Professor Emeritus, Secondary and Higher Education35 Loring Ave 106978.542.6262
Mary-Lou Breitborde completed her EdD and master’s degrees in humanistic and behavioral studies at Boston University, her bachelor of arts degree in sociology at Wheaton College, and advanced work in social welfare at the University of California-Berkeley. She is co-author/editor of Teaching on Principle and Promise, Educating the Global Village and Remembering Massachusetts State Normal Schools. A former elementary teacher, program administrator and evaluation consultant, she researches education's historic role in social change and works to develop community-school partnerships. This year Dr. Breitborde is teaching EDU 115 Exploring Education and EDU 717 Advanced Foundations of Education.
School-community relationships and community education.
Class, race, and gender in educational experience.
The history of teaching and the education of women in the U.S.
Education as a vehicle for social change
Professor of Education
Faculty lead for state and external relations for the School of Education
Graduate faculty: EDU 717, EDU 876
Undergraduate course: EDU 115
Breitborde, M-L. (2015, in press). Invited review of Burton, O.V. and Cross, Penn Center: A history preserved. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2014.
Breitborde, M-L. and Kolodny, K. (2015, Winter). Massachusetts state normal schools: Improving popular education through the ‘peculiar art of teaching.’ Editor’s Choice, Historical Journal of Massachusetts. 43(1).
Breitborde, M-L. and Kolodny, K., eds. (2014). Remembering Massachusetts state normal schools: Pioneers in teacher education. Westfield, MA: Institute for Massachusetts Studies.
Breitborde, M-L. (2014). Salem Normal School. In Breitborde and Kolodny, eds., Remembering Massachusetts state normal schools: Pioneers in teacher education. Westfield: MA: Institute for Massachusetts Studies.
Breitborde, M-L. (2014). Learning About Each Other: Two Teachers Negotiate Race, Class and Gender in the Civil War South. American Educational History Journal,40 (1-2).
Breitborde, M-L. (2013). Cross-Sector Partnerships for Early Education and Care. In Swiniarski, L.B., ed. World Class Initiatives and Practices in Early Education: Moving Forward in a Global Age. Springer Publications.
Breitborde, M-L. (2011). Discourse, Education and Women’s Public Culture in the Port Royal Experiment: Interpreting the Life and Work of Laura Towne. American Educational History Journal, 38 (1/2) 427-446.
Breitborde, M.L. (2010). An Incautious spirit: The Life of Laura Matilda Towne. Sextant, 18 (1), 15-22.
Breitborde, M-L. & Swiniarski, L.B. (2006).Teaching on Principle and Promise.: The Foundations of Education. Boston:Houghton-Mifflin.
Swiniarski, LB., & Breitborde, M-L. (2003). Educating the Global Village: Including the Child in the World, 2nd ed. Merrill Prentice-Hall.
Breitborde, M-L. (2002). Lessons Learned in an Urban School: Preparing Teachers for the Educational Village. The Teacher Educator, 38, (1), 34-46.
Breitborde, M-L. & Swiniarski, L.B. (2002). Family Education and Community Power: New Structures for New Visions in the Educational Village. Educational Studies, 28 (3), 305-318.
Breitborde, M. L., & Swiniarski, L. (1999). Constructivism and Reconstructionism: Educating Teachers for World Citizenship. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 24(1), 1.
Breitborde, M-L. (1996). Creating Community in the Classroom: Modeling the ‘New’ Basic Skills. Journal of Teacher Education, 47 (5), 367-374.
Breitborde, M-L. (1993, Summer). Multicultural Education in the Classroom. Childhood Education, 69 (4).
Breitborde, M-L. (1992-93). The Future of Whole Language: A Cautionary Note. The Journal of Reading Education, Winter.
Breitborde, M-L. (2014, September). “Early Massachusetts State Normal Schools:Rhetoric, Reality and Unintended Consequences,” Annual meeting of the Organization of Educational Historians, Chicago.
Breitborde, M-L. (2013, October). “Landscapes of 19th Century Women Teachers: Power, Politics and Authority in the ‘Feminization of Teaching.’” Annual meeting of the Organization of Educational Historians, Chicago.
Breitborde, M-L. (2013, May). "Power, Politics and Authority in the “Feminization of Teaching.'" Christina Conference on Gender Studies, Helsinki, Finland.
Breitborde, M-L. "Private Woman, Public Mission: The Development of a Radical
Reconstructionist Educator in the Civil War South." Annual Meeting of the History of Education Society, Seattle, November, 2012.
Breitborde, M-L. (2012, October). "Learning About Each Other: Race Relations in School and Community in the Civil War South.Annual Meeting of the Organization of Educational Historians, Chicago, October 2012.
Breitborde, M-L. (2010, October 16). “Discourse, Education and Women’s Public Culture in the Port Royal Experiment.” New England Historical Assocation, Biddeford, ME.
Breitborde, M-L. (2011, October 7). "Race, Class and Gender in the (Re)construction of Educational Purpose: Freed People’s Schools in the Port Royal Experiment." Annual meeting of the Organization of Educational Historians, Chicago.
Breitborde, M-L (2010, July 19-21). "Collaborative Learning and Distributive Leadership: An Organizational Initiative for a Global Age." Poster Session. 10th International Conference on Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations. Belfast, Ireland.
Breitborde, M-L. (2010, June 19-20). “Incautious Spirit: The Letters and Diary of Laura M.Towne, Abolitionist,” The Irrational, the Spiritual, the Romantic: Contested Discourses in 19th-Century American Women’s Writing. Catharine Maria Sedgwick Society Conference. Salem, Massachusetts: Salem State University.
Breitborde, M-L. (2009, June 14-16). "Radical Reconstructionists in Community: Women Educators and Social Change in the American South." Nordic Conference on Feminist Pedagogies, Uppsala, Sweden.
Breitborde, M-L. & Swiniarski, L.B. (2009, January). Invited Keynote: "Global Education: Beginning with Ourselves," Changing the World. Queen’s Conference on Education, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.
Breitborde, M-L. (2007, Fall). English Language Arts and an Expanded Day: How Reading, Writing, Revising and Read Aloud Can Fit in Every Day (panel presentation). A New Day for Schools: The Expanded Learning Time Summit, (national meeting) University of Massachusetts, Boston, November 30.
Breitborde, M-L. & Graham-Harris, D. (2005, November). “Lessons from One-Room Schools.” National Association for Multicultural Education. Atlanta, Georgia.
Breitborde, M-L. & Graham-Harris, D. (2004, October). "Celebrating Diversity Through Folktales and Fairy Tales." National Association for Multicultural Education. Kansas City, MO.
Breitborde, M-L. (2004, April)."Teaching Democracy in Critical Times: Revisiting John Dewey’s ‘Social Intelligence’ in Teacher Education." Association for Childhood Education International. New Orleans, LA.
Selected Regional Presentations:
Breitborde, M-L. (2014, December 4). University Partnership for Place-Based Education, Presentation at PBE 2-day conference for park rangers, teachers and cultural organization representatives, Salem MA.
Breitborde, M-L. and Kolodny, K. (2014, October 31)“Professionalizing Teaching:Roots and Wings.” Keynote-Introduction. Annual Fall Conference of the MA Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, Sturbridge, MA.
Breitborde, M-L. (2014, February 12). “’Ought Women to Learn the Alphabet?’” The History of Women’s Education in the U.S.” Explorers Lifelong Learning Institute, Salem MA.
Breitborde, M-L (2013, August 14). “Not So Parallel Lives: Charlotte Forten and Laura Towne at Penn School: Not So Parallel Lives.” Explorers Lifelong Learning Institute, Salem MA.
Breitborde, M-L (2012, March 21). “Mission Mattered: Unitarian Influences on a Reconstructionist Educator in the Civil War.” Learning Community Lecture, First Church in Boston.
My greatest interest is my family--a group of of lovable, interesting, good people. Besides them, I love writing, reading, good friends, old houses, one-room schools, working waterfronts and Downeast Maine. I love Bach, bluegrass, Cape Breton Island fidding, and good pianos. I love traveling across the beautiful U.S.A., good movies and plays, the stories of Alice Munro, crossword puzzles, scrabble, sudoku, and knitting (badly). I love anything having to do with my grand-daughter.