On April 14, 2025, SIS Graduate Programs Interim Director and HEP Professor Kelly Schrum was awarded the 2025 David J. King Teaching Award. This award “is given annually to a faculty member who has made significant, long-term contributions to the overall educational excellence of the university.” When presenting the award to Professor Schrum, Vice Provost Eby remarked, “Without question, Kelly lives up to the legacies of Dr. King and of prior recipients of this award… Wherever she lands, Kelly brings an absolute commitment to the idea that the role of faculty is not so much to provide instruction to our students as to produce learning with our students, an approach that fully infuses her work at George Mason.”
In an interview with Professor Schrum, she discusses her inspiration, teaching philosophy, and more:
What’s your teaching philosophy in one sentence?
Teaching is not about delivering content, but about cultivating meaningful learning.
What advice would you give to new teachers just starting out?
We are not born great teachers and my early efforts at teaching certainly reflected that! But I cared about improving my practice and wanted to do better, so I kept going. As a scholar, I study authentic learning in the classroom, meaning assignments that have real-world relevance and lack predefined answers. I’ve come to realize over the years that effective teaching is also about authenticity. It’s about finding your own voice and style as a teacher and about developing that in partnership with students — listening to and respecting students, meeting them where they are, and inspiring (and sometimes nudging) them to do their best work on the path to meeting their learning and professional goals.
What keeps you motivated and passionate after all these years?
The quest to expand student learning motivates every aspect of my teaching. Teaching has offered me the space to be creative, to experiment, and — honestly — to have fun.
What first inspired you to become a teacher?
In middle school, my social studies teacher asked us to create a diary entry about westward expansion. I still vividly remember the hours I spent reading primary sources, carefully crafting each word, and even “aging” the paper above a flame to make it look authentic. This assignment led me to ask why my other classes focused on textbooks, memorization, and regurgitation and did not engage me in the same way. I began imagining other ways of teaching and learning and asked myself how I could make a difference. I was struck by this again years later as I watched my daughter, who has dyslexia and ADHD, struggle with school. This experience deepened my awareness, on a personal level, of the additional barriers to learning that are not readily visible. Today, this awareness leads me to design courses focused not solely on the content I want to teach, but on each student’s learning needs and educational journey.
May 16, 2025