known for vs. knowledgable about

A piece in Educational Researcher (January 2009) has caught my attention because it connects to the questions of great opportunities and grand challenges. The Economic Payoff to Investing in Educational Justice uses very conservative assumptions to estimate how individuals and society benefit from providing education to every student. In a nutshell, a variety of school reform interventions (e.g., pre-school initiatives and high school learning communities) are shown to be cost effective. The expenses of implementation are offset by benefits to individual income but also reduced burdens to society (e.g., costs of incarceration, burdens to social support systems, etc.). Not the kind of research I would do because it relies upon existing databases without having to actually interact with humans. However, it does provide clear evidence that educating every child pays dividends for everyone.

What makes this article compelling is the background personal story. In mid-1970, Senator Walter Mondale summoned this young professor to testify before the Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity. Following his presentation, an aide unexpectedly invited him to have dinner with Mondale. After dessert, the future Vice President turned to the budding academician and stated:

"I want you to do a study that tells us just what educational neglect will cost us, and how much we [i.e., Congress] need to spend to prevent it." I uttered a polite protest, telling him that such a study was too ambitious in scope and too ambiguous in precision to be done and that data did not exist linking educational attainment to the sources of these costs, and what did exist could not establish a causal connection. He smiled and asked me to have a scotch for contemplation, to consider the urgency of greater equity, and added that they had budgeted $10,000, an amount equal to about $50,000 at today's prices. As the scotch went down and my bravado went up, I agreed. (pp. 5-6)

Levin then made a career out of this work. He was driven by his desire to offer information that could be used in the service of educational equity. School desegregation was underway and it was unclear how to proceed. The Senate turned to an academic to uncover an answer and this young academic responded as best he could. At that time (early 1970s) he was knowledgeable about educational economics. What he came to be known for was using hard data to inform efforts at educational justice. But along the way, he became very knowledgeable about using data to study the impacts of education on the economy. Where there were insufficient tools, he helped to create what was required. And all of this was revealed in an AERA Distinguished Lecture in 2008. This becomes a lesson about taking chances as well as the beneficial influences of alcohol on academicians — notwithstanding the horrors of witnessing their efforts at dancing.

The point is that when contemplating grand challenges and great opportunities, at the individual level we probably need to discard our desires to be "known for" something in favor of becoming "knowledgeable about" something. In other words, rather than channeling our professional work in an effort to become associated with a brand, a better heuristic is to develop particular expertise and trust that you will ultimately become known for this knowledge. The distinction is very fuzzy and perhaps not being made too well in this space. The point I wish to make is to advocate for young scholars to rely upon deeply held beliefs to steer the professional activities rather than pursuing fame with the expectation that good works will then emerge. Hank Levin is a living example of this and I only know a little about his career because of this single article. Nevertheless, a professional life guided by a moral pursuit, in his case it was educational justice, avoided the tendency to suppress the voice of commitment and compassion. Examples of this may not be as rare as we might believe given who the superstars seem to be within our profession. But more and more, it seems that a purpose-drive career— rather than a publication-driven lifestyle — is possible and desirable.