Dr. Jack Beckman, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Covenant College, Look Out Mountain, Georgia, USA
Dr. Jack Beckman has thirty-four years of educational experience – as an Early Childhood teacher, an educational leader in the Christian school movement, and latterly as an Associate Professor of Elementary Education at Covenant College. He has an ECE BS from Georgia State University (1976), an MEd in Curriculum and Instruction from Covenant College (1998), and an MPhil in Educational Research (2002) and PhD in Teacher Education from Cambridge University (2004). His interest in the life and work of Charlotte Mason began in the early 1990s where he designed a school curriculum based on her ideas and then developed several schools under this philosophy and model. Both his MPhil and PhD centered on Mason’s distinct approach to teacher training and the fidelity of her ideas throughout the span of teacher professional identity growth from preservice through retirement. Both archive and oral histories provided the traces and voices for his thesis. He has published numerous articles and contributed chapters to When Children Love to Learn (2004) and Schools as Communities (2007).
Ms. Lisa Cadora, Instructor, Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Lisa Cadora first learned of Charlotte Mason as an undergraduate education student at Covenant College through Ranald and Susan Macaulay. She has pursued Charlotte Mason education ever since, teaching in the public school system in Walker County, Georgia; Intown Community School (a ChildLight School) in Atlanta, Georgia; the Ambleside School of Fredericksburg in Fredericksburg, Texas; and currently in the Early Childhood Education Department at Cincinnati State. Lisa holds a Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education from Covenant College and a Master's Degree in Education in Language and Literacy from Georgia State University and is a trained catechist in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. Lisa lives in Cincinnati, Ohio where her husband, Matt, pastors Faith Presbyterian Church. Their son, Alex, currently resides in the Pacific Northwest and is sorely missed by their two dachshunds, Hondo and Schatzie.
Ms. Marlene Power, Librarian, Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
For the past 18 years, Marlene Power has worked as Public Services Librarian at Redeemer University College. Prior to that, she worked in the University of New Brunswick Archives, creating database records for archival collections. That experience has been helpful for her current work with the Charlotte Mason project, particularly in creating a database of digital images -- the Charlotte Mason Digital Collection (CMDC). This has involved visiting the Armitt Museum and Library in the lovely Lake District of England in order to assess the Charlotte Mason Collection, to see for herself some of the riches in this hidden gem of a collection. She also spent some time taking pictures of the archival documents and setting up procedures for others who came over to work on the project. Back home in Canada, much time has been devoted over the past year to creating the database of the images, to make them globally accessible over the internet. Marlene will demonstrate how the Charlotte Mason Digital Collection can be used by students, teachers, parents, home educators and scholars who are interested in the ideas and accomplishments of Charlotte Mason.
Dr. J. Carroll Smith, Dean, School of Education, Gardner-Webb University, Boiling Springs, North Carolina, USA
Carroll Smith has spoken on various topics related to Charlotte Mason. Currently he teaches graduate and undergraduate education classes at Gardner-Webb University and enjoys working with children, teachers, college students, and The Charlotte Mason Education Centre. He was a teacher and a principal for 21 years before coming to Gardner-Webb University where he is beginning year ten. Having grown up in eastern North Carolina, he attended East Carolina University for his undergraduate degree and his master's in school administration. He completed his terminal degree and wrote his dissertation on Charlotte Mason at Virginia Tech. Carroll enjoys reading, gardening, and discussing ideas with friends. He and his wife, Andra live, work and play in Boiling Springs, NC. They have two adult children, Corban and Anna.
Dr. John Thorley, Retired Principal and Dean, Charlotte Mason College, Ambleside, Cumbria, England
John’s last full-time job before retiring was as Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Teacher Education and Training at Lancaster University, and also Principal of Charlotte Mason College at Ambleside. Before that he had been Head of Trinity School, an 11-18 comprehensive school in Carlisle, UK, and before that a school inspector and a teacher. He was trained as a classicist, and was formerly Chairman of the Joint Association of Classical Teachers and President of EUROCLASSICA, a federation of classics teachers from all parts of Europe, with which he is still much involved. His main areas of research and teaching are Greek history and Medieval Latin. He has published books on Athenian Democracy and on Documents in Medieval Latin, as well as articles on classical and medieval history, and on Charlotte Mason.
Dr. Deani A. Neven Van Pelt, Assistant Professor, Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Deani Van Pelt, B.Com. (McMaster), B.Ed. (Toronto), M.Ed. (UWO), Ph.D. (UWO) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Education at Redeemer University College, Hamilton, Ontario where she instructs courses in social and legal foundations of education and education psychology. As primary and co-investigator in a number of funded international research collaborations on private schooling, religious schooling, and home schooling she is frequently interviewed by national media on education policy issues. She was honoured for excellence in graduate studies with her thesis Charlotte Mason’s Design for Education, and through grants received from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada continues to probe the contours and potential of this growing educational philosophy. A former teacher in the math and business departments of public and private secondary schools, she and her husband home educated their three children for more than a decade.