EHHS Featured Faculty – 10 Questions – Scott Durham
Featured Faculty spotlights EHHS professors who share their background, experiences, interests, and advice for students.
What subject(s) do you teach?
I teach social studies methods and general teacher education courses for Middle Childhood, Adolescent Education, and in the master’s program in the College of EHHS.
What inspired you to follow your chosen path of study?
My first profession was politics, as I thought it would be a noble profession to help make the world a better place. But I always wanted to help people think for themselves, which is what drove me into education. After teaching high school social studies for 20 years, I was the recipient of the Dee and Dora DeMaso International Teaching Fellowship in 2013, when I traveled around the world for 97 days, learning about the topics and places I taught about. When I returned home, I was not the same teacher or person who left. Subsequently, I enrolled in a Ph.D. program at Michigan State and am now proud to be teaching here at Kent State.
What's one of your favorite memories from your student days?
I just remember experiencing so many new things, meeting so many new people, being exposed to different ways of thinking; to experts; to disrupters. It was all just so very dynamic.
What do you think every student should experience in college?
Everyone should experience new things and new ways of thinking. It is in the differences that we find the delight of life. It is through differences where we can find the lines of flight to new and more meaningful ways of being with each other.
What academic or career advice would you give to students?
Never stop changing. You are not the same person you were five years ago, and you better not be the same person five years from now.
What do you enjoy most about teaching?
I enjoy exploring ideas together with students who are curious and smart. They continue to push my thinking and inspire new ideas. They are the seeds and the fertilizer of much of my research.
How do you contribute to student success?
Whatever it takes. I try not to think about students in general terms but rather as individuals with unique strengths and challenges. In that way, what one student needs is not what another needs. The challenge then becomes finding what will best ease the path toward student success for each Kent State student I encounter and then finding how to implement that. One consistent feature of my contributions to student success is my willingness to give meaningful feedback. I hope that students not only get something out of the assignments I ask them to engage in, but also they get something from the feedback that comes as a result.
What would students be surprised to learn about you?
I have been to over 130 Dave Matthews Band concerts.
What is the best and most challenging thing about being a teacher?
The best thing about being a teacher is watching human beings change. My hope is that through new ideas and new experiences our students will begin to engage with the world and each other in more meaningful and just ways. The most challenging aspect of teaching is finding unique ways to meet the needs of every student – and then finding the time to implement them.
How do you show your school spirit?
I was excited to purchase a lot of KSU swag my first week in Kent last fall. Now half my closet is blue and gold. I also have enjoyed participating in all aspects of the campus community, from athletic events and lectures to conferences and events downtown – wearing my KSU swag, of course!