Looking Back to Look Forward: an Interview With John Swaim on the Making of <em> This We Believe</em>

Abstract

In the early 1980s, John Swaim was the president of the NMSA Board of Trustees. John Lounsbury, then editor of The Middle School Journal, collaborated with John Swaim and the Board of Trustees to commission the writing of the original document, This We Believe. In the spring of 2020 [Author] contacted John Swaim to tell the story of how This We Believe was conceived. They collaborated using an interview format. The most recent version of The Successful Middle School: This we believe (Bishop & Harrison, 2021) was also recorded with input from leaders in middle level education providing preservice and inservice teachers with tools and inspiration on the best way to respond to the needs of young adolescents. John’s story provides a backdrop for professors to use with preservice teachers to honor and acknowledge the work of those who have come before us, and highlights the power and value of collaboration in support of middle level education.