Last night my wife and I had dinner with very close friends of ours, Jenny & Dennis Springer. Dr. Jenny Springer, former principal of Dunwoody High School, and Associate Superintendent of Dekalb County Schools (Georgia) was an administrator that created an environment in which teachers thrived, and excelled in their work with students. I first met her in 1986 while I was teaching a course at Georgia State University that was based in a DeKalb County High School at which she was principal. By this time I had been involved with the Association for Humanistic Psychology Soviet-Exchange Project, and I mentioned to Dr. Springer that I was interested in having her involved in the work that we were doing. She indicated real interest.

In 1987 she became principal of Dunwoody High School, and it was in that context that I invited her to be a participant in an AHP education exchange with research institutions, and schools in Moscow, and St. Petersburg. Over the next 15 years, she became an integral person in the development and actualization of the Global Thinking Project that sought to develop and sustain an action-oriented and Internet-based environmental education curriculum between American and Soviet (at the time it was still the U.S.S.R.) teachers and students. During this period of time, she was instrumental in supporting teacher and student exchanges among American and Russian teachers and students (later expanding to other countries including Australia, the Czech Republic, and Spain).

In a recent paper in the Journal for Activist Science & Technology Education, Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Towards an Action-oriented Science Curriculum, Derek Hodson calls for a science curriculum that is rooted in the idea of giving student the chance to confront real world issues. In fact, Hodson believes strongly in the politicization of the science curriculum by focusing the content of science in socially and personally relevant contexts, and issues-based teaching. This form of teaching of course is not new (as Hodson points out), but it requires a paradigm shift in our thinking regarding what the purpose is of teaching science. Science teaching, using Hodson’s approach, suggests that we ground ourselves in humanistic science education, as reported by Glen Aikenhead.

Twenty-years ago, through the efforts of administrators such as Dr. Jenny Springer, hundreds of American and Russian students, and their teachers were involved in an action-oriented curriculum—the Global Thinking Project curriculum. Implementing a curriculum that is based on humanistic science requires the support of innovative teachers and administrators. Dr. Springer, together with her counterpart in Russia, Mr. Vadim Zhudov, principal of School 710 Moscow, forged new connections that enabled their students and teachers to be involved in a ground-breaking action-oriented science program.

Although we hadn’t seen the Springers in several years, it was a reminder that fulfilling the promise of a relevant, and socially-conscious science curriculum for students requires courageous teachers and administrators like Jenny Springer.