In This Section:
Woodward: Renaissance man as state historian - Walater Woodward, history
Teaching adults about how they learn - Marijke Kehrhahn, education

Scholar follows his dream from Nashville to Connecticuit

Twenty years ago, Walter Woodward ’01 Ph.D., was an advertising whiz and a successful Nashville songwriter.

One night he and his wife, Irene, sat to discuss the classic midlife question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Photo: Peter Morenus

Walter Woodward ’01 Ph.D. serves as the Connecticut State Historian

Irene was a homemaker with an art education degree, but she wanted to be a veterinarian. Walter’s dream job was to become a historian.

Woodward had studied English and history at the University of Florida, where he also expanded his developing interest in music by performing with various groups.

After graduation he went to Nashville, where he penned two Top 10 country hits in the early 1970s for torch balladeer Billie Jo Spears.

He also began writing advertising jingles, sparking a highly successful 25-year career that brought many industry honors, including eight Clio Awards for radio commercials for clients such as McDonald’s, Rubbermaid and Pizza Hut and a pair of Emmys for documentary music.

Yet Woodward could not resist the lure of history, especially after he developed and hosted a National Endowment for the Humanities-supported program on Colonial Williamsburg, in 1995.

He decided to pursue a doctorate in early American history at UConn while working as director of education and information technology at Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Mass.

After completing his doctorate in 2001, he joined the faculty of Dickinson College, in Carlisle, Pa., until 2004, when he was named the fifth Connecticut State Historian.

It was a homecoming of sorts for Woodward, whose affection for Connecticut began when he was a boy spending summers at his grandfather’s Columbia Lake home.  

“Connecticut has an important role in the industrial revolution in America,” he says about his appreciation for the state’s history.

“Inventor entrepreneurs such as clockmaker Eli Terry, inventor Eli Whitney and gun maker Samuel Colt developed the machine tools and production processes that made the Connecticut River Valley the Silicon Valley of the 19th century.”

As state historian, he both teaches at UConn and serves as a resource to the General Assembly concerning questions involving state history, such as providing assistance to Rep. Michael Cardin ’94 (CLAS) when he sought to restore the historic statue The Genius of Connecticut at the state Capitol building.

Woodward is also charged with promoting Connecticut’s considerable historic and heritage resources by serving as an ombudsman for state historical organizations, speaking to the public and linking people and organizations.

An example is the Heroism, Nationalism and Human Rights conference held earlier this year at UConn’s Thomas J. Dodd Center.

Woodward helped bring together a range of scholars for the conference, which coincided with celebration of the 250th anniversary of American Revolution hero Nathan Hale’s birth.

It also occurred during the UConn premiere of a new play written by UConn drama professor Carlton Molette about Prudence Crandall, who integrated a school for girls in Connecticut.

Overall, serving as Connecticut’s historian is a position for which Woodward appears to fit perfectly both professionally and constitutionally.

As for his wife, Irene went back to school and is now a practicing veterinarian in Manchester.

— Jim H. Smith

Kehrhahn learns from her students as they also learn

Photo: Peter Morenus

Marijke Kehrhahn discusses adult learning techniques during a class.

For Marijke Kehrhahn ’76 (SFA),’80 M.A., ’95 Ph.D., teaching is a two-way street. She hopes to learn as much from her students as they will from her.

As director of teacher education and associate professor of adult learning in the Neag School of Education, Kehrhahn walks a tightrope.

She must use her intimate knowledge of how to teach adult students while standing before a class filled with adults pursuing doctoral degrees who have similar responsibilities in corporations, government and other organizations.

Kehrhahn’s success as a teacher of adult students is evident by the high number of her students who complete their studies and go on to subsequent high achievements.

Nationally, the rate of completion among all doctoral students is documented at around 60 percent or less, says Barry G. Sheckley, Ray Neag Professor of Adult Learning and head of UConn’s department of educational leadership.

“Because of the dedicated, committed and innovative approaches Marijke uses, the rate of completion for her students is higher than 90 percent,” he says.

“They also complete their work with distinction. Several of her students have won national research awards for their dissertation work.”

“What makes adult learners different from children is that they are very problem focused,” Kehrhahn says.

“Children will learn just about anything, and they should. Adults see their learning in the context of their lives and what it is they need to know.

"They are more practical learners. They want to learn about things that are going to make their lives better, make them a better person or do their jobs better.”

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in dramatic arts and a master’s in special education from UConn, Kehrhahn was a classroom teacher in Windham, Conn.

She then became a staff development specialist for the state Department of Mental Retardation and then director of staff development before moving to the state Department of Education as a professional development consultant.

She returned to UConn to pursue a doctorate in adult and vocational education, where in 1995 she became an adjunct professor and later a full-time member of the faculty.

She was named director of teacher education in 2004.

Kehrhahn says a key factor in adult education is that students bring a great deal of prior life and work experience into the classroom and that it is important to respect that knowledge.

“What they have already learned is the foundation for what they will learn in the program and what they have learned can contribute to others,” she says. “Together we’re going to develop our knowledge base where theory and research meet field practice.”

Kehrhahn uses technology such as WebCT and e-mail as a teaching tool in class and outside the classroom as a way for students to stay connected.

“Technology doesn’t do the teaching, but it’s certainly a tool that you can put to good use,” she says.

In addition to her teaching and advising responsibilities, Kehrhahn serves as project director for Technology for Leadership and Learning in Connecticut, a program that works to improve educational administrators’ proficiency in using technology to facilitate change in schools.

The program is funded with a $2 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

— Julie Reiff