Educator · Curriculum & Policy Expert
Kristine M.
HarrisonPhD
Language, learning, and the lives between them.
Dr. Kristine Harrison connects the study of language, education, and policy to the work of teaching. Her experience spans multilingual classrooms, teacher preparation and practice, curriculum design, and scholarship on the relationship between schooling and identity.
Vision / What I Can DoFrom Inquiry to Experience to Policy
- CurriculumThe knowledge and materials a course selects
- TeachingPlanning, observation and reflection
- Student experienceLearners’ languages, interests and identities
- ResearchPolicy, textbooks and teachers’ perspectives
What does education teach us about ourselves?
Educational autonomy, from classroom to policy.
Dr. Harrison’s educational agenda connects autonomy in teaching and learning with the institutions and policies that shape it. She argues for linguistic human rights and for educational principles and goals developed in relation to the cultures, languages and needs of the communities they serve.
Community knowledge as a starting point
Every cultural and linguistic community has intrinsic value and knowledge to contribute. For Dr. Harrison, taking that seriously means asking whose knowledge an education system recognizes, which languages it makes room for, and who can participate in defining its purposes. Local culture and language should inform educational goals, curricula and assessment from the outset.
International exchange, local judgment
In Dr. Harrison’s view, international organizations and global educational trends can offer useful ideas without supplying a universal model for education. Ministries, institutions, curriculum designers and schools need to examine the assumptions behind a framework before adopting its standards or assessments. A model developed in one national or cultural setting should be adapted to local linguistic, cultural, institutional and educational realities, with room to develop alternatives where its premises do not fit.
Connecting practice and policy
This agenda calls for teachers’ and learners’ experience to inform institutional decisions, and for policy to support autonomy in the classroom. Educational vision, curriculum, assessment and professional development need to be considered together. The aim is to give educators and communities a meaningful role in shaping what education is for and how it is carried out.