Morphew, executive associate dean for research and innovation for the College of Education at the University of Iowa, let his humor shine in a presentation that outlined his views on schools of education and the role he’d play at UNC.
He said preparing researchers could be the future for UNC’s School of Education instead of focusing solely on preparing K-12 teachers.
“We need to know how people learn and continue to learn on both ends of the tail,” he said.
Gary Marchionini, dean of the School of Information and Library Science and chairperson of the search committee, said the committee looked over scores of applications and narrowed it down to three candidates who are extraordinary leaders.
“It’s based on their reputation, their accomplishments, their vision, and we see him as one of the people who can make a difference at Carolina,” Marchionini said.
Morphew said the declining enrollment at the School of Education means leaders need to rethink how UNC offers curricula across multiple disciplines.
“I think the future of schools of educations is on the margins,” he said.
Morphew said in his 14 hours on campus, he noticed some improvements could be made to UNC’s School of Education. He suggested that a ratio of more than 50 faculty for more than 600 students could be made more fiscally sustainable by spending less money on faculty resources.