February 2024 Newsletter
School of Education Welcomes Incoming Dean
The next dean of the School of
Education will be Tom Smith, a highly accomplished researcher,
educator, and leader with more than 30 years of experience in
education. He will start his term on June 1, 2024.
Currently a professor of public policy and education in Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, Smith previously served in multiple leadership roles at UC Riverside, including dean of the Graduate School of Education, interim provost and executive vice chancellor, and interim vice chancellor for Student Affairs. “Tom offers a wealth of experience as a leader in higher education, and we are thrilled to welcome him as the new dean for our School of Education,” said Mary Croughan, provost and executive vice chancellor for UC Davis. Read more about Tom Smith.
Events
Words Take Wing Celebrates 20th Anniversary with Special Event
This year is the 20th anniversary
of Words Take Wing: Honoring Diversity in Children’s Literature,
and the School of Education and Sacramento Public Library are
celebrating with an expanded free evening event.
On Feb. 27, 6 p.m. in the Tsakopolous Library Galleria, Dr. JaNay Brown-Wood will moderate a conversation with award-winning authors Thanhhà Lại, Pam Muñoz Ryan and Grace Lin. ASL interpretation will be provided. Books by all of the featured authors will be available for purchase from Capital Books. Learn more about this year’s special Words Take Wing event.
MA Symposium Showcases Student Work
Join us for the MA Symposium
on Saturday, March 9, 2024, from 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. in
the Multipurpose Room of the UC Davis Student Community Center.
All are welcome as our MA students share and discuss their
teacher inquiry projects. No registration is required. For more
details, including the schedule of presenters, visit the MA Symposium event page.
Sherrie Reed Presenting at EdSource Roundtable
Last year, more than half of high
school seniors in California failed to meet
college preparatory A–G course requirements, making them
ineligible to apply to California’s public universities. Dr.
Sherrie Reed, Executive Director of the School of Education’s
California Education Lab, will speak on an expert panel on this
topic later this month. EdSource will host “Keeping Options Open:
Why most students aren’t eligible to apply to California’s public
universities” online on Feb. 27 from 2–3:00 pm. Learn
more about Keeping Options Open and register.
Center for Community and Citizen Science Collabinar
Join us in person or by Zoom
on March 7, 10:30–11:30 am for the Collabinar “Campus
Foodscape Mapping as Justice-Oriented Critical Pedagogy, Activist
Research, and Organizational Change.” Presenter Rosalie
Zdzienicka Fanshel is a doctoral candidate in the division of
Society and Environment in the department of Environmental
Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California,
Berkeley. Registration is required. Learn
more and register.
Faculty News
Darnel Degand and Kevin Gee Receive SEED Funding
The Office of Research has awarded
grants to Prof. Darnel Degand and Prof. Kevin Gee under the
Humanities and Social Sciences Stimulating Exceptional and
Essential Discovery (SEED) Funding Program. They are among the
first cohort of recipients for this new award, which supports
research activity with high likelihood of impact in historically
underfunded fields in the humanities and related social sciences.
Degand’s project is titled “STILL… Racism in America: A
Retrospective in Cartoons,” and Gee’s project is titled “How
Asian American and Pacific Islander Youth Confront Bullying:
Insights from the Community Cultural Wealth Model.” Read
more about the SEED funding program.
Lauren Lindstrom Appointed Distinguished Visiting Professor
Prof. Lauren E. Lindstrom has
received a five-year appointment as a Distinguished Visiting
Professor for the University of Johannesburg, where she will be
affiliated with the Department of Educational Psychology and the
Centre for Neurodiversity. Lindstrom, pictured at right with
Prof. Maximus Sefotho and Prof. Tumi Diale of University of
Johannesburg, will continue to conduct collaborative research
with Sefotho on career transition for youth with disabilities,
assist with grant writing, and provide support for several
education PhD students.
Student and Alumni News
PhD student Valeria Zunino
Edelsberg has been awarded a $30,000 Dissertation Fellowship
with the Center for Measurement Justice. This prestigious
fellowship aims to strengthen the field of research and build a
community of scholars dedicated to justice-oriented topics in
educational measurement. Zunino’s dissertation is “Exploring
Chilean Teachers’ Equitable Classroom Assessment Literacy,” and
she is exploring the extent to which Chilean teacher candidates
understand how to develop, administer, and interpret classroom
assessments in ways that treat student heritage, language, and
culture as assets and resources that are honored and extended
while accurately determining content knowledge. Learn more about the Center for
Measurement Justice.
Patti F. Herrera,
EdD ’19, has been promoted to executive vice president
of School Services of California Inc. (SSC). She joined SSC nine
years ago and has served as vice president and director of
Governmental Relations. Prior to joining SSC, she led the
Governmental Relations Division as the chief governmental
relations officer for the Riverside County Superintendent of
Schools and spent over a decade at Murdoch, Walrath and Holmes
and the Coalition for Adequate School Housing, where she
specialized in the state’s School Facility Program. Read
more about Patti F. Herrera.
Event Spotlights
Expanding Equity in Educational Research: Comics, Identity, & Representation [VIDEO]
This month the School of Education
presented a special Expanding Equity in Educational Research
program with Enrique García, Barbara Brandon-Croft and Tara
Nakashima Donahue presenting on Comics, Identity, &
Representation. The event coincided with the exhibition
“STILL:
Racism in America, a Retrospective in Cartoons,” co-curated
by Prof. Darnel Degand, which runs until April 21, 2024, and
showcases the work of Brandon-Croft and her father, the late
Brumsic Brandon, Jr. Watch
the video and see the photo gallery of Comics, Identity, &
Representation.
TJE Presents Jean Beaman [VIDEO]
On Feb. 7, the Transformative
Justice in Education Center hosted Dr. Jean Beaman speaking on
“Towards a Reading of Black Lives Matter in France: Diasporic
Connections and Global Social Movements.” Beaman discussed her
ongoing ethnographic research on anti-racist mobilization and
activism against police violence in the United States and
worldwide. Beaman addressed what it means to consider Black Lives
Matter in a society that disavows race and racism and how
anti-racist activists in France, many of whom are Black and
Maghrébin origin, assert a place for themselves in a society that
continually marginalizes them. Watch
the video and see the photo gallery of Dr. Jean Beaman’s
presentation.
Chicanx and Latinx Education Symposium [PHOTOS]
In January, the School of Education
hosted our first Chicanx and Latinx Education Symposium, which
engaged the question: “What is Chicanx/Latinx education in
theory, research, and practice?” The event brought together
three interdisciplinary Chicanx/Latinx education
scholar-activists to present their work in a research panel,
dialogue with us, and participate in a mentorship session with
undergraduate/graduate/professional students engaged in studies
and work at this intersection. This event was co-sponsored by the
School of Education, the Department of Chicana/o Studies, the
Davis Humanities Institute, and the Office of Diversity, Equity
and Inclusion. Read
more about the Chicanx and Latinx Education Symposium and see the
photo gallery.
Show Off with School of Education Gear
Looking for a way
to show off your School of Education pride? You’ll find shirts of
all styles, as well as mugs, hats and more with the School of
Education logo at the
online UC Davis Store. Proceeds from all store sales benefit
UC Davis Athletics.
Publications
Prof. Kevin Gee co-authored “Humanizing Asian Americans in educational research,” published in Race Ethnicity and Education.
Prof. Margarita Jimenez-Silva authored “Geography as a Bridge to Meaningful Engagement for English Language Learners,” published in The Geography Teacher.
Prof. Nicole Sparapani co-authored “Do Teacher Perceptions of Students’ Academic and Behavioral Skills Influence Time Spent in Small-Group Reading Instruction?” published in The Elementary School Journal.
Dr. Lisa Sullivan, Prof. Rebecca Ambrose, Heather Ballinger, EdD ’21, and PhD Student Andrew Hood were among the co-authors of “Supervisors as Creators of Teacher Educator Community of Practice,” a chapter in the book Professional Learning Journeys of Teacher Educators.
Postdoctoral scholars Shulong Yan and Alexandra I. Race, Prof. Heidi L. Ballard, Erin Bird, PhD ’19, and PhD students Jadda M. Miller and Emma R. Schectman were among the co-authors of “How Can Participating in a Forest Community and Citizen Science Program Support Elementary School Students’ Understanding of Socio-Ecological Systems?” published in Sustainability.