Scholars from Michigan State University are receiving multiple honors for their careers and research at the annual American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference from April 13-17.
Two Department of Teacher Education faculty members will be recognized by Division K (Teaching & Teacher Education).
Associate Professor Emery Petchauer will be a co-recipient of two awards. The Innovations in Research on Equity and Social Justice in Teacher Education Award, which he will receive alongside Maria del Carmen Salazar of the University of Denver, recognizes research that focuses on teacher and teacher education through expanded visions of theoretical frameworks, methodologies, models and/or practices. Petchauer’s research was celebrated for its focus and contribution to education policy. Petchauer, who has a dual appointment in the MSU Department of English and also serves as the coordinator of the English Teacher Education Program, was recently featured by the College of Arts & Letters for this recognition.
Emery Petchauer
In addition, Petchauer will receive the Exemplary Research in Teaching and Teacher Education Award with Lynnette Mawhinney of The College of New Jersey. Together, they co-edited “Teacher Education across Minority-Serving Institutions: Programs, Policies and Social Justice” (Rutgers University Press, 2017), which highlights the legacy and importance of minority-serving institutions (MSIs) for teacher education. The book is the first of its kind to address this topic, bringing together a collective of work from faculty and researchers in and around MSIs. Petchauer, who joined the MSU faculty in fall 2016, will have his book available for purchase during AERA.
Assistant Professor Chezare Warren, who joined the MSU faculty in fall 2014, will receive the Early Career Award. This award recognizes an individual where a significant amount of research is rooted in teachers, teaching and teacher education. Their inquiries should elevate the field in addressing a needed area, filling a gap in current knowledge or raising questions about existing knowledge.
Chezare Warren
Warren’s studies primarily focus on urban teacher preparation, culturally responsive teaching and critical race theory. His recent book, “Urban Preparation: Young Black Men Moving from Chicago’s South Side to Success in Higher Education” (Harvard Education Press, 2017), touches on many of these topics. In addition, “Urban Preparation” was recently recognized with the Outstanding Book Award from the Society of Professors of Education. The organization addresses issues facing discipline and vocation of education. Warren’s book—which will be available for purchase and a book signing on April 15 at 3:00 p.m. at AERA—was honored on April 14.
The AERA awards are well-deserved, according to Kathy Schultz, vice president of Division K and dean at the University of Colorado-Boulder’s School of Education. In a congratulatory letter for Warren’s Early Career Award, she wrote: “This is such an apt honor for a scholar who is doing such important and consequential work in teaching and teacher education.”
Associate Professor Higinio Dominguez received the Early Career Award from Division K in 2016, celebrating his work on challenging systems of privilege and oppression in today’s math classrooms.
Both Petchauer and Warren will be recognized on Monday, April 16 during the conference in New York City.
Language, Literature, Media and More
Several more individuals from across the college and university are among those who are set to be recognized at AERA by special interest groups (SIGs) throughout the conference.
Dorinda Carter Andrews was recognized for her career and for reviewing an AERA-related journal.
- April Baker-Bell will receive the Language and Social Processes SIG Early Career Scholar Award. Baker-Bell is an assistant professor in the Department of English at MSU who often collaborates with College of Education faculty, sits on many Department of Teacher Education committees and teaches several courses in the college. For more on Baker-Bell, visit the College of Arts & Letters website.
- Cassie Brownell, who recently defended her dissertation in the Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education (CITE) program and will graduate in May, will receive the Emerging Scholar Award from the same SIG on April 16. Nominated by Assistant Professor Jennifer VanDerHeide, she will be recognized for her research, which focuses on how writing in English language arts classrooms may become more inclusive of children’s multiple cultural, linguistic and modal ways for knowing. She recently published a case study of two elementary learners in English Teaching: Practice & Critique focused on this topic. Additionally, Brownell received the Outstanding Graduate Paper Award from the Writing and Literacies SIG on April 14. Her paper, “Cultivating Contemplative Constituents: A Case Study of Children Composing in an Era of (Im)Migration,” examined how, after reading texts about ongoing immigration issues, young children composed multimodal persuasive texts for their legislators. Brownell will join the faculty of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto in fall 2018.
- Dorinda Carter Andrews was selected to receive the Mid-Career Award from the Critical Examination of Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender in Education SIG. The award celebrates scholars who have made a significant research impact in their career and have made notable contributions to their research areas. Carter Andrews is the assistant dean for Equity Outreach Initiatives (EOI) in the college. EOI was established to provide more and growing professional development opportunities for those in the college and community. In addition, Carter Andrews and Warren have been named Outstanding Reviewers for their work with the American Educational Research Journal.
- Amita Chudgar, associate professor of education policy, was also recognized for her work as an Outstanding Reviewer. Chudgar was nominated for her work with Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. She is also part of a team of scholars who were recently awarded editorship of Comparative Education Review.
- Matthew Deroo, a graduate student in CITE, received honors from the Media, Culture and Learning SIG. He was recognized with the Top Graduate Paper Award for “Pushing Past Perceptions: Using Critical Media Literacy to Analyze Media Texts.” In this research that focused on stereotypes of the Muslim culture, Deroo examined how a teacher’s support of critical media skills and analyzing various texts (including those from the media) could shift a student’s understanding of the Muslim culture in more thoughtful and nuanced ways.
- Effat Id-Deen, an elementary field instructor for the Teacher Preparation Program and a third-year doctoral student in CITE, received two travel grants in honor of her research. Id-Deen’s research focues on urban education, race, culture and equity in education.She earned a stipend and a certificate from both Division K (Teaching and Teacher Education) and the Research Focusing on Black Education SIG. Id-Deen also presented on a panel at AERA with others from the MSU College of Education, including Cierra Presberry, Kayon Hall, Missy Cosby and Eliana Castro. They presented on “Know Thyself: Reflections of Emerging Black Female Scholars Through Critical Race Theory.” In addition, she presented a round-table discussion with Tashal Brown, Carter Andrews and Castro on “To Be Perfect and White: The Racialized and Gendered Operation of Power in Schools.” Carter Andrews, Id-Deen’s advisor, provided guidance for both presentations.
- Eli Kean, who graduated from the CITE doctoral program in 2017, is receiving the Dissertation of the Year Award from the Queer Studies SIG. Kean’s research focuses on gender-expansive curricular approaches in teacher education. Their dissertation explored how transgender topics are taught in courses, and brings critically important attention to the need to better prepare future educators who will meet the needs of trans* students.
- Rachel White, Ph.D. ’17 (Education Policy) won both the Division L (Educational Policy & Politics) Outstanding Dissertation Award and the Politics of Education Association SIG Outstanding Dissertation Award. White’s research, “Donut Devourers, Fish Fanatics, Politicians, and Educators: Faces and Voices of State Education Policymaking” examined the voices heard in the state education policymaking process. Through statistical analyses, she discovered a lack of diversity among state education policymakers, and that many of the policymakers were unresponsive. The voices valued in the state varied among political party and state structures, but local school leaders were consistently a highly valued voice. White wrote for the New Educator in 2015-16 on financial early warning systems.
Amita Chudgar
Related links
More faculty and alumni from the MSU College of Education were among those honored at AERA—including Professor Kris Renn, who is being recognized with two awards and Angela Calabrese Barton, who received the Exemplary Contributions to Practice-Engaged Research Award.
April Baker-Bell and Matt Deroo both collaborated on research projects that were featured in the cover story of the spring/summer 2016 issue of the New Educator. Read “Showing their Identities & Telling Their Stories” to learn more.
Cassie Brownell was also featured alongside alumnus Jon Wargo in the same issue. Learn about the #hearmyhome project.