Choate Student Work Policy Will Delamater asked me to post this policy that was approved by the Senior Administration in 2004, but never published in the Student Handbook. I'm curious to hear your feedback on the policy and whether you think it is still appropriate two years later.
Keywords: intellectual property, ownership of work, student
Comments
Hi Joel. I would support the policy's advocacy of the student, but believe that the use of Student Work, even in their own classroom, should be at the student's discretion. Even when presented blindly, when used as a nonexample, class scrutiny could result in diminishing the student author. Additionally, I would include a Student Author Release/Permission form for use by teachers, especially those conducting qualitative teacher research.
Hi Anne. I assume you're referring to this passage:
"Choate receives a perpetual (indefinite), royalty free (no fees), non-exclusive license to make copies of (or electronically project) the work for academic purposes and to circulate the work as part of normal classroom use."
In practice, teachers do obtain pernission from students and often negotiate to present the work anonymously to protect the student from the circumstances you describe. As you point out, the objective for displaying the work should be such that there will be no negative repercussions for the student (although building a thicker skin for some students can be helpful if the critique is constructive). The idea of this practice is to reflect the ability of individual student work to contribute to collective student learning. If we value that notion, the policy follows.
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