EDUCATIONAL THEORY AND PRACTICE DEPARTMENT OF
Educational Theory and Practice
Newsletter
Spring 2013
What’s inside: Program News & Updates ....2 Faculty Kudos.......................3 Award Winners .....................3 Recent Books by Faculty .....4 New Faculty ..........................5 Study Abroad........................6 Office of School Engagement .............7 Recent Graduates ................7
A New PhD Emphasis in Critical Studies ETAP is developing a new emphasis area in critical studies. This PhD emphasis area foregrounds interdisciplinary and critical inquiries related to educational theory and practice. Scholarship in this area assumes that objects of study and methods of inquiry in educational theory and practice are produced differently over time and space, in different discursive, cultural, and material conditions. Courses and research projects in this area are informed by disciplines including history, philosophy, anthropology, geography, and linguistics and theoretical approaches including critical, feminist, race-based, queer, “post,” psychoanalytic, and cultural theories. The goal of study in this area is to encourage students to pursue rigorous research agendas that contribute to their leadership in the field of educational theory and practice.
Issue 1
Volume 1
Our Name Change For nearly as long as elementary and social studies education has existed as a merged department, its faculty has been concerned that its name did not reflect its mission, its component parts, or the work that the faculty pursued. Even in its early existence, its name obscured the fact that middle school education and early childhood education (by far the department’s largest programs) were housed in the department. More recently, the department has created two more programs, a doctoral emphasis in teacher education and a unitary doctoral program, and has absorbed responsibility for the undergraduate social foundations courses. Those new aspects of the department’s work were also excluded from the department’s formal name. Over the years, the faculty found it awkward to explain the department’s name to people. Elementary Education existed only as a graduate emphasis, not as an undergraduate major; Social Studies Education, meanwhile, was usually thought of primarily as a secondary education major and thus awkwardly married to elementary education. Further, not a quarter of the research pursued in the department touched primarily on elementary or social studies education. Potential faculty applicants had been dissuaded from applying because of their confusion about the department’s structure. Any attempt to create a traditional department name inclusive of all its moving parts would have resulted in a protracted and unwieldy name. Moreover, in recent years the department has become a powerhouse of exciting, interdisciplinary research that moves far beyond the boundaries suggested by its former name. As a result, the faculty decided upon a new name that reflected its multifaceted reality. Our department contains three outstanding teacher certification programs, dynamic graduate programs, a transformed interdisciplinary doctoral program, the college’s undergraduate cultural diversity courses, and scholars who push the boundaries of educational knowledge. Educational theory and practice is comprehensive, inclusive, and expresses the department’s commitment to theoretically informing educational practice. The new name, the department of educational theory and practice, was vetted through the College of Education department heads who took the proposal to their faculty with little objection. The proposal then went through the entire college and university systems with strong support at every level, culminating in a nearly unanimously favorable vote at the University Council in late February 2013.
Jamie Calkin ©2012
Educational Theory and Practice Newsletter • Srping 2013
Page 2
Program News & Updates Early Childhood Education
Middle Grades Education (EDMS)
The early childhood education program now welcomes 75 students per semester instead of 60 in the undergraduate teacher education program. The first cohort of 75 students entered this fall, and new cohorts of 75 will be added through fall 2014 before reaching revised capacity. We are grateful for the support of our content area colleagues and COE leadership as we work together to address the details of extending our expertise to even more highly qualified students.
Faculty and students in middle grades education are engaged in a number of exciting new and ongoing initiatives to support middle school students and teachers at the local, state, national, and international levels. A sampling of these initiatives includes:
We also have an initial certification program at the master’s level: The Early Childhood Certification Option (ECCO) program is now in its ninth year. This program was conceived by early childhood faculty, including Drs. Betty Bisplinghoff and Martha Allexsaht-Snider, as a way to provide an alternative certification path for prospective teachers with diverse undergraduate degrees. After taking courses in educational theory and teaching methods and completing practicums, students have a 15-week student teaching placement. This semester there are 11 ECCO student teachers in four different schools in three counties. There are another 23 students in the current program pipeline and 22 new applicants for 2013. This semester’s student teachers come from Georgia, Alabama, and Washington, as well as England and Korea. They hold degrees in art, psychology, design, English, business, advertising, child and family development, and entrepreneurship. The diversity of their backgrounds and the incorporation of the experiences of children in the classroom have produced a wealth of successful engaging lessons that are child-centered while addressing Georgia performance standards. Some of these lessons include: teaching opinion writing through the exploration of Korean books, music and videos; measuring the school playground to conceptualize the idea of area; thinking about the effects of pollution using the real thing (litter and oil); poetry and visualization with first graders; creating murals representing Georgia habitats; adapting a moon journals project for English learners; and doing some shopping at an imaginary Golden Pantry to explore money. ECCO students have extended their teaching experiences to family and community events: a visit to the Pinewood community, manning the chain challenge experiment at a family math night, spending a morning at Athens’ J & J Flea Market, and helping to organize a fundraising event to honor a school faculty member who is battling cancer. These ECCO student teachers will soon begin their careers carrying with them UGA’s belief that social justice begins in the classroom and requires teachers who are deeply prepared in curriculum and pedagogy with a commitment to continued learning and leadership in teaching. We celebrate their work. ECE takes pride in supporting all our outstanding professional educators.
Drs. Gayle Andrews and Kathy Thompson are now in their second year serving as professors-in-residence at Hilsman Middle School as part of the UGA College of Education – Clarke County School District professional development school partnership. Dr. Andrews is also serving as the past-president of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform and recently received the National Forum’s Award for Distinguished Service. Dr. Thompson received the 2013 UGA Service-Learning Teaching Excellence Award. Dr. Ajay Sharma will be taking over from Dr. Cory Buxton as program coordinator for Middle Grades Education beginning in May 2013. Dr. Elizabeth St.Pierre has been working with middle grades education since joining the department this year from the College’s department of language and literacy education. Dr. Denise Glynn, professor emerita in middle grades education, continues to advise, supervise, and otherwise share her expertise with the group. EDMS students have been active this year in a range of professional learning activities including service activities through the UGA chapter of the Colligate Middle Level Association (CMLA) and conference presentations at the Georgia Summit on Middle level Education and at the Annual Meeting of the Georgia Middle School Association. In other highlights, EDMS will be launching a new fully online master of education (M.Ed.) degree program beginning in summer 2014.
Social Studies Education In the fall of 2012, Sonia Janis and Mardi Schmeichel began brainstorming with members of the administrative team at Cedar Shoals High School (CSHS) in Athens, Georgia, about the possibility of having some of the social studies program’s MethodCurriculum-Practicum Block (MCP) of courses within their high school. The vision was to allow this partnership to begin by spring of 2013. After a series of meetings, a plan was put in place to have all three courses associated with the MCP Block (nine credits) to be housed within this local high school. One of the goals of the planning members is to more closely link the theory of powerful social studies education to the practice by creating more intentional spaces where the pre-service teachers can learn.
Page 3
Spring 2013 • Educational Theory and Practice Newsletter The pre-service social studies teachers engage in coursework experiences at CSHS from 2 – 4:45 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays with Janis. These classes are occasionally fused with experiences and expertise from faculty members at CSHS. From 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. Tuesdays, the pre-service teachers begin their practicum experiences by observing and collaborating with one of the teachers within the three aforementioned social studies teachers. From 2 – 4 p.m. on Tuesdays, the pre-service teachers meet with Schmeichel for some additional coursework
Faculty Kudos
experiences. From 4 – 5 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the preservice teachers assist within the CSHS social studies department to facilitate one-on-one tutoring experiences for students. This partnership has initiated many generative conversations around what powerful, meaningful, relevant, rigorous, and effective secondary social studies education can be among a diverse group of educators. The social studies program is looking forward to continuing and enhancing learning through partnerships.
Award Winners In 2011:
Dr. Stephanie Jones was awarded a prestigious University of Georgia Study in a Second Discipline Fellowship for 2012 – 2013. Distinguished Research Professor Andrew Herod from the UGA Geography Department is Dr. Jones’ mentor for the year. She has had an exciting year of taking a doctoral class for the first time in ten years, an experience that reminded her to be mindful of the length of reading assignments each week. She has spent the year reading economic and human geography scholarship drawing on both Marxist and post-structural traditions to investigate the role contemporary capitalism plays in working-class childhoods lived across formal and informal education contexts.
Dr. Cory Buxton (with Dr. Martha AllexsahtSnider) is completing the final year of a National Science Foundation-funded study entitled “Language-rich Inquiry Science with English Language Learners.” The project supports Latino middle school students, their families, and their science and ESOL teachers in three Georgia counties through the integration of rigorous science inquiry and academic language practices. Findings from the study suggest the importance of reimagining teacher professional learning to support the simultaneous changes in student demographics, evolving standards and assessment systems, and the socioeconomic need for all students to be social problem solvers. Dr. Buxton was awarded College of Education Faculty Research Leave for fall 2014 to publish the results of this study as well as to begin a follow-up study.
James Garrett, UGA Teaching Academy Fellow Lew Allen, Carl Glickman Faculty Fellow Award Bettina Love, UGA Teaching Academy Fellow Jennifer James, UGA Service-Learning Fellow Stephanie Jones, Ira E. Aaron Award for Teaching Excellence and Collegiality
Beth Tolley, Donald O. Schneider Award for Mentoring Ron Butchart, Aderhold Distinguished Professor Award
In 2012: Cynthia Dillard, Distinguished Contributions to Gender Equity in Education Research Award from the American Educational Research Association
Betty Bisplinghoff, UGA Senior Teaching Fellow Cory Buxton, Ira E. Aaron Award for Teaching Excellence and Collegiality
James Garrett, UGA Sarah Moss Fellow Stephanie Jones, UGA Study in a Second Discipline Fellow Janna Dresden, Donald O. Schneider Award for Mentoring Gayle Andrews, John H. Lounsbury Award for Distinguished Service from the Association for Middle Level Education
Ron Butchart, UGA William A. Owens Award for Creative Research
Jennifer James, UGA Public Service and Outreach Fellow Bettina Love, UGA Panhellenic Professor of the Year Award
In 2013: Kate Weatherford, COE Outstanding Academic Advisor Award Katherine Thompson, Carl Glickman Faculty Fellow Award
Dr. Cheryl Fields-Smith has developed four webinars for the U.S. Department of Education based on her research on family engagement. Each webinar is one hour in length and is specifically focused on strategies for engaging ethnic-minority families. Webinar participants are magnet school staff, administrators, and project directors who are part of the ED’s Magnet School Assistance Program.
Katherine Thompson, UGAS Service Learning Teaching Excellence Award
Stephanie Jones, D. Keith Osborn Award for Teaching Excellence
Cory Buxton, Fellow, Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in Education and Human Development
Ron Butchart, UGA Distinguished Research Professorship
Educational Theory and Practice Newsletter • Srping 2013
Page 4
Recent Books by Faculty
Dr. Ronald Butchart
Dr. Bettina Love
Dr. Brian Dotts
Dr. Ron Butchart, professor and department head, is recognized nationally and internationally for his body of work on freedmen’s teachers in the South after the Civil War and on the history of black education in the United States. He launched the Freedmen’s Teacher Project (FTP), which has identified more than 11,600 individual teachers of freed people between 1862 and 1876. Butchart has compiled these names and biographical information inside a database that is one of the largest individually constructed social history digital databases currently available. This data combined with Butchart’s critical analysis has provided historians with a much clearer picture of the freed people’s teachers, one that necessitates a revision of many previously held beliefs about the education of freed African Americans, the origins of Southern schooling, and the history of race and American education.
Through ethnographically informed interviews and observations conducted with six black middle and high school girls, Hip Hop’s Li’l Sistas Speak explores how young women navigate the space of Hip Hop music and culture to form ideas concerning race, body, class, inequality, and privilege. The thriving atmosphere of Atlanta, Georgia, serves as the background against which these youth consume Hip Hop, and the book examines how the city’s socially conservative politics, urban gentrification, race relations, Southernflavored Hip Hop music and culture, and booming adult entertainment industry rest in their periphery. Intertwined within the girls’ exploration of Hip Hop and coming of age in Atlanta, the author shares her love for the culture, struggles of being a queer educator and a black lesbian living and researching in the South, and reimagining Hip Hop pedagogy for urban learners.
Thomas Paine described the American Revolution as educative. However, as examined in Brian W. Dotts’ The Political Education of Democratus: Negotiating Civic Virtue during the Early Republic, what was learned was neither standardized nor uniform. The Federalists, for example, viewed the revolution as a triumph for representative government, but one intended to maintain many remnants of the colonial experience. Anti-Federalists saw a confirmation of representative government at the state and local levels and considered the revolution as authenticating Montesquieu’s theories of republicanism. A third, more extreme interpretation of the revolution emerged from radical democrats who viewed the revolution as a fundamental break with mainstream thinking about republicanism. These radicals, including teachers, helped turn conventional understanding of representative government upside down, taking part in unconventional and extra-constitutional action during their negotiation of citizen virtue during the 1790s. Members of each of the societies, who were some of the first advocates for universal common schooling, took an active part in trying to fulfill their expectations for the new American experiment by contributing to the democratization of republicanism and education.
Page 5
Spring 2013 • Educational Theory and Practice Newsletter
New Faculty Dr. Cynthia Dillard is the Mary Frances Early Endowed Professor of Teacher Education. Her research interests include critical multicultural teacher education, spirituality in teaching and learning, and African/African American feminist studies. She has published numerous book chapters and articles in journals including International Review of Qualitative Research, Race, Ethnicity and Education, The Journal of Teacher Education, The International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education and Urban Education. Her first book, On Spiritual Strivings: Transforming an African American Woman’s Academic life was a 2008 Critics’ Choice Book Award winner by the American Educational Studies Association. Most recently, her service has focused in Ghana, West Africa, where she has established a preschool/kindergarten and the building of a new elementary school. She is an enstooled Queen Mother of Development in the village of Mpeasem, Ghana. She has developed the new Ghana Study Abroad in Education Program, which begins this year for education majors and those in related fields. Dr. Brian W. Dotts is a lecturer and coordinator of the undergraduate social foundations program. His research explores the history of American education, specifically during the American Revolution, the early republic, and the antebellum era. He specializes in the philosophy of education, specifically social and political philosophy and critical theory. He is a faculty member in the Graduate School and the Honors Program. His work also focuses on the politics of education, ideologies, and constitutional law. He has written about the Democratic-Republican Societies that emerged in the late eighteenth century, the Whig Party’s advocacy for common schools as a response to Jacksonianism, and the importance of social foundations programs in colleges of education. He received his M.A from Boston College and his Ph.D. in the history, philosophy, and policy studies in education from Indiana University, Bloomington. Dr. Sonia Janis is a clinical assistant professor of social studies education and teaches graduate and pre-service social studies teachers. She has written about multi-race/multi-cultural/crosscultural experience, critical race theory, curriculum in the U.S. South, educator narratives and education for social justice. She currently uses narratives that reveal the in-betweenness of her life as a multi-race person to problematize imbedded notions of race, gender, class, and power, which creates possibilities to capture the contradictions and paradoxes of behind the theory and practice of multicultural and multiracial education. Janis earned her bachelor’s degree in secondary social studies education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her master’s in educational leadership from Georgia State University, and her doctorate in curriculum studies from Georgia Southern University. Dr. Jerome Morris is a professor in the College and a Research Fellow with the Institute for Behavioral Research, where he directs the Race, Class, Place and Outcomes Research Group and the Interdisciplinary Research Project for Communities and Schools. His research is grounded in sociology, anthropology, school reform, and urban studies, and his investigations have been based in urban and suburban centers in Atlanta, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Nashville. The nexus of race, social class, and the geography of
educational opportunity is a major theme of his scholarship, and he is in the forefront of highlighting the centrality of the U.S. South in understanding black people’s experiences in a range of areas. Sponsored by the Spencer Foundation’s major grants program, his investigation of how the southern black suburban context frames the academic experiences of black students is unique, given that most studies on the achievement gap have been based in urban and lowincome settings or in predominantly white, middle-class settings. Dr. Denise Oen joined the department in January 2013 as a clinical assistant professor in the early childhood education program. She earned her master’s and Ph.D. from the University of WisconsinMadison. Her areas of interest are teaching for social justice and the development of authentic home-school relationships. Dr. Elizabeth St.Pierre’s research interests are grounded in post-structural theories of language and subjectivity and in Deleuzo-Guattarian ontology that enables different descriptions of and possibilities for human being and inquiry. Throughout her career, she has explored the disconnect between what she calls “conventional humanist qualitative research methodology” and post-structural theories. She summarizes prior work that described that disconnect in a chapter in the 4th edition of the Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (2011) titled, “Post Qualitative Research: The Critique and the Coming After,” and she continues that discussion in a book she is writing on the same topic. Dr. Mardi Jo Schmeichel earned a Ph.D. in social studies education from UGA in 2012. As a doctoral student, she worked as a graduate teaching assistant in social studies education and as a research assistant on Amy Parks’ NSF CAREER grant. Building on a research agenda focused broadly on equity, Schmeichel’s dissertation research used post-structural and feminist theories and methodologies to examine the attention paid to women and gender equity in social studies lesson plans and methods course syllabi. Current and future research projects include a study on coaches in secondary education, misogyny and anti-feminism in social media, and continued inquiry into the intersection of neoliberalism and education. She and Janis are implementing components of the social studies initial certification program within PDS programs at Cedar Shoals and Clarke Central High Schools. Dr. Joseph Tobin is the Elizabeth Garrard Hall Professor in Early Childhood Education. He is an educational anthropologist and an early childhood education specialist. He received his B.A. from Earlham College and his Ph.D. in human development at the University of Chicago. As a Japan Foundation Fellow, he studied in Tokyo with the Japanese psychoanalyst Takeo Doi who had great influence on his work. Tobin’s research interests include cross-cultural studies of early childhood education, immigration, children and the media, and qualitative research methods. He is best known for his books and video documentaries, Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the United States (1989) and Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited (2009). Tobin also led a major international project, Children Crossing Borders: Immigrant Parent and Staff Perspectives on Preschool, and is currently leading the project, Deaf Kindergartens in Three Countries: Japan, France, and the United States.
Educational Theory and Practice Newsletter • Srping 2013
Page 6
Study Abroad Italy During Maymester 2013, 16 COE students and a UGA faculty ltyy director will will have havve a unique un nique opportunity to work with pre-school, elementary, and middlee school school students stud dents and an nd teachers teaacherrs in Modena, Italy. Modena is a city located between Milan and nd d Bologna in northern n Italy. Ital It alyy. This trip will enable participants to experience Italian culturee aand compare and contrast nd to com mpare an nd con ntrasst the American and Italian systems of education—with an emphasis ph has asis on Reggio Reg ggio Emilia. Emilia. This Thiis year’s group includes 14 undergraduate and 2 graduate participants. cip ipants. Participants will have the opportunity to work five mornings with ngs gs a week wi ith h a tteacher each ea each cher er iin n an Italian school, live with an Italian host family, study Italian, ian n, learn about ab bou ut the th he teaching tteeac achi ch hiing ng profession in Italy, and experience Italian culture. Student involvement in nvo volvement will willll range wi ran nge ge from fro rom m helping children learn English (taught in Italian schools beginning egi gin nning in second second d grade) graad gr de)) to to teaching American songs and games and helping children n complete complete homework. home mew work k. The Th hee children also enjoy teaching Italian to their new American teachers. eaachers. While in Italy, students will participate in planned seminars, em minars, gather gaather field-based elldd-b base ba sed ed observational data, teach lessons in Italian schools, visit sitess of educational educatio onal interest, int nteres t esstt,, and an nd d take excursions to sites of historical and cultural significance. will include cee. Sites visited ed dw ill in ncl clude clud an overnight stay in Venice, a two-night stay in Florence, a visit vis isit to the Reggio Reeggio ggio gg i Children Child hild dre ren ren Center, and guided visits to places of interest in Modena.
Ghana The Ghana Study Abroad in Education! Program provides an exciting opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to understand and experience the rich history, culture and knowledge of the children, families and communities in Ghana, West Africa. As a participant in the Ghana Study Abroad in Education! Program, students will deepen their knowledge and cultural connections to children and people of the world and develop their “response-ability” as a multicultural, global and culturally responsive teacher or researcher.
Scotland A new study abroad learning experience will be offered the first short session of Summer Semester 2013 on the campus of the University of Glasgow and in the Glasgow area K-12 school system. This program is designed for education majors or students with 30 semester hours who are considering education as their major. Students will earn five credit hours for two courses, experience Scottish culture and visit historical sites.
www.coe.uga.edu/scotland
Page 7
Spring 2013 • Educational Theory and Practice Newsletter
Office of School Engagement The purpose of the Office of School Engagement (OSE) is to serve as a bridge between the worlds of theory and practice in P-16 public education in order to improve the educational experiences of students and the professional lives of educators. The OSE believes: • Public education is the foundation of a democratic society and has as its purpose the provision of equal opportunity for all citizens. • Education is a complex profession which benefits from multiple perspectives and from collaboration among stakeholders • All educators have expertise and make valuable contributions to the profession • Learning and teaching are processes which are: – Facilitated by on-going, respectful relationships – Motivated by interest, purpose, and the opportunity for self-direction – Supported by participation in a community – Characterized by developmental, cultural and individual differences Recent OSE projects towards these goals include: • Co-Teaching and Mentoring Workshop this past summer with 70 teachers from CCSD • Teach to Learn partnership • Middle school education students’ participation in poverty simulation • Collaboration at Hilsman Middle School Social Studies fair • Partnership with Literacy Department and J.J. Harris Elementary Charter School • Archway Partnership with Dalton-Whitfield County to enhance connections between families and schools
Recent Graduates Dr. Jacqueline Shoemacher graduated in December 2012, and she is a teacher at Oconee Primary School. She applies service learning and teaches for social justice in meaningful and effective ways in grades kindergarten and first grade. Following her dissertation defense, Dr. Shoemacher was pictured with EduDawg, her dissertation committee members, and research interviewees. Dr. Martha Allexsaht-Snider (also pictured) served as Dr. Shoemacher’s dissertation chair. Other recent doctoral program graduates (December 2012) Martie Hutches – Elementary Ed.
Beverly Burchfield – Middle School Ed.
Sarah Widincamp – Social Studies Ed.
Educational Theory and Practice Newsletter • Srping 2013
Page 8
Like us on Facebook! http://bit.ly/facebook-etap Make a Gift to the Department of
Educational Theory & Practice Please consider a gift to ETAP. Funds are needed to provide support for our department’s undergraduate and graduate students, our programs, and our activities. To make a gift to the Department of Educational Theory and Practice, go to the web site at:
http://bit.ly/etap-gift Donate to ETAP’s scholarships. Donate to support graduate student conference travel. Donate to the ETAP development fund. Alternatively, make your check payable to the UGA Foundation and in the “Memo” blank, write the Department of Educational Theory and Practice Support Fund. Send your donation to: Aldon Knight Executive Director of College Advancement College of Education The University of Georgia G3 Aderhold Hall 110 Carlton Street Athens, Georgia 30602
Department of Educational Theory and Practice • 630 Aderhold • The University of Georgia • Athens, GA 30602 Phone: (706) 542-4244 • Fax: (706) 542-4277 • Email: esse@uga.edu • Web: www.coe.uga.edu/esse