Earlier this year, the Reich College of Education (RCOE) Office of the Dean called for proposals to support two strategic plan initiatives:
- 2018 Summer Scholarship Support Program: to support faculty and staff summer research and creative projects.
- 2018 Curriculum Map: to support the creation of a curriculum map to identify curriculum and pedagogy as per the RCOE Conceptual Framework.
2018 Summer Scholarship Support Program Recipients
Four faculty members were awarded $1000 each to support their summer research and creative projects:
- Tempestt Adams
- Dionne Busio
- Rebecca Jordan
- Vachel Miller
Tempestt Adams
Adams is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Her project is titled “I, Too, Am a Teacher: A Critical Autoethnography” and focuses on the development and creation of an autoethnographic piece of the same name that she plans to submit for publication to the scholarly journal, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.
Her goal is to articulate the marginalized identity of career and technical education through personal experience. Adams plans to present retrospective accounts of her time as a middle and high school career and technical educator, in the form of vignettes. As a critical piece, the work will offer a social critique of how power and privilege is at play in education and the larger society. She plans to juxtapose her analysis with Langston Hughes’ “I, Too, Sing America.”
This project is connected to RCOE Strategic Plan direction two: Advancing Knowledge and Addressing the Challenges of our Region, State, and World through Creativity and Innovation. It has the potential to support CTE programmatic efforts as well as inform critical conversations regarding program realignment.
Dionne Busio
Busio is an assistant professor in the Department of Family and Child Studies. Her project is titled “The New Arrivals Institute Early Literacy Project” and focuses on increasing school readiness of young refugee children by collaborating with families on the creation of developmentally appropriate and culturally sensitive early literacy activities and classroom environments for those attending the New Arrivals Institute (NAI) transitional preschool in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Her goal is to collect data to produce and later submit an empirical article on strategies for collaborating with culturally and linguistically diverse families of young children. Busio also hopes to collaborate with teachers and families at NAI to develop resources for early educators and present on the project at local, regional and national professional conferences.
Rebecca Jordan
Jordan is an assistant professor in the Department of Reading Education and Special Education. Her project is titled “Changing Knowledge of Children’s Literature” and focuses on student perceptions and knowledge of children’s literature and associated critical issues such as diversity and inclusion. She will be collaborating with Beth Frye, professor of reading education, and Ashley Pennell, doctoral candidate, on this project.
Their goal is to provide insight into ways that children’s literature courses impact teacher candidate development. They plan to submit a presentation proposal to the American Reading Forum and an article to a refereed publication. Possibilities are the Journal of Children’s Literature, Reading Teacher and/or The Dragon Lode.
This project is connected to RCOE Strategic Plan direction four, goal two: Embracing Diversity of Thought, Belief, and Community, Create and inclusive RCOE educational experience for students. It addresses the need to create a more culturally relevant, inclusive curriculum to meet the needs of underrepresented students. Collected data has the potential to help faculty tailor future courses to better integrate student experiences as well as those of their future students.
Vachel Miller
Miller is an associate professor in the Department of Leadership and Educational Studies (LES) and director of the higher education program. His project is titled “Global Learning in Higher Education” and focuses on how the RCOE can support internationalization and global learning in higher education.
His goals are to publish a scholarly article with LES colleagues that focuses on internationalization and global learning at the program/department level and to develop a mini-strategic plan on these same topics from the higher education program, with a specific emphasis on connecting with international colleagues.
This project is connected to RCOE Strategic Plan direction four, goal three: Embracing Diversity of Thought, Belief, and Community, Engage the World through Outreach, Connection and Collaboration. It has the potential to enhance and increase international opportunities, programs and partnerships.
2018 Curriculum Map Recipient
Elizabeth Bellows was awarded $2000 to support the creation of a curriculum map to identify curriculum and pedagogy as per the RCOE Conceptual Framework.
Elizabeth Bellows
Bellows is an assistant professor of social studies education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Her project is titled “Authenticating the Conceptual Framework” and focuses on RCOE’s Vision Statement: We view ourselves as a collaborative community of practice which promotes excellence in teaching, learning, research, scholarship, and outreach, with a particular emphasis on global engagement, intercultural diversity, and issues of social justice.
She plans to utilize the current conceptual framework as a starting point to develop logically sequenced student learning outcomes to allow for the progression of knowledge and skills as well as higher-level thinking. Bellows will identify curriculum and pedagogical gaps, redundancies and misalignments to provide students with a more coherent educative experience.
Five Named Recipients of RCOE Strategic Plan 2018 RFP Funding
