Home- College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
- Dr. James Barnard
College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
Dr. James Barnard
JB: That was an interesting program which was federally funded. Marvin Gold was the major investigator and essentially the whole project was contained in a van, a very large van. It was a house trailer actually and what they had done was to put all kinds of special education materials in it. The goal was to drive out into rural areas and provide school systems with some updated materials as to what is possible for teachers who were in special education. It was a great idea, just pack it up and drive off for a week. They would come back and have all kinds of wonderful stories. Unfortunately, it was funded only for two years. When I arrived at USF, it was the beginning of the second year and they didn’t renew the funding. I don’t know why because I thought I was a great idea.
LB: Were those the materials that were housed on the first floor of the College of Education Building, which stayed for a time and were later, moved to the library?
JB: Yes, they may well have been as a matter of fact, because we delivered all kinds of materials, just imagine having these materials available to people who may be teaching for 10 to 15 years in the rural areas of Florida. They knew nothing about special education, and the van comes with all these books and professionals to talk to them and provide training for the faculty. It was great idea.
LB: There was another teacher corps project, were you involved in that?
JB: There were actually two teacher corps projects and I was involved in the second one with John Bullock, Ed Uprichard, Don Neville, and Dick Puglisi. OK, so here we are the five of us with our notion that we would be able to bring quality teacher training to people at our institution. We were dealing with people who were interested in teaching disadvantage kids. I think we did a reasonably good job, but I have since learned that there is an awful lot to that field. You don’t just become a teacher corps institution because you kind of thought it would be a nice idea because your heart was in the right place. So it lasted for two years. I thought it was a really good project. I remember there was a previous teacher corps here at USF predating our teacher corps project by three or four years. Erv Johanningmier was the one who was in charge of the earlier project and it lasted a year. I don’t know the details I have no idea of what happened. When we went back for renewal for our project it was probably for the best we were told that that was it.
LB: Institute III that was here when you arrived?
JB: Yes, when I talked to Marv at the conference he said, “You know we have a very interesting situation at USF. The president has approved seven research institutes, and he said I’m in charge of one of them, Institute III. We would like you to come and join us.” The Institutes were self contained units that could address certain specialized kind of problems and not have to become all bogged down in departmental and college bureaucracies. Unfortunately, after I got to USF not only did Marv leave, but the new president, Cecil Mackey, arrived. I’m sure he had very good reasons, but he decided there would be no more institutes at the University and so he gave all of us one year to decide where we wanted to go in terms of a department affiliation. My interest at that time was naturally special education so I went to the Department of Special Education.
LB: So your home department for tenure was Special Education?
JB: Yes.
LB: Later you went to Psychological Foundations as a faculty member?
JB: Well yes, Lou, I’d love to be able to tell you that all of this was well planned out but it wasn’t. I was walking down the hall one day and Glenn Geiger walked up to me and he asked me if were interested in school psychology at all? I said yes I really am. I’m very interested in the schools and I had in fact a two-year research project at the time centered in four schools in the local school district. So walking down the hall he said send me your vita and I’ll see if it’s a match. I heard from him a couple days later and he said yes it was a match and I went over to talk to him. So before long, I was talking to Augie Mauser, the Special Education chair at the time, and I said that I wanted to switch departments. I can’t really say I heard a sign of relief, but he approved the department switch. I went over to Psychological and Social Foundations of Education to be in the School Psychology Program. I will forever be grateful for that opportunity as the School Psychology program offered me new avenues for professional and personal growth and opportunities.
LB: Did you later served as chair of that department for a few years?
JB: Yes, I did indeed. I was in the Psychological and Social Foundations of Education Department for the rest of my career here and for four or five years I did serve as chair. It was kind of a rotation among people you know you kind of grudgingly say yes when it’s your turn.
LB: It’s not a highly sought out position to have?
JB: Well, it seems to depend very much on the person and where they see they are headed career wise.
LB: So let’s just focus on the Department of Special Education first, in regard to some of the things you remember that faculty were involved in, I know there were a lot of grants in Special Education on campus and community projects as well.