Having taken up the established position on August 1, Middle and Upper School Director of Studies Sven Carlsson has just started to get the ball rolling in his efforts to smoothen the transitions between grades and to create more connections between courses.

The position, which in the Lower and Intermediate School Barbara Hunt holds, and which has existed in the Middle and Upper School previously, entails examining the current curricula in the Middle and Upper Schools and working with teachers and department chairs to find interdisciplinary parallels to play to, so that the student experience is more cohesive.

As he sits in his newly constructed office, with exposed brick walls, a standing desk, and a pile of miscellaneous objects on the righthand side, Carlsson has yet to determine a plan of action for the year, or for the position more broadly. “One of my main goals was to figure out my goals,” he said. “I want to define what the role is, define what the role isn’t. One of the biggest things is I want to get a sense of what our curriculum is — I’m the Director of Studies, so one of the questions is, What do we study?”

Thus far, he has been working on communicating with different departments. “I’ve been sitting in certain departmental meetings, as I’ve been invited, and I’ll be reaching out soon to those departments I haven’t established a relationship with yet,” Carlsson said. “I’m trying to learn from the departments where they are now, and what they identify as their areas of strength, and areas where they need to see improvement and growth.”

Carlsson was not immediately eager to take the position. “I thought of reasons for not wanting to do it — because I really love teaching, and I felt like I still have a lot of work to do in the classroom, to get better as a teacher, and there was more I wanted to do for my department, as a department chair,” Carlsson said. “But really what it came down to was me not wanting to do it because I was afraid. It’s scary, and I don’t know what this role looks like yet because we haven’t had it. And in the end I was just honest with myself, and I realized that the thing stopping me was fear, and that’s not really the reason to not do something.”

The importance of this position was clear in Carlsson’s mind. “If you have all these teachers working in their own departments, they’re involved in what they do, and they’re also very busy, that does create a gap,” he said. “We talk a lot about being a community and being a home, but we can feel more distant just because we’re all so busy. So there was sort of the need for one person who can help facilitate this.”

In his email to the school last February announcing Carlsson’s appointment, Principal Dan Frank said, “Sven is a beloved teacher and highly respected colleague who will work closely with the faculty, the department chairs, the Lower and Intermediate School Coordinator of Studies and division heads to develop and coordinate Parker’s progressive educational program across all departments.”

Carlsson has yet to hold formal meetings with teachers. “At this point his position is still somewhat nebulous in terms of what exactly he can do — it’s very open ended, there’s still a lot of defining that’s happening, so I don’t know how it’s going to play out,” Upper School Math teacher Chris Riff said. “I’ve chatted with him, but not really about anything specific,” Riff added in regards to the math department.

Upper School English teacher Mike Mahany also has yet to formally talk with Carlsson. “I’m hoping that he will come meet with the English Department or the various departments some time soon,” Mahany said. “I think that the position itself is a good idea, but I think they have to define it, at least from my perspective, more.”

Carlsson remains excited to begin working with teachers. “Given that we have this really competent faculty that really care about what they’re doing and are passionate about it,” he said, “I’m thinking about how do you develop them and how do you work with independent intelligent adults and get them from where they are to a better place.”

Although Carlsson is new to the job, he relies on communication with other directors of study to inform his work. The Latin School of Chicago, one of Parker’s closest counterparts, has also just appointed a new Director of Studies for the school: Jed Silverstein.

“We talk about differences between our school communities — Latin and Parker — and the challenges of the role, what it means to effectively partner with faculty for the purpose of advancing pedagogy,” Carlsson said. “More practically we talk to each other about initiatives on the ground, and email connecting people who have similar job descriptions.” Carlsson visited Latin’s campus this year in order to get a feel for the community and the physical layout of the school, as compared to those of Parker.

So far in the first two months of school, Carlsson has worked in various ways with students. “A large part of the important work I’ve been doing this year is student-centered — working with MOCHA, working with math club, independent study, writing my college recs.” MOCHA is the abbreviation for the Men of Color Heritage Affinity club in the high school.

Senior Sophie O’Keefe is currently conducting an independent study on Chaos Theory and Dynamical Systems with Carlsson. “My understanding is that as Director of Studies, Mr. Carlsson is working to make the curriculum at Parker more continuous and cohesive,” O’Keefe said. “Personally, I think that’s necessary at Parker so that students are more aware of what they’ve learned and are capable of doing.”

Carlsson is glad to maintain relationships with students. “I do miss teaching,” he said. “How do you not miss something that’s wonderful? But I am happy that I’m in this role, and I think this is an exciting place to be, and I’m a part of really cool conversations now. There’s definitely a lot of work to be done, and I haven’t done it yet. I’m looking forward to being a value to the community.”