Faculty Secure Major Grants

In addition to supporting our students on their educational journeys, our talented and diverse faculty are dedicated to conducting impactful research, scholarship, and other creative activities that align with the four priority areas of our strategic plan: community-engaged, culturally sustaining, holistic, and interdisciplinary.

This year, numerous faculty secured substaintial grants to address critical needs and create opportunities for our students, our college, our university, and our region. Learn about some of those faculty and their grants on these pages and catch up on other faculty news and stories at sjsu.edu/education/faculty

$600K $333K

“Ultimately, the idea is that residents will be hired in the participating districts,” says Dr. David Whitenack, Professor of Teacher Education. “The support that they receive after they are hired is also coordinated with the residency partnership so that it’s more of a seamless process.”

Dr. Whitenack and Dr. Lisa Simpson, Assistant Professor of Special Education have expanded the work around their teacher residency program with the help of a $600,000 grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Learn more about the residency program and its impact through a podcast and video with them at bit.ly/lurie-lisa-david

“It is not a secret to those of us in speech pathology,” says Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences Chair Nidhi Mahendra “that California has one of the most dire shortages in the nation of speech-language pathologists and audiologists.”

Dr. Mahendra and her department have responded to this shortage by securing a $333,000 grant from the CSU Chancellor’s Office to attract and train more speech therapists. Given all of the events of 2020, Mahendra and her department are also hopeful they will be able to utilize the grant to train a more diverse, justice-oriented wave of students. Listen to our podcast with Nidhi at bit.ly/lurie-nidhi-mahendra

$1.69M

“In this moment in history, the most exciting part of this grant is that it creates space for a true reimagining of undergraduate STEM education,” says Assistant Professor of Teacher Education, Tammie Visintainer.

Dr. Vistintainer, along with Associate Dean Marcos Pizarro and a team of interdisciplinary faculty from across SJSU, were recently awarded a $1.69 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation for their proposal “Transforming Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Through Culturally Sustaining, Active and Asset-Based Approaches to Introductory Science Courses,” which aims to increase diversity and retention in STEM. Read the story at bit.ly/lurie-tammie-marcos

$300K

“We are the pipeline to the current and next generation of leaders who are looking for new, innovative ways to serve youth in foster care and youth experiencing homelessness in extraordinary times,” says Dr. Lorri Capizzi, Assistant Professor of Counselor Education, after she and Dr. Brent Duckor, Associate Professor of Teacher Education, secured a $300,000 grant from the CSU’s Center for Closing the Achievement Gap.

Dr. Capizzi and Dr. Duckor plan to utilize the grant to establish the SJSU Center for Collaborative Research Excellence in Education (CCREE), which will elevate our commitment to students in foster care and youth experiencing homelessness. Read the press release at bit.ly/lurie-brent-lorri

SELECTED FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS

Our faculty regulary contribute to the growth of their fields through publications, presentations, and more. Read a subset of our faculty contributions from the past year below and on page 10 of this report.

KATYA AGUILAR, with LARA ERVIN-KASSAB, contributed “Professional Growth Among Mentor Teachers in a Co-Teaching Model of Preservice Education” to the CCTE SPAN 2020 Research Monograph, 34–41.

JOLYNN ASATO, with Sumer Seiki, contributed “Online digital science resources: A survival toolkit for teaching through the pandemic” to Connected Science Learning 2(2)

ALLISON BRICEÑO, with Clauda Rodriguez-Mojica, contributed “Critical Consciousness in Bilingual Teacher Preparation for Emancipatory Biliteracy” to Bilingual Review/Revista Bilingüe.

SYLVIA BRANCA, with EMILY SLUSSER, presented “Understanding Student Expectations and Experiences in Large Classes” at the Teaching for Active and Engaged Learning, Lilly Conference in San Diego, CA in 2020.

REBECA BURCIAGA, with ANDREA GOLLOHER and DAVID WHITENACK, contributed “Intersectionally reculturing educational leader preparation and practice for all students” to the Journal of the California Association of Professors of Educational Administration, 31, 2019.