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- Dr. Jim Dickinson
College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
Dr. Jim Dickinson
LB: How many years did you serve as chair of Psychological and Social Foundations?
JD: 5 years
LB: I thought it was more than that.
JD: Well, I did it again.
LB: Oh, okay.
JD: I did it at the end of my life.
LB: I served as chair 3 different times and people begin to wonder if I was in my right mind.
JD: Yes, I did it 5 years the first time, I think that’s right and then I did it for a year this last time as interim chair.
LB: I asked that because you did such a good job with it and I remember serving on the Chairs’ Council with as you represented your faculty and programs and yet earlier today you said administration was not your thing. You did that out of a sense of.. . .
JD: Duty
LB: A need?
JD: Duty. Bill Katzenrneyer importuned me to do it. I really didn’t want to do it. Let me tell you why, I like speaking for things, but I hate making decisions that are against or hard on people such as taking away money or things like that. I do not like that. I love being their champion. I love being a cheerleader and you know the department chair doesn’t get to pick and choose. So I thought I did pretty well at that. I thought I had some of the interpersonal skills and some of the conceptual stuff needed to carry out that job. I just didn’t take a lot of satisfaction in it. I really didn’t. When it was over, it was more a sense of relief and I felt the same way about the interim deanship. I thought we got some good things accomplished, but as I told Phil Post, ” Phil; if you die we’re in big trouble. If I die, nobody will miss me, because you’re the budget guy and that runs this place.” To some extent I never took great delight in being an administrator. I didn’t like the idea of having that power, but I was really interested in group dynamics and investing the people in some of those activities.
LB: You had many, many contributions to the college and to the university and many professional achievements, but among those, what would you highlight as the achievement you’re most proud of or stand out in your mind?
JD: Well, I think there were, you know maybe a hand full of things that I’m pleased about. One was that I was in a position to help and facilitate the development of that Masters of Education program, which was started in 1965. It was kind of the yeast that made the bread rise. And then I took some pleasure in starting a staff development program which ultimately was taken over by Adult Ed., but we got it going with Ellen Kimmel and some others. We really had a nice group of courses that would help people become effective group leaders not tyrants, not generals, but people who could apply interactive strategies and practices and help groups realize their potential. I felt good about that and the two doctoral level courses I developed. One was Cognitive Issues in Instruction which was a doctoral seminar. I finally figured out what I was doing in the course and I thought it became a pretty good seminar because I had students afterwards saying to me that it was the only time that they felt like they had been a doctoral student. They werereally getting a chance try their ideas to get some feedback and get some interaction with fellow students and see where their ideas were headed. I felt good about that. I also designed a course in Instructional Design, thanks chiefly to Lou Carey because it was her text I used and then another text that I found as a supplement. We used that as part of the staff development training course because it helped people develop paper presentations and paper driven instructional materials that wouldn’t require the presence of a teacher on site. People could in effect go through what used to be called programmed learning, & I taught quite a few students who then went on professionally to do instructional design work with some degree of financial success. So those were some things that I felt good about and felt I made some contribution. I had some doctoral students who did well and some graduate students who finished here and went to other places to study who did well; I felt good about those. I still keep in touch with a couple of them. So that was not a not a terribly distinguished or remarkable career just a couple of things that I feel good about.
LB: Depends on who’s looking at it, I think you contributed a lot.
JD: Yeah
LB: You’re naturally looking at it through modest eyes, but those who worked with you and knew you in the college I think their evaluation would be quite different, much higher. Now I know you must have some interesting stories or antidotes or humorous experiences that come to mind that you can share with us?
JD: Well, I can, but they’re not particularly humorous. I think the guys who had funny stories to tell were the folks who hung around with Lou Anderson and I’m certain Les Tuttle might have shared a few of Lou’s peculiarities. No, I really don’t. I enjoyed my times fishing with the guys in Social Foundations and I also did that with some people in School Psych. I do want to add one other thing, let me go back, just flip back if you don’t mind,
LB: Go ahead, sure
JD: One of the other things that happened early in my career and I remember getting involved in it but didn’t think too much about it ti1 many years later when it was called to my attention. Ellen Kirnrnel joined the faculty I think the same year I did or maybe the year after. In the following year, her contract was not renewed. Well, I couldn’t understand it because I thought first of all she was really smart, she had a terrific background in Psychology not in education, but in Psychology. I apparently said a number of things to Don Lantz in our faculty meetings that other people viewed as harsh. I really could not understand why Ellen’s appointment hadn’t been renewed. Well, in the course of that semester or whatever Ellen’s contract was renewed, she was put back on the faculty and she turned out to be just a remarkably productive member of the faculty and except for you, the only distinguished professor on the faculty, I believe. Yes so Ellen was from my point of view most capable and I don’t take credit for it, I just take credit for helping hold open the door that got her back in. She and I were good coworkers although our styles were very different. Ellen and I really collaborated on a number of things. We got some Title IX money for sex equity education and out of that we really got a number of different faculty members working on programs related to sex equity education that worked well. I did some stuff on school desegregation. When I first came I had a bunch of our School Psychology people go up to Dade City, Pasco County, We discovered that there were people there who were not eager to see us, but we helped those counties initiate their desegregation programs pretty well. Ellen and I had done that essentially with sex equity education and with title IX. I consider Ellen’s career not something that I take credit for, but at least I think I made it possible it took place here.