Dr.
Woden Teachout has been teaching at Union Institute & University since 2003
and was part of the inaugural task force for building Union’s Online MA program.
She admitted that she was skeptical of online learning at first, but her work
with the MA program convinced her of its great value: “By carefully crafting
the curriculum, we have been able to provide students with the essential tools
for scholarship in the foundational classes, and provide flexibility for
student-designed curriculum in the advanced classes, while dedicating credits
to internships and experiential learning.” She continues to mentor and serve in
the History & Culture concentrations offered within the Online MA degree.
Dr. Teachout is a writer and historian primarily interested
in the cultural history of American patriotism and American understandings of
democracy. Her first book, Capture
the Flag: A Political History of American Patriotism (2009) examines the
changing, and controversial meanings of the American flag since the founding of
the United States. The book received wide attention and praise for its
narrative style and cultural insight, being reviewed by publications, such as The
Washington Post and The Boston Globe, and by documentary filmmaker, Ken
Burns.
Her
most recent book, Slow Democracy: Rediscovering Community, Bringing
Decision Making Back Home (2012),
was co-written with Susan Clark. In this work, Dr. Teachout draws on
her historical training to show how the values of town-hall, American democracy
are still practiced in the twenty-first century. Taking recent examples of
community activism, Dr. Teachout and Susan Clark offer an attractive,
alternative vision of a democratic government, powered by local concerned
citizens, working together to address a variety of social and legislative issues.
Dr. Teachout’s writing,
research, and instruction are intimately bound up with the questions of social
responsibility and how she can have an impact on her surrounding communities. “One of the
things that I most value about Union is its long tradition of engaged
scholarship: scholarship that speaks to a community of academic scholars, but
that also moves out of the ivory towers and into the rough and tumble of public
life,” Dr. Teachout said. “I’m
interested in the cultural history of democracy, both as a scholar and a
citizen, so social responsibility is always a central question. How have
citizens tried to foster democratic cultures throughout the American past? How have they used our history as a source of
inspiration and a way to articulate values that might guide the nation? And what might we do now to reinvigorate
American democracy?”
But
Dr. Teachout is interested in more than the content of history. She is also
concerned with how that information is presented: “Looking at these questions,
I’ve been increasingly drawn to issues of how
we learn as well as what we
learn. As so many thinkers have
articulated, there is a clear and necessary link between education and
democracy. Critical thinking, in
particular, can be one of the foundations of civil society: both a means to
personal empowerment for the disempowered, and one of the best ways to
strengthen democratic culture and civic engagement.
For
someone with these convictions, our Master of Arts program is a really exciting
place to be. We are blessed with
incredible students: thoughtful
individuals who come to us with a host of rich life experiences and ways of
looking at the world. Our faculty talks
a lot about John Dewey and Paolo Freire and their insights into the personal
and social relevance of education. We
see our role as helping our students develop their capacities to their fullest,
giving them the scholarly tools and strategies to unlock difficult problems –
not only in our program but in the world beyond.”
Watch a short interivew below with Dr. Teachout as she talks about her book, Slow Democracy!
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