Gregory Smith

Professor of Education

department: Education
program: Teacher Education
office: 426 Rogers Hall
phone: 503-768-6119
e-mail: gasmith@lclark.edu

Professional Biography

I'm a native Oregonian strongly hooked to the Pacific Northwest. As an undergraduate, I attended Oberlin College and the University of Oregon. After working in a variety of different jobs, I decided to become an English teacher in my mid-twenties. After completing an M.A. at Southern Oregon State College in Ashland, I taught high school for nine years, most of them at a small Friends boarding school in Nothern California. Convinced of the value of situating education in strong communities, I returned to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where I tried to figure out ways to extend what I had learned while teaching in a small high school to the public education system. There, I had the chance to work as an educational researcher for five years. I got my first teaching job in higher education at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, where I helped coordinate the Teachers for Alaska Program. When a job opening at Lewis & Clark in the early 1990s presented me with the opportunity to return to Oregon, I applied and I have been here ever since.

Current Research

My current writing and research revolves around the practice of place-based education. Place-based education focuses on using local knowledge, phenomena, and experience as the foundation for teaching and learning. Its aim is to connect children and youth more firmly to their own communities and regions.

In addition to teaching four courses and coordinating a cohort of secondary interns, I facilitate the Courage to Teach Program at Lewis & Clark College. Courage to Teach is a national project aimed at supporting the renewal of experienced teachers. Beyond the campus, I serve on the board of the Rural School and Community Trust, a national organization that has been an active sponsor of place-based educational reforms throughout the United States. I am also a member of the Education Policy Project based at the University of Arizona, headed up by progressive educator and activist, Alex Molnar. In Portland, I was a founding member of the Environmental Middle School and served on the Implementation Resouce Team charged with the responsibility of helping with the implementation of the Portland Public Schools strategic plan.

Publications

Smith, Gregory. (2004). "Cultivating Care and Connection:
Laying the Foundations for a Just and Sustainable Society." Educational Studies, Summer.

Smith, Gregory. (2004). "Choosing Healing over Saving." ENCOUNTER: Education for Meaning and Social Justice, Spring.

Smith, Gregory. (2002). "Going Local." Educational Leadership, September.

Smith, Gregory. (2002). "Place-Based Education: Learning to Be Where We Are." Phi Delta Kappan, April.

Smith, Gregory. (1999). Ecological Education in Action: On Weaving Culture, Education, and the Environment. (Editor and contributor with Dilafruz R. Williams). Albany, New York: SUNY.

Smith, Gregory. (1993). Public Schools That Work: Creating Community (Editor). New York: Routledge.

Smith, Gregory. (1992). Education and the Environment: Learning to Love with Limits. Albany, New York: SUNY Press.

Academic Credentials

Ph.D. 1989 University of Wisconsin at Madison
M.A. 1976 Southern Oregon University
B.A. 1970 University of Oregon