Photo caption: Top row (left to right): Glenda Chisholm, Caleb Collier and Claudia Hagan; bottom row (left to right): Laura Peña-Telfer and Ethan Trinh.
story by Claire Miller
College of Education & Human Development doctoral students Glenda Chisholm, Caleb Collier, Claudia Hagan, Laura Peña-Telfer and Ethan Trinh have been chosen for the Center for Equity and Justice in Teacher Education’s (CEJTE) inaugural research initiation grant program.
Each of these students will receive a $1,500 award and present their research at the 2021 Sources of Urban Educational Excellence Conference, hosted annually by the college’s Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence.
The grant program asked students to submit research proposals that advance CEJTE’s goals, according to Nadia Behizadeh, CEHD associate professor and CEJTE co-director.
“Our center’s mission is to help teacher candidates become justice-centered, critical and racially-conscious educators who advocate for all students,” she said. “The high quality of Glenda, Ethan, Caleb, Laura and Claudia’s proposed scholarship highlights the incredible potential that Georgia State doctoral students have to be change agents in creating more equitable, justice-centered learning spaces for children.”
This year’s awardees will be working on the following research projects:
“Black Youth Schooling Experiences in Focus”
Glenda Chisholm
This project will explore how 10 Black youth in middle grades perceive literacy and conceptualize critical consciousness during a photovoice project. Photovoice, a participatory method of research, provides an opportunity for marginalized groups of people to represent their community, highlight community assets and expose social problems using images.
“Achieving Equity: Self-Directed Learning and the De-‘Tracking’ of Education”
Caleb Collier
This study will explore the role that racial bias plays in placing learners on different learning tracks (e.g. gifted, advanced and remedial) through a thorough literature review. Then, using philosophical methods, the argument will be made that self-directed learning pedagogies can lead to more equitable learning environments by disrupting this racialized “tracking” of learners by infusing school design with learner choice and agency.
“An Exploration of Secondary Science Teacher Candidates’ Ideological Shifts in an Initial Teacher Preparation Program”
Claudia Hagan
The aim of this qualitative study is to explore how personal and contextual factors influence secondary science teacher candidates’ acceptance or resistance to shifts in ideologies around social justice and science pedagogy. Specifically, this study attempts to explore how secondary science teacher candidates may or may not alter instructional practices throughout an initial teacher preparation program to align with particular ideologies.
“Nuestra Comunidad: Leveraging Latinx Families’ Funds of Knowledge to Inform Inclusivity and Care in a STEM Program”
Laura Peña-Telfer
This study utilized the Parental Engagement of Families from Latino Backgrounds (PEFL) survey and semi-structured interviews to investigate the ways Latinx parents engage with their daughters’ STEM learning experiences and the ways Latinx parents perceive their role and the school’s role in their daughters’ education. Results from this study will be employed to co-construct a counterspace that will serve as a platform for Latinx families to help create a more inclusive space at STEMinist Academy and leverage their funds of knowledge to inform an inclusive STEM curriculum for Latinx middle school girls.
“Investigating Pedagogical Practices of a Queer Teacher Educator in TESOL”
Ethan Trinh
This qualitative case study project proposes investigating critical writing instruction with the inclusion of queer-identifying themes in a TESOL teacher education program instructed by a queer teacher educator at an Atlanta-based college.