Jonathan Miller-Lane
Associate Professor of Education
- Office
- Twilight Hall 107
- Tel
- (802) 443-3459
- jmillerl@middlebury.edu
- Office Hours
- Spring 2023: Monday evenings via Zoom: 7:00pm - 8:45pm, Tuesday afternoons Twilight 106: 12:30pm - 1:45pm, and by appointment.
- Additional Programs
- Education Studies
What makes education in a democracy different from education in a totalitarian state? How do we prepare students in a democracy for a democracy?How should a liberal arts education shape our responses?These questions form the focus of my teaching and scholarship. My wife Karen and I came to Middlebury from Seattle, Washington. Karen is a Naturopathic Physician and licensed acupuncturist with her own practice, Natural Medicine of Vermont, in Middlebury. Prior to Seattle, we lived and worked in the Marshall Islands for two years and in Washington, D.C. for six.We have a fifteen year old cat, Mike, who we brought from the Marshall Islands and a two and half year old Bernese Mountain Dog named Banu. The former is still appalled by the snow while the latter has yet to find a snow bank she doesn’t like.
I earned my Ph.D. in Secondary Education from the University of Washington in Seattle under the guidance of Professor Walter Parker. My research focused on the facilitation of disagreement in discussion and whether the principles and practice of Aikido might help foster facilitation skills.I also have a M.Ed. from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and a BA in Middle Eastern and African History from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
In both fall and spring semesters, I teach EDSTUD 0115 Education in America.During spring semester, I also teach EDSTUD 0318 Methods in Middle and Secondary Education.During Winter Term, the intensive seminar on special education with John Murphy (EDSTUD 0327) fills my time in addition to coordinating our New York City Urban Education Internship (EDSTU 0337) and the Boston Winter Term Internship program.With colleagues Gregg Humphrey and Claudia Cooper of the Education Studies program, I lead the Student Teaching Seminar and supervise student teachers in the local schools.
In January 2004, I founded Blue Heron Aikido, a dojo in Middlebury, VT.The dojo is located in the Middlebury municipal building adjacent to Twilight Hall.Three times a week, a marvelous mixture of college students, town residents and local students train together. Thanks to a thriving Aikido club on campus nearly two-dozen Middlebury college students have tested for various ranks since we opened.Over two hundred people have come to train in the dojo over the last five years and in the spring of 2010 we will have our first black belt test.The practice of Aikido has been central to my academic work and every spring semester, with the Aikido club and supported by the Education Studies Program, we organize a program in which we explore the conceptual and practical links between the liberal arts and the martial art of Aikido.Professor Justin Stearns of the Religion Department and Professor Linda White from the Japanese Department & Women and Gender Studies Program are also black belts in Aikido and teach at the dojo.
If you have gotten to this point in my biography, you should come and train!We practice Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:15-6:30pm.Beginners and all levels of expertise are welcome.
Courses Taught
BLST 0115
Current
Education in the USA
Course Description
Education in the USA
What are schools for? What makes education in a democracy unique? What counts as evidence of that uniqueness? What roles do schools play in educating citizens in a democracy for a democracy? In this course, we will engage these questions while investigating education as a social, cultural, political, and economic process. We will develop new understandings of current policy disputes regarding a broad range or educational issues by examining the familiar through different ideological and disciplinary lenses. 3 hrs. lect./1 hr. disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
EDST 0111
Unlearning Colonial Habits
Course Description
Unlearning Colonial Habits
In this course we will explore habits of knowing and being (epistemologies and ontologies) that are legacies of settler colonialism and examine whether “unlearning” such habits expands the possibilities of a liberal arts education. To provide time for contemplative practices and place-based seminars, 12 contact hours will be held on Saturday September 17 and Sunday September 18, 2022, prior to the start of fall semester (six hours daily). The remaining six contact hours will comprise three, two-hour seminars during the first half of fall semester. Readings and practices will be drawn from the writings of Bayo Akomolafe, Karen Barad, Beth Berila, Cheryl Harris, Laura Rendon, Toni Morrison, Tharon Weighill, Kenny Xu and others. Sophomores Only. (This is a half credit course)
Terms Taught
EDST 0115
Current
Upcoming
Education In the USA
Course Description
Education in the USA
What are schools for? What makes education in a democracy unique? What counts as evidence of that uniqueness? What roles do schools play in educating citizens in a democracy for a democracy? In this course, we will engage these questions while investigating education as a social, cultural, political, and economic process. We will develop new understandings of current policy disputes regarding a broad range or educational issues by examining the familiar through different ideological and disciplinary lenses. 3 hrs. lect./1 hr. disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
EDST 0237
Upcoming
Educational Psychology
Course Description
Educational Psychology: Learning in Schools
In this course we will expand our understanding of learning and teaching while exploring principles, issues, and research in educational psychology. We will examine learning theories, complex cognitive processes, cognitive and emotional development, and motivation, and apply these constructs to effective instruction, the design of optimal learning environments, assessment of student learning, and teaching in diverse classrooms. (EDST 0115) 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
EDST 0238
Current
Ed Psyc: In the Community
Course Description
Educational Psychology: Learning in the Community
In this course we will expand our understanding of learning and teaching while engaging with the local school community, including professionals and stakeholders who support K-12 students in various roles. We will examine curriculum theory, teaching theories, and practices that support social-emotional as well as proficiency-based learning, trauma-informed teaching, and the use of personalized learning plans to support student growth and development. In this way, students will continue to understand and develop effective instructional practices, the design of optimal learning environments, meaningful assessment tools, and effective and engaging teaching strategies for diverse, inclusive, innovative, student-focused classrooms. (EDST 0237; Restricted to EDST Majors, and others by permission) 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
EDST 0415
Sec Student Teach Practicum
Course Description
Student Teaching in the Middle School/High School
A semester-long practicum in a local middle or high school under the direct supervision of an experienced cooperating teacher. (Corequisite: EDST 0410) (Approval required)
Terms Taught
Requirements
EDST 0416
Sec Student Teach Practicum
Course Description
Student Teaching in the Middle School/High School
See EDST 0415. (Approval required)
Terms Taught
Requirements
EDST 0417
Sec Student Teach Practicum
Course Description
Student Teaching in the Middle School/High School
See EDST 0415. (Approval required)
Terms Taught
Requirements
EDST 0430
Senior Seminar in Education
Course Description
Senior Seminar in Education Studies
In this capstone seminar for General Education minors, students will engage, analyze, and offer solutions to real world problems in the current landscape of education. We will read extensively in the field, consider multiple research methods and approaches, and enlist community experts. Working across disciplines and collaboratively, students will create final projects that integrate and apply what they have learned in their coursework, developing and enhancing skills for creative problem solving and leadership in the field. Final projects will vary; all students will make oral presentations. (three of five required courses for the general EDST minor.) 3 hrs. Sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
EDST 0500
Current
Upcoming
Independent Project
Course Description
Independent Project
(Approval Required)
Terms Taught
EDST 0505
Ind. Study-Sec Methods
Course Description
Independent Study - Secondary Methods
This course is for students who are pursuing a VT teaching license in a Secondary content area. Students are required to commit to a school placement under the guidance and supervision of a certified, secondary VT teacher. The content of the course will be developed collaboratively by the EDST professor overseeing the independent student, the VT secondary teacher who is overseeing the school placement, and the student. Regular meetings involving all three will take place throughout the semester. The exact meeting schedule will be determined on a case by case basis. Students will complete assignments that address the requirements of the VT Educator Portfolio. (EDST0115, EDST0215 and relevant courses in Psychology). By Approval only. Interested students must meet with the Director of Education Studies.
Terms Taught
EDST 1009
Soc Justic & Evol Spirituality
Course Description
Social Justice and Evolutionary Spirituality
In this “course” we will explore whether we can create intellectually dynamic spaces of regeneration and renewal while enrolled at an historically White supremacist institution. There are two central texts for our inquiry: (1) Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation (2016), by The Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams, Lama Rod Owens and Jasmine Syedullah, Ph.D.; and (2) American Awakening: Evolutionary Spirituality, Non-Duality & Free Thinking in the Tradition of American Philosophy (2020) by the spiritual philosopher, Jeff Carreira. Class meetings will involve contemplative practices, writing workshops and students will share in the leading of our seminar-based discussions.
Terms Taught
Requirements
FYSE 1567
Educ in the Anthropocene
Course Description
Education in the Anthropocene
Traditionally, a liberal arts education has placed humans at the center of study. But, what if we decentered humans in order to explore how to live not as overseer, but as an embodied expression of a much larger, shared Earthscape? What is the balance of liberty and social justice in such a paradigm? What if this new, required spacing between us is not a barrier to our engagement, but the opening possibility of a larger, shared consciousness? Using a conceptual framework of land-body-spirit-mind, we will engage learning at the crossroads of these questions. Is six feet really the distance between when your breath ends and mine begins? 3 hrs. sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
Publications
Publications
Miller-Lane, J, Selover, G (2008).“Teaching Constructive Disagreement for a Loyal Opposition, Somatically.” Social Studies Research and Practice, 3(3), 39-50.
Miller-Lane, J., Howard, T. & Halagao, P. E. (2007). “Civic Multicultural Competence: Searching for Common Ground for Democratic Education.” Theory & Research in Social Education, 35(4), 551-573.
Miller-Lane, J. (2007). “The Loyal Opposition and the Practice of Aikido.” Journal of Asian Martial Arts 16(1), 64-81.
Miller-Lane, J. (2006). “Constructive Disagreement, the Body, and Education for Democracy.” The Social Studies, 97(1), 16-20.
Miller-Lane, J. (2006). “Social Studies Teachers’ Views on Committed Impartiality and Discussion.” Social Studies Research & Practice, 1(1), 30-44.
Miller-lane, J. (2003). “Infusing Assets into Social Studies.” In Taccogna, J., (Ed.) Powerful teaching: Asset building curriculum for teachers, pp. 145-156. St. Paul, Minnesota: Search Institute.
Selected Publications
American Philosophy Association Pacific Division. Discussant for five-paper general session: The Society for the Study of Philosophy and The Martial Arts. April 2009. Vancouver, BC.
“In Pursuit of Educator Quality: Collaboration and Critical Decisions in the Development of Vermont’s Level 1 Licensure Portfolio, 1991-2007.” Chair, organizer and presenter of symposium at the annual conference of the New England Educational Research Organization, April 2008. Symposium involved five colleagues from the Vermont Council of Teacher Educators
“Constructive Disagreement, The Loyal Opposition and Aikido: Towards a Theory of Embodied, Democratic Education.” Paper presented with Will Cunningham and Greg Selover (Middlebury College class of 2010) at the 2007 annual meeting of The College and University Faculty Association of The National Council for the Social Studies, San Diego, CA. November 28, 2007.
“Embodied Discussion: The Case for Aikido.” Organized and presented opening lecture for a four-day symposium entitled Knowledge Without Boundaries: The Liberal Arts and the Martial Art of Aikido, Middlebury College, April 17, 2007.
“From Myopia to Mindfulness: Creating Time and Space for Teacher Induction.” Roundtable with Doug Dagan, (Middlebury College class of 2004) at the annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE), New York, February 2007.
“I disagree, but thank you. Facilitating & Embodying Constructive Disagreement.” Pre-conference, all-day workshop at the annual meeting of the National Association of Multicultural Education, Tucson, November 2006.
“Multicultural Education & Civic Competence: New Directions for Social Studies Education.” Invited paper presented at the Social Studies Special Interest Research Group Meeting during the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), San Francisco, April 2006.
“Educating the Body for Democratic Life: Intersections of Theory and Practice.” Chair, organizer of and presenter in panel session at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association (AERA), Montreal, April 2005.