Research and Practitioner Fellowships
The Prospect School and Center for Education and Research Fund supports two fellowship initiatives that are designed to encourage faculty, independent researchers, students, classroom teachers, principals, administrators, and other community members active in school affairs to benefit from the Prospect School and Center for Education and Research Archives.
Research Fellowship Program
Research Fellowships support the use of the Prospect School and Center for Education and Research Archives by faculty, independent researchers, and students.
Recipients of Research Fellowships will develop a research project using the Prospect Archives. Preference will be given to projects that develop Prospect’s philosophy and methodology and projects that connect with current educational issues. Each research fellow is required to include appropriate acknowledgment of the Prospect Archives in any work produced with the assistance of this Research Fellowship and must send a copy of resulting published work to Special Collections.
One research fellowship per year will be awarded as a reimbursement for expenses associated with research at the Prospect Archives at the Bailey/Howe Library, University of Vermont. The research fellowships are open to scholars, students, and independent researchers. Recipients are limited to one funded proposal every three years and priority is given to those not previously funded.
The research fellowship will be an award of $2,000
Practitioner Fellowship Program
The Practitioner Fellowship Program taps the riches of the Prospect Archives by engaging fellowship recipients over a week-long program in study of the Archive of Children’s Works using Prospect’s Descriptive Processes as the method of inquiry. The broad purpose of a fellowship is to introduce the Prospect Archives, to make the Prospect Archives accessible to a wide audience, and to demonstrate the value of the Prospect Archives for educators and the community. This includes calling to the attention of the public and the schools the resources available within the Archives and through their study. A further aim of the Practitioner Fellowship program is to support the establishment of leadership for “communities of inquiry” within recipients’ own settings by showing how the Descriptive Processes developed at Prospect help people to think more deeply about their practice and current issues in education.
Special Collections will appoint a mentor to guide Practitioner Fellows throughout the program. The mentor will be knowledgeable about the Prospect’s Archives, its history and the resources it provides, and experienced with the Descriptive Processes, in particular, the Description of Children’s Works.
Recipients of the Practitioner Fellowship are expected to spend five and a half days of study at the Bailey/Howe Library, Special Collections. The 2014 Fellowship will take place from July 13-18. July 19 is a Saturday and is planned as a half-day where fellows are expected to create and present a detailed follow-up plan for implementing what they have learned in their own classrooms, schools, colleges, or other settings. Plans might include, but are not limited to: starting an archive of children’s works; launching an inquiry community using Prospect’s Descriptive Processes as a method of study; provisioning for materials and activities intended to expand children’s or older students’ opportunities for exploring their own interests; documenting children’s and older students’ activities and curriculum; implementing nonjudgmental observing, describing and record-keeping practices developed at Prospect School. The mentor will maintain supportive contact with recipients primarily via email and phone calls as they implement their follow-up plans.
Approximately three fellowships are to be awarded each year to school or college based practitioners such as classroom teachers (pre-k to high school) as well as counselors, principals and other administrators; school board members; parents active in school affairs; and teacher educators. Applications from the same site are encouraged. Also encouraged are applications from the same site representing different constituencies (e.g., a classroom teacher, a parent, and an administrator). The fellowship will be an award of $2,000.
Details on how to apply for these fellowships are available at
The deadline for applications is February 15, 2014. Recipients will be notified by April 1, 2014.
Further information about the Prospect School and Center for Education and Research, as well an online collection of images and documents selected from the Prospect Archive of Children's work can be found at http://go.uvm.edu/781-p
Questions about the fellowship programs should be sent to Chris Burns at Chris.Burns@uvm.edu
Chris Burns Curator of Manuscripts and University Archivist Special Collections Bailey/Howe Library University of Vermont Burlington, VT 05405
(802) 656-2631
