Since 2002, the ACCELA Alliance has provided approximately 60 graduate student from the School of Education, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and the College of Humanities and Fine Art with fellowships to explore topics related to supporting the education of linguistically and culturally diverse students in times of rapid social, economic, and political change.
In receiving an ACCELA fellowship, in addition to acting as teaching assistants, graduate students have participated as research assistants to the classroom teachers, paraprofessionals, and community leaders with whom they have worked. Specifically, ACCELA Fellows support these educators in using technology, interpreting research, designing their own studies, and collecting and analyzing data related to their local classrooms and communities.
To support ACCELA Fellows in providing local educators this kind of assistance, the Alliance has designed a number of doctoral seminars which students take in addition to their regular course work. These ACCELA courses have focused on topics such as understanding the history of school reform and teacher’s professional development in the United States, researching classroom literacy practices, and collecting and analyzing multimedia data. Students within the Language, Literacy, and Culture Doctoral Concentration have taken these ACCELA seminars in addition to other courses in our program. With continued funding, the purpose of this praxis orientation to doctoral work is to prepare a future generation of researchers and teacher educators whose scholarship is grounded in a deep understanding of issues facing linguistically and culturally diverse students and their communities. |
