Dear Spencer Community,
As we welcome in the new year, I wanted to reach out to the field to share with you all some thoughts and updates.
I am honored to have assumed the Presidency of the Spencer Foundation this July. It has been a whirlwind over the last 6 months, and I have been quite busy learning the world of philanthropy and getting settled in beautiful Chicago. I have been meeting with other foundation leaders, talking with scholars in education, visiting schools of education, and consulting with the Spencer Board, as I think about the unique role of Spencer and the path forward for the foundation.
Not surprisingly, I’ve been thinking a lot about the next phase of the Spencer Foundation and what is needed in education research right now. There is no doubt that these are turbulent times in our nation and in education. We see every day on the news more and more evidence that we are in a time of publicly accepted bigotry and hatred, of unprecedented wealth inequality and the shattering of the social safety net, of the rolling back of protections for women, for the disabled, for the undocumented, and for the most vulnerable Americans. With respect to education, greater economic disparities have pushed more children into poverty, anti-immigration initiatives have created an environment of fear and lack of safety both in K-12 classrooms and in higher education, and increasing segregation has increased disparities in access to high quality teaching. At the same time, we are seeing a decline in our nation’s commitment to effectively funding public education, eroding confidence in our public education systems, rising costs of higher education, and increases in housing and food insecurity among college students. To my mind, what is needed now is cutting edge, conceptually innovative, and methodologically rigorous research that supports us in moving towards solutions to some of educations’ most pressing problems. This will likely involve interdisciplinary approaches; a deep engagement with families, communities, and education practitioners; new attention to mentoring and training of the next generation of scholars; and coordinated approaches across multiple researchers, teams, and/or institutions.
I plan to work closely with our colleagues in the field as we consider what effect these challenges will have on grant-making at Spencer. We are currently developing an engagement process, which we will begin in earnest this spring. This process will include opportunities for written feedback and ideas from the field, as well as in-person meetings with me and with our team of program officers. We would like to engage our colleagues in our thinking about the major challenges in our field and the cutting-edge research that is most promising. Above all, we are deeply committed to remaining strongly field-initiated and will continue to be a place that funds education research on the full range of topics and methodological approaches that make up our field. At the same time, the foundation will continue to grow and evolve, and we are likely to pursue some focused scholarship and initiatives, which we think will be necessary to have significant impact on the major educational challenges of our time.
Over the short term, our grant-making will not change much. However, by next year, after significant engagement and consultation, we plan to roll out a refined strategic vision, which may involve some new directions and initiatives. Meanwhile, we have started a Twitter account (@Spencer_Fdn) to provide an additional means of communication with you, so do follow up on Twitter for news and grant program updates. We look forward to being in closer communication with you and hearing your hopes and dreams for Spencer!
Best,
Na’ilah
