The Teachers Academy: a group of programs focused on learning for the teacher
The Principals Institute: conferences and a symposium to inspire educational leaders
The Superintendents Symposium: a time of reflection and learning for Texas superintendents
The Education Forum: highlights and explores an educational issue of critical concern
Since 1980, the Dallas Institute has conducted innovative leadership programs based in the humanities for professionals in its Center for Civic Leadership--among them, for medical doctors, business leaders, and lawyers. But the habit of learning is the vital principle of education and the lifeblood of academic institutions. It needs to be stimulated throughout each school community and district--among educators as well as students. Every teacher needs the experience of learning, and the administrators who lead, guide, admonish, and encourage the work of learning need to be learners, too.
Two distinctive features of Cowan Center programs are its method and curriculum. The Cowan Center method is based on a belief in the art of teaching and learning for teachers and students alike. Programs are models of non-competitive, collegial learning, facilitated by a team of dedicated faculty with at least 20 years experience working and learning together. Faculty each hold a Ph.D. in literature and are skilled moderators, expert in the method and content of the Cowan School of Thought. The curriculum is drawn from the best works in the humanities from world cultures in every age.
On May 6, 2011, we dedicated and named our education programs the Louise and Donald Cowan Center for Education, honoring the vision of Drs. Donald and Louise Cowan. The Teachers Academy, the Principals Institute, the Superintendents Symposium, and the Education Forum are now housed in the Dallas Institute's Cowan Center for Education. All four programs--in method and in content--bear the stamp of the Cowan's conviction about teaching, learning, and education.
Through the study of great works in the humanities, the Cowan Center for Education's distinctive programs are designed to renew education professionals, giving them the opportunity to recall their own heart for learning and to deepen in their understanding of the human condition which is, after all, the chief concern of the educational enterprise itself.
Dr. Louise S. Cowan was inaugural holder of the Louise Cowan Chair of Literature at the University of Dallas and is a Founding Fellow of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. She is formerly Chair of the English Department and Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Dallas. She and her husband Donald Cowan were central and instrumental in the creation and building of both the University of Dallas and the Dallas Institute. In 1983 she conceived of and initiated what became the Teachers Academy, in a summer program that has been running each year since 1984. During her long career, she has received numerous awards for her achievements in teaching and advancing liberal education, including the Charles Frankel Prize (now called the National Humanities Medal) in 1991.
Dr. Donald Cowan, a physicist, was president of the University of Dallas from 1962 to 1977 and has taught at Vanderbilt University, Texas Christian University, the University of Dallas, and Thomas More College in New Hampshire. He was a Founding Fellow of the Dallas Institute, a member of the Paideia Project group, and a 1988 McDermott Professor at the University of Dallas. He wrote Unbinding Prometheus: Education for the Coming Age, containing the transformative essay "The Three Moments of Learning." Dr. Cowan established institutes for principals in which the role of imagination was found to be central to the educational enterprise, eventually giving birth to the Dallas Institute's Principals Institute.
Laura Baldwin
Betty Bellamy
Russell Bellamy
Dr. Bainard Cowan
Rex Cumming
David Griffin
Clyde Henderson
Sue Maclay
Joy Mankoff
Diane Miles
A. Steven Raab
Dr. Diane Ravitch
Betty Regard
Emily Roden
Deedie Rose
Dr. Diana Senechal
Dr. David Sweet
Brian Williams
Kim Williams
Dr. Dawson Orr
Joy Barnhart
Dr. Carol François
Sharon Harris
Dr. Nancy Cain Marcus
Dr. Donna McBride
Jennifer Parvin
Clarissa Plair
Nelda Cain Pickens