Linda Darling-Hammond By: Hanan Abdelrahmn

Linda Darling Hammond is a current Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University, the Faculty Director of SCOPE, and President of the Learning Policy Institute. Hammond is a renowned author and editor in the institutions of higher education. Throughout Hammond’s life, she has gathered an interest in academic restructuring, educational policy, educational equity, and race, inequality, and language in education (RILE). Hammond takes a lot of responsibility when concerning higher education because she fears society is allowing for higher education to be mediocre or to be demolished over time due to their lack of voice and opinion as a unit.

Hammond utilizes her platform to assist society in understanding a variety of concepts regarding higher education. Hammond’s Twitter page targets the millennial generation by promoting government officials who plan to upgrade higher education, updating her followers on news regarding inequality, education, and voting, and lastly by retweeting posts that millennial might have an interest in. Hammond also, uses her social media platform to educate the public on the importance of their voice; she has continuously promoted voting for lower government officials all the way to the president. 

Initially, Hammond fears that higher education is poor due to society’s lack of responsibility to positively evolve the institute. Hammond uses her platform to influence the conversation of how to proceed with higher education. Hammond was the leader of former President Barack Obama’s education policy transition team. According to James B. Hunt (former Governor of North Carolina), “when Linda Darling-Hammond speaks, American’s listen!” (Hammond, Preface) Hunt describes Hammond’s book as being the pamphlet to a better life of higher education’s policies and teaching methods. Darling-Hammond’s research, teaching, and policy work focus on issues of school restructuring, teacher quality and educational equity. 

Hammond took it upon herself to write multiple books on the importance of helping prosper higher education in the future. In “The Flat World and Education, How America’s Commitment to Equality Will Determine Our Future” by Linda Darling-Hammond asserts the concerning future of a system built on “high-archiving and equitable schools that ensures every child the right to learn.” (Synopsis, Hammond) Hammond titled her book “The Flat World and Education, How America’s Commitment to Equality Will Determine Our Future” because just like centuries ago when civilizations believed the world was flat and technological advancements have not been established we can conclude that society had a plethora of  social discoveries to be made. Hammond compares the flat world to education because she is disappointed on the progression of higher education. Hammond is mainly disgusted on the concepts of inequality when it is associated to education of all levels. 

Hammond contributes many roles and stances relating to higher education. Hammond is a college professor and a policymaker ; she has managed to make changes to education by joining Stanford’s University policy assisting team and becoming former President Barack Obama’s education policy transition team. Hammond has created a reputation that will suppress her being; she ran an extra mile by joining various policy makers teams in order to help her gain perspective on the concrete vindication of the failures of higher education. Ultimately, this helped Hammond in building connections with government officials and teacher who have the same enthusiasm for injustices regarding education.

In “Learning to Teach for Social Justice” by Hammond,  illuminates the changes institutions should make that will eventually better their workforce and education system through lessons. This is an important source to have because Hammond discusses the importance of building higher education to not only benefit society but to benefit the overall well-being of students. It has been proven that teachers can make a difference in their students lives so, Hammond urges society to take advantage this opportunity to learn a variety of life-lessons pertaining to any subject. 

Hammond’s main goal is to help higher institute education to receive the recognition of any other education system. Hammond believes that education should be modernized in order to, become suitable for the generation that utilizing it. Education should be treasured because it builds economies as well as, millennial minds and spirits.  In addition, Hammond believes that if education is modernized regularly it will drown in past policies and ancient  administrations traditions. 

In conclusion, Hammond empowers students to fight for their rights of education. Linda Darling-Hammond is a higher education scholar that wrote more than 20 books on all levels of education. Hammond’s books provide a direct line to Hammond’s perspective on her education issues. This is an important source to have because it discusses the importance of teaching more than just to educate the public but, encourages teachers and professors to teach student how their voice matters in society and how to speak up and fight for issues (higher education and social injustices) that matter the most to students.

Linda Darling-Hammond

Photo of Linda Darling-Hammond, President and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute for research, action, and impact.  

Photo by: The Learning Policy Institute for research, action, and impact.  

 

Bibliography

Darling-Hammond, Linda, Jennifer French, and Silvia Paloma. Garcia-Lopez. Learning to Teach for Social Justice. New York: Teachers College, 2002. Print. Multicultural Education Ser. (New York, N.Y.).

Darling-Hammond, Linda, Robert Rothman, and ProQuest. Teaching in the Flat World: Learning from High-performing Systems. 2015. Web.

Darling-Hammond, Linda. The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future. New York: Teachers College, 2010. Print. Multicultural Education Ser. (New York, N.Y.).

Deborah Burnett Strother, and Linda Darling-Hammond. “An Interview with Linda Darling-Hammond: A Wide-Ranging Look at Current Issues in Education.” The Phi Delta Kappan,no.6,1988,p.447.EBSCOhost,ezproxy.gsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.20403669&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Hammond, L. (2009 May). Twitter Feed. [Tweets] Retrieved from www. twitter.com/ldh_ed?lang=en

Martin, Linda E., and Thalia M. Mulvihill. “Current Issues in Teacher Education: An Interview with Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond.” Teacher Educator, vol. 52, no. 2, Jan. 2017, pp. 75–83.EBSCOhost,ezproxy.gsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1137669&site=eds-live&scope=site.