Researchers inauguratefaculty fellowships
Jason Margolis, Laurie “Lali” McCubbin and Dawn Shinew will each receive $10,000 per year for two years to fund their projects, with the possibility of a third year of funding, said Judy Mitchell, dean of the college. After that time, other College of Education faculty may apply for the fellowships.
Margolis, an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching & Learning, is the PEMCO Faculty Fellow in Educational Leadership. His project is titled “Understanding and Advancing Teacher Leadership and Educational Change.”
Margolis is interested in the potential of teacher leadership to sustain individual careers and enhance educational reform. He plans in-depth case studies of educators in “hybrid” positions (part teacher, part teacher leader) throughout the state of Washington.
Those positions include instructional specialist, curriculum specialist, mentor, classroom supporter, learning facilitator and school leader.
The study has the potential to influence policy and practice; lead to additional research opportunities in the areas of teacher career development, compensation and educational reform; and expand to a national investigation of teacher leadershipl.
McCubbin is the Berry Family Faculty Fellow in Counseling. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership & Counseling Psychology.
She is active in a project that involves 643 Hawaiian children, with data collected from them and their parents over 50 years.
For this study, McCubbin is particularly interested in 578 Pacific Islanders and Asian Americans within the data base. She will examine positive and negative life events, individual risk factors and environmental factors at six developmental stages.
She expects the work to improve multicultural counseling in determining pathways of resilience and recovery among people of color.
Shinew, an associate professor in the Department of Teaching & Learning, is the Berry Family Faculty Fellow in Teacher Preparation. Her project will involve gathering information over a five-year period from WSU teacher education graduates who teach full time.
She will interview teachers and observe their classrooms, then analyzed the her findings and relate them to key elements of the teacher education program.
In addition to increasing understanding of the impact of teacher education on classroom practice, the study will help WSU faculty as they continue to develop the teacher education program.
