Educating in the Biggest Classroom

A Worldwide Web

And yet, this season of joy arrives amid profound disruption. Across the country and around the world, educators and learners are facing extraordinary pressures. Shifting political winds, heightened scrutiny of schools and universities, and shrinking support for critical social services have left many of you carrying more than your share. I have heard from alumni who are concerned about funding, burnout, academic freedom, and the safety and wellbeing of their students and colleagues.

In complex times, we are called back to our convictions. At Penn GSE, we hold fast to a simple one: education is the bedrock of a just and thriving society. It uplifts individuals. It empowers communities. And by preparing learners for engaged participation in civic life, it sustains democracy itself.

NEWS & AWARDS

Sigal Ben-Porath (3) was elected to the National Academy of Education, recognizing the excellence of her scholarship and leadership in the field. It is one of the highest honors in education.

María Cioè-Peña (4) received the Research Improving the Educational Access, Experiences, and Outcomes of BIPOC Students with Disabilities Award from the Council for Exceptional Children, the largest international special education professional organization.

Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher (5) has published the results of her four-year national study, funded by the Spencer Foundation, on the website “Unequal Citizens: Documenting the Civic Lives of American Youth from Muslim Immigrant Communities.” The site illustrates how American youth from Muslim immigrant communities narrate and understand their experiences in relation to the historic and contemporary conditions that shape Muslim life in the US.

Michael Golden (6) and Wendy Chan (7) earned an Education Innovation and Research program early-phase grant from the Department of Education for their project, “Helping Educator Resilience and Optimism: Workforce Strategy for Wellbeing and Retention (Project HERO),” which targets the need for an accessible, readily scalable, and research-informed workforce strategy that supports school leaders to develop, implement, and monitor the success of organizational approaches for improving teacher and staff resilience and retention. Golden also received the 2025 PA Educational Technology Expo and Conference Meritorious Award for his dedication and commitment to the field of educational technology.

Pam Grossman (8) and Penn GSE postdoctoral scholar Maya Kaul, GR’24, earned a new grant from the Spencer Foundation to investigate how states are creating differentiated roles for teachers in their project, “Chutes or Ladders: Surveying State Policy Approaches to Transforming K–12 Teacher Roles.”

Yasmin Kafai (9) is one of the winners of the 2025 Stibitz-Wilson Awards, given by the American Computer and Robotics Museum. She will be honored at an event on September 26 in Bozeman, Montana.

Sarah Schneider Kavanagh (10) was awarded a grant from the Spencer Foundation for her project, “Collaborating Towards Transformational Visions for Digital School Systems,” which aims to surface descriptions of the current state of how data systems shape students’ and families’ relationships to schooling.

Sharon Wolf (11) was awarded a grant from the Spencer Foundation for her project, “Assessing Medium-term Impacts of Montessori-Preschool Spaces in Rural Northern Nigeria,” a research-practice partnership with the Centre for Girls Education that evaluates the medium-term impacts of the Ci Gaba Preschool Safe Space Program.

On the Road Robert Asante, GRD’19

After moving to the United States 26 years ago, Asante’s career took a winding path of its own. He started as a dishwasher at Denny’s and worked his way up to baker at Amoroso’s before learning computers, earning his first degree at Drexel at night while working in IT at the university during the day. He then pursued his MBA and worked in high-ranking information security jobs at Drexel and Citibank. After earning his executive doctorate in higher education management from Penn GSE, he started working at ChristianaCare, the largest hospital network in Delaware, where he was Chief Privacy Officer for more than four years and where he now serves as director of enterprise risk management and artificial intelligence compliance.

“That [GSE] program opened my eyes to the fact that I should start thinking outside my own domain,” said Asante, “and start thinking about what can I do as a leader to effect change, to impact the world around me, to help somebody, to liberate people who have, for a long time, been underserved. GSE empowered me to not be afraid to make the change.”

This February, we asked alumni during the Champions of Transformation month-long giving challenge to give in honor of the faculty member who shaped their Penn GSE experience. Our community responded with 111 donations and scores of stories of inspiring teachers and mentors. Here are just a few of the Penn GSE faculty who were celebrated:

But his “day job” finds him working with much younger learners, teaching kindergarten through eighth graders in the multidisciplinary makerspace at Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy in Southwest Center City. As a digital literacy teacher, he uses the technology and tools in the makerspace to involve students in hands-on learning. Smith designed yearlong themes for each grade level to make sure they are developing not just competencies with digital tools but also science and social studies proficiencies. For their “Food Around the World” unit, his first graders make digital cookbooks and solar ovens. For “Plants and Pollinators,” his third graders make robotic models of bees and plants and use a 3D printer to prototype creative planters.

fter a year as a music teacher during the COVID-19 lockdown, Nathan Krebs, GED’22, entered Penn GSE’s Education, Culture, and Society program to figure out how to have a different sort of career in education. His “aha!” moment came when he took two courses that opened his eyes to a new possibility: public television.

“Here” is PBS Michiana-WNIT, a South Bend, Indiana, public broadcasting station that covers 560,000-plus households in northwest Indiana and southwest Michigan where Krebs is senior producer. His program, Education Counts, has tackled subjects that include skiing opportunities for those with special needs, the science of bubbles with a local “bubble-ologist,” a cemetery-preservation workshop, and no-till farming. “It’s designed to show the lifelong journey of education,” said Krebs, who also has an education-centered podcast in the works.

Flores explores these and other questions in Becoming the System: A Raciolinguistic Genealogy of Bilingual Education in the Post-Civil Rights Era (Oxford University Press), his latest book and the culmination of almost 20 years of work. We spoke to him about its publication, his career trajectory, and his community-engaged scholarship, all of which he began as a way to serve his Latinx community.

A Five-Point Framework

for Regulating Emotion During Challenging Discussions

hen faced with uncomfortable or hostile situations, the flight-or-flight instinct often takes over. But there’s another option. Penn GSE Professor Howard Stevenson, the Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education, believes managing stress and regulating emotions is achievable through mindfulness and intentional practice.

“We teach folks how to notice if they are struggling in conversations, when they’re worried and anticipating what could go wrong, and how to prepare for that with mindfulness approaches,” explained Stevenson, who heads Penn GSE’s Resilience Empowerment Collaborative and is the author of Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools: Differences That Make a Difference (Teachers College Press).