Phillip Sandro
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Teaching & Learning with HECUA Students

I can still picture the day my high school sociology teacher handed me a copy of Paolo Freiere’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. It was Chicago, 1968. There had been riots on the West Side after Dr. King was murdered. I had participated in anti-war demonstrations outside the Democratic Convention (held in Chicago that year). The Viet Nam War was raging and I would soon face the military draft and therefore I had some serious decisions to make. And most of my teachers weren’t saying a word about any of this! This particular teacher was the one exception and this teacher changed my life. I didn’t know then that the way he taught would later be called "experiential education." Looking back I don’t figure he did either. But this was almost the only class where I found myself staying up until two a.m. night after night pouring over books and writing. The Freiere book he gave me helped me understand why his course was so riveting. In a sentence, he connected what he taught to my deepest values, passions and concerns. I was hooked! I understood that education could empower me to understand and change the world. I also knew from that time on that I wanted to be a teacher and facilitate the same for others.

I wanted to be the kind of teacher that didn’t just talk about theory in an abstract way, but rather, helped students ground, test and apply theory to make the world a better place. I also wanted to be a teacher who actually practiced what they taught about. As a result I’ve been involved in community organizing, have worked as a policymaker in city government, participated on the boards of community development corporations and consulted for many community groups. I’ve developed an anti-racism program for a New York City public school and I have worked with a restorative justice program. I’ve worked on numerous electoral campaigns and have regularly lobbied elected officials. I love teaching at HECUA because I get to keep my feet in both academia and activism. The MUST program bridges these two arenas.

I also believe that the most rigorous learning happens when students are challenged with real life problems in the community where they have an authentic role to play. This is what happens in MUST. One of our students interned for the Jobs Now Coalition this last year and contributed to winning an increase in the minimum wage in Minnesota. Another one our students interned at he Immigrant Worker’s Freedom Ride and contributed to a bill that passed called the "Dream Act" which allows any immigrant who graduated from a Minnesota High School to apply to the University of Minnesota as an in-state resident. But the learning from these experiences does not just happen automatically. In MUST we encourage critical habits of mind as students make meaning of the real work they do in the community. We critically examine alternative theories and social change strategies for their usefulness and impacts.

I passionately believe that students bring powerful experiences and knowledge to the study of poverty, inequality and social change. In this sense students can be teachers as well as learners. I like a lively, engaged and exciting classroom where all participants co-create knowledge. My students bring amazing energy and talent to their internships and they bring this knowledge back into the classroom. I learn a lot from them. I love learning and if this ever changes it would be the day I stop teaching.

When I am not thinking about all of this heavy stuff I enjoy following the hapless Chicago Cubs baseball team (hope springs eternal), fly fishing, nature photography, wildflower gardening, hanging out with friends and playing music (to the consternation of my neighbors).

My Research and Current Projects

Because the Metro Urban Studies Term is interdisciplinary I read widely. Recently I have read The Crisis of Vision in Modern Economics by Robert Heilbronner, Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph Stiglitz, Depression Economics by Paul Krugmann, Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate by George Lakoff, What’s the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank, Flat Broke With Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform by Sharon Hays , Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky (an old classic), Neighborhood Power: Building Community the Seattle Way by Jim Diers and The History of God by Karen Armstrong. I also have a love for fiction.

My research has focused mainly on economic justice issues and teaching for social change. My Ph.D. dissertation focused on urban import substitution, which is basically when an area (local or even a nation) produces and or buys locally what had previously been imported. On the surface this doesn’t sound real exciting. But it can be a very powerful and explosive way to create and sustain jobs whether in U.S. cities or in lesser developed nations. I am very interested in development theory and have witnessed the increasing control over underdeveloped countries exercised by mega-corporations, the World Trade Organization, the IMF and treaties such as NAFTA and CAFTA. My recent research has focused on partial de-coupling strategies- that is- ways in which lesser-developed countries can forge development strategies in which they are less vulnerable to these powerful international entities. Import substitution is one of these strategies, but is very much out of favor with most economists and institutions like the IMF. Done properly, however, this is a very promising strategy.

I have also recently participated in a 3-year research project with the Carnegie Institute for Teaching and Learning studying courses and programs around the country selected by Carnegie as being highly effective in fostering thoughtful political engagement among college students. The Metro Urban Studies Term was included in this study. Currently Carnegie is developing a major website with tools and curriculum from these courses and programs to which the Metro Urban Studies Term made significant contributions. (Check back for a link coming soon.)

Presentations and Publications

My own publications include; The Employment Outcomes of Public Sector Import-Substitution Programs in Chicago in The Journal of Public Administration (1994), The Entrepreneurial Gloss: The Myth of Small Business Job Growth in Tales of the State: Narrative in Contemporary U.S. Politics and Public Policy (1997), "Job Impact Analysis: The Chicago Model for Bridging the Gap Between Economic Development and Employment and Training Programs," in The Partnership Journal (1989) and "An Organizing Approach to Teaching: From Silos to Public Work and Engaged Scholarship" in the Higher Education Exchange (2003).

Resume / CV