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Educator and author Bill Bigelow is the first recipient of the Portland State Graduate School of Education Award of Distinction. The purpose of the award is to acknowledge educational leadership and honor those individuals who have made a special contribution to the quality of education in Oregon and beyond. The new award was presented at the GSE annual retreat and state of the school luncheon.

Bill Bigelow has taught high school in Portland since 1978. Between 1991 and 1993, he led workshops with teachers throughout the country using the Christopher Columbus myth to draw attention to racial biases in school curriculums and has published several books and many articles on equity and social justice issues.

Mr. Bigelow says, "I want my students to come away from the class believing that studying history can be enjoyable and meaningful. In terms of broad themes, what do I want them to learn? That history is not a series of dead facts. It's made up of choices made by real people in real circumstances."

His most recent work includes The Line Between Us, which explores the history of U.S.-Mexican relations and the roots of Mexican immigration in the context of the global economy, and how teachers can help students understand the immigrant experience and the drama of border life. His other book, A People's History for the Classroom, emphasizes the role of working people, women, people of color and organized social movements in shaping history, and raises important questions about patterns of wealth and power throughout U.S. history.

Bill Bigelow is also an editor of the education reform journal, Rethinking Schools, and is the author of Strangers in Their Own Country: A Curriculum Guide on South Africa, and The Power in Our Hands: A Curriculum on the History of Work and Workers in the United States. He has co-edited a number of books, including Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice (1994), Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice, Volume 2 (2001), and with Bob Peterson, Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World (2002). He has authored several teaching guides for films and videos, including the Academy Award-nominated film Regret to Inform (1998).

The Graduate School of Education at Portland State University
The Graduate School of Education prepares professionals to be leaders in a variety of settings: public schools and preschools, libraries, counseling clinics, social service agencies, institutions of higher education and adult education programs. With over 53 programs, licenses and degrees, it is Oregon's largest and most comprehensive school of education. More than half of the public school principals in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties have received licensure through Portland State, with more than 200 graduates of the doctoral program in educational leadership now holding positions of influence in educational settings throughout the region. For more information about the GSE go to www.pdx.edu/education.