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Paul G. Theobald, Ph.D.
Woods-Beals Endowed Chair, Center for Excellence in Urban and Rural Education
Listen (MP3, 2.95MB)
Paul Theobald, who holds the Woods-Beals Endowed Chair in Urban and Rural Education, is a nationally known scholar and expert on the history of education in the United States. He is an advocate of “place-based” education, which involves using the surrounding community as a resource in the classroom.
Place-based education helps students learn more than facts; they also develop a deep understanding of the connection between information in a textbook and the lives their families and friends lead. Such learning involves students in the life of their community, an involvement Theobald believes is necessary for a successful democracy. It also makes for successful learning. In a recently published article, he wrote, “...place-based education intends to increase the motivation to learn among students, as this type of study enables them to see the value of greater intellectual leverage over their immediate environment.”
In addition to publishing a number of articles and making presentations around the country, Theobald is working with Buffalo State faculty members individually as a mentor and collectively as a resource. With the Center of Excellence in Urban and Rural Education and the Center for Health and Social Research, he developed and presented a pilot writing retreat attended by 14 faculty members. He also has established teachers’ study groups in rural school districts and taught both graduate and undergraduate classes in the School of Education.
In this three minute podcast, Theobald is interviewed about the center's mission to meet the needs of disadvantaged students in urban and impacted rural areas and his thoughts on CEURE's purpose for a wider learning community.
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Podcast transcript:
Announcer over music: Buffalo State College is committed to teaching learning and research that impacts our community. Today we’re talking with Dr. Paul Theobald, Woods Beals- Endowed Chair in Urban and Rural Education.
Announcer: Dr. Theobald, what is the basic purpose of the Center for Excellence in Urban and Rural Education?
Paul Theobald: The work of the center is very local. Beyond that, we hope that the center can play a significant role as a voice in policy making arenas at the national level.
Announcer: The concepts of urban and rural education appear to be at odds with each other. Can you explain why they’re studied together?
Paul Theobald: What’s happened over recent history is that the problems of urban and rural education have tended to converge: declining infrastructure, eroding tax base, the inability to attract qualified teachers, these kinds of things hit schools the hardest.
So that’s the impetus for Buffalo State to first of all create the Center for Excellence in Urban and Rural Education, trying to be of service not only to Buffalo schools here but to the schools neighboring Buffalo and the rural areas out, outlined.
Announcer: There’s certainly been a lot of debate over the No Child Left Behind Act. What in your opinion are some short comings of this legislation?
Paul Theobald: The problem with infusing lots and lots of testing in the educational experience of youth is that has certain kinds of identifiable side effects. It erodes the development and the cultivation of creativity amongst kids because the testing emphasis puts a school’s focus on right and wrong answers only. What we need to compete in the global economy, if we are ever going to listen to people like Thomas Freedman, “the world is flat” is creativity, is precisely creativity, it’s precisely what NCLB tends to erode.
Announcer: Tell us a little bit about what your research involves.
Paul Theobald: My research is an attempt to tie three realms of the human condition, politics, economics, and education, a little more tightly together at a conscious level.
Announcer: How does your research and the work of the center help impact the education system in Western New York?
Paul Theobald: This is the most proactive from a faculty standpoint that I’ve ever known. We’ve known for some time that in order to do our best by preparing teachers and principals and so on, they need to be out in the schools learning where the action is so to speak. This faculty does it better than any others that I’ve had experience with. They are really dedicating their careers to schools and the school children of Western New York.
Announcer over music: That was Dr. Paul Theobald, Woods-Beals Endowed Chair in Urban and Rural Education at Buffalo State College. Buffalo State is committed to improving the quality of life in the Buffalo Niagara Region. To find out more, contact Marian Deutschman, Interim Director of the Buffalo State College and Community Partnerships Office, at 878-4132 or visit www.buffalostate.edu/partnerships.
