. The broad purpose of a fellowship is to introduce the Prospect Archives, to make the Prospect Archives accessible to a wide audience, and to demonstrate the value of the Prospect Archives for educators and the community. This includes calling to the attention of the public and the schools the resources available within the Archives and through their study. A further aim of the Practitioner Fellowship program is to support the establishment of leadership for “communities of inquiry” within recipients’ own settings by showing how the Descriptive Processes developed at Prospect help people to think more deeply about their practice and current issues in education.
Special Collections will appoint a mentor to guide Practitioner Fellows throughout the program. The mentor will be knowledgeable about the Prospect’s Archives, its history and the resources it provides, and experienced with the Descriptive Processes, in particular, the Description of Children’s Works.
Recipients of the Practitioner Fellowship are expected to spend five and a half days of study at the University of Vermont Libraries' Special Collections. The 2017 Fellowship will take place from July 10-15. July 15 is a Saturday and is planned as a half-day where fellows are expected to create and present a detailed follow-up plan for implementing what they have learned in their own classrooms, schools, colleges, or other settings. Plans might include, but are not limited to: starting an archive of children’s works; launching an inquiry community using Prospect’s Descriptive Processes as a method of study; provisioning for materials and activities intended to expand children’s or older students’ opportunities for exploring their own interests; documenting children’s and older students’ activities and curriculum; implementing nonjudgmental observing, describing and record-keeping practices developed at Prospect School. The mentor will maintain supportive contact with recipients primarily via email and phone calls as they implement their follow-up plans.
Approximately three fellowships are to be awarded each year to school or college based practitioners such as classroom teachers (pre-k to high school) as well as counselors, principals and other administrators; school board members; parents active in school affairs; and teacher educators. The fellowship will be an award of $2,000.
"Participation in the Prospect Fellowship permanently connected me with a piece of Vermont's educational history and an endless collection of resources and inspiration (which in my case, was hiding right next door). My time with other fellows and the collection validated my perspective while offering me a new way of seeing and talking about children and their work."
--Amanda Ferguson, UVM Campus Children's School--2012 Fellow
"Having the opportunity to do research in the Prospect Archives at UVM allowed me to examine media that I did not even consider in the realm of possibility before for the descriptive processes. The amount of material there is truly awe-inspiring, and there is definitely something of interest for everyone!"
--Joe Alberti, Grade 4 teacher, Powel School, Philadelphia--2015 Fellow
Details on how to apply for these fellowships are available at
http://go.uvm.edu/4p5g0
The deadline for applications is February 15, 2017. Recipients will be notified by April 1, 2017.
Further information about the Prospect School and Center for Education and Research, as well an online collection of images and documents selected from the Prospect Archive of Children's work can be found at
http://go.uvm.edu/03lcd
Questions about the fellowship programs should be sent to Chris Burns at Chris.Burns@uvm.ed
