Konoeda, Keiko

kkonoeda at educ.umass.edu

people.umass.edu/kkonoeda/

Language, Literacy and Culture EdD 2007 cohort

Keiko is interested in finding ways for language education to become a tool to critique and transform the society and culture. Drawing on Freire’s critical literacy and poststructural feminist research on language learning, Keiko's goal is to redefine what it means to teach and learn an additional language from sociocultural perspectives. Toward this end, she hopes to research what happens when language teachers take up a social justice agenda, and how such instruction builds on the experience and interests that students bring to the classroom.

Research interests: foreign language education, critical literacy, new literacies, bilingualism and biliteracies, ethnography, discourse analysis

Larke, Dylan

d_larke at yahoo.com

Language, Literacy and Culture  EdD  2007 cohort

Taking an identity based and post-modern perspective, I have focused my research around theories of learning and teaching.  Using ethnographic methods, I am researching how technology, such as YouTube videos, can serve as a resource for students and educators to learn and teach about social justice and identity based issues involving race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexual orientation inequities in the undergraduate classroom.  Additionally, I am researching how multimedia can be relied on as a pedagogical tool to promote student learning and engagement in the classroom. 
             
Research interests: Ethnography, culture as a resource, cultural capital, curriculum transformation, higher education, intercultural education, liberation theory, linguistic capital, local knowledge, multicultural education, multimedia, YouTube, multicultural education, social justice, teacher training

Graham, Holly

hgraham at educ.umass.edu

Language, Literacy and Culture  EdD  2008 cohort

After six years of teaching middle school humanities, I decided to pursue a doctorate in Language, Literacy and Culture so I could further understand the role of literacy in the middle school classroom. Ultimately, I would like to help other middle grade teachers broaden their perspectives on the meaning of literacy and support teachers in the application of current research to their classrooms. To get to this, I want to research the balanced approach necessary to incorporate both the necessary reading and writing skills for middle school students as well as taking into consideration the role of environment and culture. As the definition of literacy is redefined, I want to be part of the conversation.

Research interests: teacher education/preparation, multiliteracies, genre theory, university/school/community collaboration, social justice

Moriarity, Bridgette C.

bmoriari at frital.umass.edu

Language, Literacy and Culture  EdD  2008 cohort

Research interests: Phonological influences in the acquisition of a new language

How does a second or third language influence the acquisition of another language?

Peller, Sarah

speller at educ.umass.edu

Peller’s research interests include accounting for school failure and dropout prevalence of domestic-born Latino minority students by bridging paradigmatic divisions and resarching the ways that multiculturalist, cognitivist and critical pedagogies have influenced school practices and the potential for these paradigms to collaborate to create syntheses regarding best practices for informing schools serving primarily low-SES Latino youth.  Her research looks at the way that normative assessment practices affect the education of this minority group.  Her research draws on early reading research, second-language learning, home-school cultural mismatch, and critical literacy research.  She studies the ways that the outlawing of bilingual education in many states has affected Latino students, teachers and parents in their communities such as in Holyoke, Mass, the site of much of her research.  She uses mixed methods and interdisciplinary studies to draw conclusions which hope to transform polarizations among competing paradigms and seek explanations for phenomena from multiple perspectives.

Research interests: Latino youth, school failure, language learning, early reading instruction, minority studies

Tzineris, Andreas

atzineri at educ.umass.edu

Language, Literacy and Culture  EdD  2008 cohort

My interests focus on the influence of language, literacy, and culture in Foreign Language education and how we as educators facilitate Language Teaching in the Greek public schools while regulated and evaluated by the Greek public educational system. I am also interested in Second Language Acquisition and Greek schools abroad and how the students' literacy abilities and cultural responses are closely intertwined with the students’ effort to construct identity.

Research interests: EFL education, Student and Teacher identity, Literacy practices Systemic Functional Linguistics, Critical literacy

Way, Kate

kateway44 at hotmail.com

Language, Literacy and Culture  EdD  2008 cohort

Kate is interested in multiple modes of literacy, issues of equity in high school education, the political and public rhetoric surrounding k-12 schooling, and the intricacies of the ‘live’ act of the classroom.

Research Interests: visual literacy, qualitative research, interdisciplinary, multimodality, media literacy

Constant, Tamara M.

tconstant at educ.umass.edu

Language, Literacy and Culture  EdD  2009 cohort

How do immigrant students hold a balance between home and host country? How do the children of transnational parents get a “good” education?

Research Interests: Immigrant studies in language and identity
Transnational people

Felis, Margaret A.

margaret.felis at gmail.com

Language, Literacy and Culture  EdD  2009 cohort

What are the connections between family and language learning?

Research Interests: Language and Identity, Language Maintenance, Heritage Language Learning, Endangered Languages, Language Revitalization

Lawrence, Philip

phillawrence at crocker.com

Language, Literacy and Culture  EdD  2009 cohort

Who are teachers, who are students?  Can we enhance language skills and critical thinking while engaged in other activities? How will literacy practices confront a changing social and economic landscape?

Research Interests: Apprenticeship, Non-formal learning, Critical thinking, Art and Language, Discourse analysis

Lenard, Amy K.

amylens at gmail.com

Language, Literacy and Culture  EdD  2009 cohort

How does literacy define itself? How can adults be more active in constructing their own knowledge?  How does literacy link adults to their own power?

Research Interests: Critical literacy, multiple literacies, adult education

O'Donnell, Lee J.

jenniferodonnell at hotmail.com

Language, Literacy and Culture  EdD  2009 cohort

How does multilingualism support academic performance?

Research Interests: Language maintenance and preservation; trilingual students having better performance than other students and its causes

Robinson, Jasmine A.

RobinsJ1 at arps.org

Language, Literacy and Culture  EdD  2009 cohort

How can teachers help to promote positive images of males of color?

Research Interests: Male Roles in Children’s Literature

Schulze, Corrin L.

corrinlong1 at yahoo.com

Language, Literacy and Culture  EdD  2009 cohort

My research interest lie in teaching writing.  I believe that technology has changed the way students learn.  Current pedagogy in public schools uses technology to capture student attention.  I would like to identify the effects that technology has had on how today’s children learn and with this information identify how best to teach today’s children to write.

Research interests:  impact of technology on learning, student learning, teaching writing

Yoon, Tecnam

tyoon@educ.umass.edu

Language, Literacy and Culture  EdD  2009 cohort

My research currently includes multi-media and ICT use in education, distance education, the psychological issues of e-learning and individual differences in learning. I have a keen interest in the application of new technologies to foreign language learning. My interest in e-learning came about through my interest in interactive multimedia, web-based language learning, computer-mediated communication, CALL software design, the application of qualitative research to e-learning, media literacies and alternative pedagogies.

Research interests: CALL/MALL, e-learning, e-book/digital textbook, EFL education, second language acquisition, distance learning