Smagorinsky

Three faculty members, an alumna and a graduate student from the University of Georgia College of Education were nationally recognized for their work by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) at its annual meeting in San Francisco April 26-May 1.

Peter Smagorinsky, Distinguished Research Professor of English Education, was selected as the 2013 Outstanding Reviewer for Review of Education Research, the AERA journal, and as an Outstanding Reviewer for 2013 by the editors of the American Educational Research Journal - Teaching, Learning, and Human Development. Smagorinsky was named an AERA Fellow in 2010.

Tobin

Bradshaw

Joseph Tobin, the Elizabeth Garrard Hall Professor in Early Childhood Education, received the 2013 Mentoring Award from the AERA Division G. Tobin was named an AERA Fellow in 2010.

Laine Bradshaw, an assistant professor of educational psychology, has been awarded the 2013 Outstanding Dissertation Award for the Cognition and Assessment Special Interest Group. Her dissertation, which she completed as a UGA doctoral student, was titled “Combining Item Response Theory and Diagnostic Classification Models: A Psychometric Model for Scaling Ability and Diagnosing Misconceptions.”

Jacobson

Van Cleave

Erik Jacobson, a doctoral candidate in mathematics education, won a prestigious $20,000 dissertation grant from the Grants Board of AERA. His dissertation was titled “Professional Experience and the Development of Mathematical Proficiency for Teaching.”

Jessica Van Cleave, who earned a B.A. in English, M.Ed. in English Education and a Ph.D. in language and literacy education from UGA, won the 2013 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Qualitative Research Special Interest Group. Her dissertation was titled “Scientifically Based Research in Education as a Regime of Truth: An Analysis Using Foucault’s Genealogy and Governmentality.” She is currently an assistant professor of education and director of assessment at Mars Hill College in North Carolina.

Norm Thompson lectures about skulls and the origin of mankind at the UGA Chapel as part of UGA’s Origins Series.

Hobbit skulls and the evolution of man wrap up UGA’s Origins Series reports an April 24 story  Red & Black. Norm Thompson, a UGA associate professor of science education, lectured on the origins of mankind during the presentation at the UGA Chapel.

Fecho

Aderhold Distinguished Professor
Robert Fecho, a professor and head of the department of language and literacy education, received the college’s highest honor when he was named the Aderhold Distinguished Professor for exemplary contributions in teaching, research and service.

Fecho, an internationally recognized expert on adolescent literacy, founded and co-directs the Red Clay Writing Project with colleague JoBeth Allen. Begun in 2003, Red Clay has created a cadre of over 180 area teachers committed to teaching writing and promoting social justice.

The Aderhold Distinguished Professor holds the title for one academic year and receives discretionary funds for one year, a one-time cash award, or a combination of the two. Only professors with five years or more on the UGA faculty are eligible.

Neuharth-Pritchett

Ira Aaron Award for Teaching Excellence
Stacey Neuharth-Pritchett, a professor in the department of educational psychology, received the Ira E. Aaron Award for Teaching Excellence and Collegiality. Only full-time tenured faculty members are eligible for this award. The awardee receives an instructional grant.

Thompson

Carl Glickman Faculty Fellow
Katherine Thompson, a clinical associate professor in the department of educational theory and practice, received the Carl Glickman Faculty Fellow Award, which recognizes distinguished accomplishments and potential for future contributions of faculty in fulfilling the mission of the university through teaching, research and service. Awardees receive a cash award and a grant for professional development.

Cahnmann-Taylor

Russell H. Yeany, Jr., Research Award
Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor, a professor in the department of language and literacy education, received the Russell H. Yeany, Jr., Research Award, which recognizes a tenure-track faculty member’s outstanding cumulative research. It includes a cash award and a grant for professional development.

Oliver

Faculty Diversity Award
Jenny Penney Oliver, a senior academic professional in the department of counseling and human development services, received the Faculty Diversity Award.  This award recognizes faculty members whose research, teaching and/or service promotes a more diverse local, university and/or global community.  It includes a cash award.

The award has recently been renamed the Jenny Penny Oliver Diversity Award in honor of her commitment and record of accomplishment in creating and facilitating partnerships to bridge diversity in Georgia and beyond.

Harman

D. Keith Osborn Award for Teaching Excellence
Ruth Harman, an assistant professor in the department of language and literacy education, and Stephanie Jones, an associate professor in the department of educational theory and practice, received the Faculty Senate D. Keith Osborn Award for Teaching Excellence. Awardees receive an instructional grant.

Butchart

Distinguished Research Professor
Ronald Butchart, professor and head of the department of educational theory and practice, has been named a UGA Distinguished Research Professor. The title is awarded to faculty who are internationally recognized for their original contributions to knowledge and whose work promises to foster continued creativity in their discipline.

Awardees receive a one-time permanent increase in base salary of $7,000 in addition to a $5,000 account each year for a 5-year period to be used in any appropriate way to support scholarship and a framed certificate. Butchart was recognized at the UGA Research Foundation’s 34th annual Research Awards Banquet on April 18.

Johnson

Thompson

Service-Learning Teaching Excellence Award
Corey Johnson, an associate professor in the department of counseling and human development services, and Katherine Thompson, a clinical associate professor in the department of educational theory and practice, received UGA’s Service-Learning Teaching Excellence Award which recognizes UGA faculty for excellence in developing, implementing, and sustaining academic service-learning opportunities for UGA students in domestic and/or international settings. This award, established in 2011, carries a $2,500 faculty development award.

Brown-Crowell

Outstanding Teaching Award
Cathleen Brown-Crowell, an associate professor in the department of kinesiology, received the UGA Outstanding Teaching Award during the Faculty Recognition Banquet on April 15.

Weatherford

College of Education Outstanding Undergraduate Academic Advisor
Kate Weatherford, an academic advisor II in the department of educational theory and practice, was named the college’s Outstanding Undergraduate Academic Advisor. The awardee receives a cash award.

Cohen

College of Education Outstanding Honors Student
Stephanie Cohen, of the department of communication sciences and special education, received the Outstanding Honors Student in the College of Education Award. The award includes a membership to a professional organization or a journal subscription. Cohen was honored at the Honors Program Graduation Banquet on April 17.

Stephanie R. Jones

“Researchers do a lot of talking and writing about arts-based research, and I wanted to try to ‘walk the walk’ by producing scholarship through the comics/sequential art medium rather than perpetuate the discourse that we ‘should’ value multiple ways of making sense of data and of the broader world,” said Jones. “Our comics work has already opened up a new audience for us — lots of teachers love it because it literally illustrates practice and theory rather than simply explaining it through linear text, and they claim they can ‘get’ the point through the combination of images and text. I have also experienced the powerful possibilities that comics opens up for data analysis and scholarship that aren’t available to me through language alone — producing multiple signs and signifiers simultaneously is certainly a huge benefit when I am trying to demonstrate the complexity of places, people, practice, theory, etc.”

Jones teaches courses on ethnography and place-based teaching, feminist theory and pedagogy, social class and poverty, early childhood education, and literacy. Her scholarship on the intersections of literacy, social class, gender, and identity has been published in journals such as Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Teacher Education, Gender and Education, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, Teaching Education, Language Arts, and Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, among others.  She is the author of Girls, Social Class and Literacy: What Teachers Can Do to Make a Difference, and she is working with Woglom to transform a three-year study of feminist pedagogy in teacher education into a graphic book.

Smagorinsky

Peter Smagorinsky, Distinguished Research Professor of language and literacy education at the University of Georgia, who is among the world’s most authoritative and prolific voices for educational reform, called for authentic teacher evaluation in delivering the John S. Oehler Lecture for Educational Leadership at  Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Education  on April 10.

See video of the lecture.

The International Reading Association (IRA) has published the sixth edition of Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading, a landmark reference book on which University of Georgia Distinguished Research Professor Donna Alvermann served as lead editor.

Alvermann, a professor in the College of Education’s department of language and literacy education, said the new edition took about four years to develop.

“The book is on theory and research, but the academic lingo is kept to a minimum so that professionals and graduate students outside the field of literacy education can comprehend the information,” said Alvermann.

The first edition was published by the IRA in 1970 and succeeding volumes have appeared about every eight years since then. It is the only work of its kind, worldwide. The newest edition will have an e-book option for the first time in the history of the TMPR series.

Alvermann

“The International Reading Association stretches far and has a huge membership. I just heard from a colleague in Belgium that her research group has pre-ordered a copy,” said Alvermann.

“Others have asked me to send promotional material to New York University and especially to the Reading Recovery leadership. Reading Recovery works with students who are more than two years behind before they even start formal reading instruction. Thus, some chapters in TMPR6 that deal with language development research will be of use to this practitioner group,” she said.

There will be a special launch of TMPR6 at the IRA’s annual convention in San Antonio on Sunday, April 21, 2013 at 3 p.m. in the Convention Center.

Brief abstracts for each of the 45 chapters are available at:
www.reading.org/General/Publications/Books/bk710.aspx

Sandmann

Lorilee Sandmann, a professor in the COE’s Department of Lifelong Education, Administration and Policy, will speak at the second annual University of Louisiana System Academic Summit at the University of Louisiana-Monroe, reports an April 6 story in the Monroe (LA) News Star.

Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor

The article examines the literature on arts education with minoritized youth within landscapes of structural inequity, scientific rationalization, and a resurgence of the racialization of non-White communities and curricula in schools.  She and co-author Sharon Verner Chappell of California State University-Fullerton, identify strong practices in arts education that aim to achieve social justice with both minoritized and majoritized populations.

Thomas Baker (R), assistant professor of sport management receives 2013 Young Professional Award

University of Georgia College of Education faculty member Thomas A. Baker has received the 2013 Young Professional Award from the Sport & Recreation Law Association (SRLA).

Baker, an assistant professor in the sport management and policy program in the department of kinesiology, was a commercial litigator before earning his Ph.D. and joining the UGA faculty in 2007.

He conducts research in sport management that focuses on the application of the law to sport. Within that focus, he specializes in how commercial laws influence and affect sport marketing. Additionally, he conducts risk management research focused on both preventing sexual abuse in youth sports and terrorism management at sports facilities.

Baker received doctorate in sport management from the University of Florida where he was a Dr. Charles W. LaPradd Ph.D. Fellow, earned the Clifford A. Boyd Graduate Scholarship Award and the Norma M. Leavitt Scholarship. He earned his J.D. from Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans.

Thompson

Kathy Thompson, a clinical associate professor in the University of Georgia’s College of Education, has received the 2013 Gulf-South Summit Award for Outstanding Practitioner Contributions to Service-Learning in Higher Education.

Service-Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility and strengthen communities. Through service-learning, young people—from kindergarteners to college students—use what they learn in the classroom to solve real-life problems.

Over the past eight years, Thompson has incorporated service-learning into the middle-school education program through four courses at the graduate and undergraduate level, including her “Theory and Practice of Service-Learning in P-12 Settings” class. She is also the service-learning coordinator for the COE’s Office of School Engagement and a professor-in-residence for Hilsman Middle School’s professional development school collaboration with Clarke County Schools. In addition, she is the lead faculty member for the UGA Office of Service-Learning’s P-12 initiatives, which include providing professional development to teachers interested in service-learning.

Thompson has served on the Georgia Department of Education’s Learn & Serve Advisory Board, as a grant reviewer for Georgia Learn & Serve, and has led service-learning leadership institutes for Georgia Learn & Serve Title I schools.

Thompson has received more than $70,000 in grant support over the past decade as co-principal investigator for research and outreach relating to service-learning. She also serves as the principal investigator and program officer for the state in the Improving Teacher Quality program, a multi-million dollar initiative funded by the United States Department of Education.

The award was presented at the summit’s annual meeting on Feb. 28 in Louisville, Ky.