May 2023 Newsletter
Featured News
Four Faculty Promoted to Professor
We are pleased to announce that associate professors Kevin Gee, Cassandra M. Hart, Lee Martin and Paco Martorell have all been promoted to full professor in recognition of their research accomplishments, their service contributions inside and outside the university, their excellence in teaching, and their commitments to diversity and equity. Their promotions are effective as of July 1, 2023.
Emerging Scholars Panel
The School of Education and
Graduate Group in Education presented the Emerging Scholars
panel, “Expanding Equity in Research on Language, Race & Culture,
and Intersectionality & Policy” on May 11. The event showcased
critical, diverse disciplinary perspectives in education from
exceptional pre-tenure scholars Drs. Sofía E. Chaparro, Lauren
Leigh Kelly, Manali Sheth and Krystal L. Williams. View the Emerging Scholars webinar
recording.
Shirley LeRoy Gift Establishes New Fund
We’re pleased to announce that
Shirley LeRoy has established the LeRoy Family Fund for
Neurodiversity at the School of Education. Her generous gift will
fund the planning and development of an innovative educational
model for our teaching credential candidates, helping them to
remove instructional barriers to learning so that all their
students, including those who are neurodivergent, will be able to
thrive and succeed. Watch the
video of LeRoy sharing her story about why this work is
personal to her, and the changes she hopes her gift will make.
You can help make a difference as well with a gift to the
LeRoy Family Fund for Neurodiversity.
Faculty News
Kevin Gee Research into Absenteeism and Bullying Against Asian American Youth
Prof. Kevin Gee has co-authored
the report “Disparities
in Unexcused Absences Across California Schools,” published
by PACE, and a related commentary article in EdSource titled
“Disparities
in ‘Unexcused’ Absences Deepen Education Inequities.” This
research was featured in Education Week articles “Some
Students Are Less Likely to Have Absences Excused: Why That
Matters for Schools” and “3
Signs That Schools Are Sending the Wrong Message About
Attendance.”
Gee also co-authored the commentary “Chronic Absenteeism Post-Pandemic: Let’s Not Make This Our ‘New Normal,’” also published by PACE.
In April, Gee presented “School Bullying and Hate Speech Against Asian American Youth: What Can Schools Do?” as part of the North Carolina State University College of Education speaker series. Gee was featured in a story by CBS Sacramento on the funding for his related research project.
Lauren Lindstrom Featured in IES Profile
Professor and Dean Lauren E.
Lindstrom was featured in an Institute of Education Sciences, US
Department of Education article about her research, which
explores the influence of gender on career development for youth
with disabilities and learning differences. Lindstrom and
colleagues developed Paths 2 the Future, a career development
curriculum for students with disabilities with gender-specific
versions for young women and men. The article is one of a series
highlighting important and impactful research on a number of
dimensions of diversity.
Read “Paving Better Paths to the Future through Gender-Specific
Curricula Interventions.”
Research News
Wheelhouse Releases New Research, Webinar on Student Belonging
Join us on May 22 from 2–3 pm for a
webinar on new research into a promising faculty professional
development effort to build a greater sense of student belonging
and efficacy in community college courses. The research was
recently released in the report “Toward Belonging
in the Community College Classroom: Lessons from the
Learning for Equity Ascend Research Network (LEARN),” and
documents the learnings of faculty at two California community
colleges as they used survey technology to monitor student
experience and adjust their teaching practices in real time.
Speakers will include report author Claudia Escobar, PhD
’20, former Wheelhouse Associate Director for Learning and
Research, who followed the pilot for more than a year.
Global Affairs Grants for Center Directors
Two of the School’s center directors have received UC Davis Global Affairs 2022-23 grants.
Center for Community and Citizen
Science Executive Director Ryan Meyer, with postdoctoral scholar
M.V. Eitzel, received the Advancing
Sustainable Development Goals grant for their project
“Multilayered
Community-Based Assessment of Sustainable Development Goals in
Rural Zimbabwe.”
Center for Applied Policy in Education Executive Director Christina Murdoch, with Professor Emeritus Thomas Timar, was awarded a Seed Grant for International Activities for the project “Comparative International Research in Education Policy to Address Educational Inequities,” which will involve research in Bavaria, Germany.
Student and Alumni News
Chris Jadallah Named Emerging Scholar
Chris Jadallah, PhD ’23, has been
named an Emerging Scholar by the International Society of the
Learning Sciences. This honor comes with a $10,000 grant, funded
by the Wallace Foundation, to support Jadallah’s new line of
community-engaged research that will examine the sociopolitical
commitments of farm and garden educators of color. Read about
Jadallah’s research and award.
Alumni Publish Collection of Classroom Activities for Writing Teachers
Dr. Michal Reznizki, PhD ’16 and
Dr. David Coad, PhD ’19 have co-edited Dynamic Activities for
First-Year Composition: 96 Ways to Immerse, Inspire, and
Captivate Students, published by the National Council of
Teachers of English. The book includes tried and proven teaching
activities to help both novice and experienced teachers plan,
prepare, and implement writing instruction in college.
Learn more about their book.
Events and Webinars
HSI Showcase Recording Available
Recordings are now available of
“Avanza: Cultivating Chicanx/Latinx Leaders for the Future,” the
UC Davis 2023 Hispanic Serving Institution Showcase that took
place in March. The event featured multiple School of Education
faculty and alumni, including Prof. Marcela Cuellar, Prof. Danny
C. Martinez, Prof. Alicia Rusoja, HSI Director Lina Mendez, PhD
’10 (pictured) and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Pablo
Guillermo Reguerín, EdD ’17.
Watch the HSI Showcase videos.
New Speaker Series: Education Career Chats
On May 16, the School of Education
and Graduate Group in Education premiered a new speaker series
called Education Career Chats. The series will provide UC Davis
doctoral students an opportunity to learn from individuals who
earned doctoral degrees in education and landed jobs outside of
academe. Our inaugural speaker was Dr. Rafiqah Mustafaa, the
assistant director of learning and improvement at the nonprofit
organization Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional
Learning (CASEL).
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
Erin Bridges Bird, PhD ’19. Prof. Heidi L. Ballard and Margaret Harte published “Data to decision-making: How elementary students use their Community and Citizen Science project to reimagine their school campus” in Instructional Science.
Dr. Car Mun Kok co-authored “Youth Science Learning as/for Community Participation: Examples from Youth Participatory Action Research,” published in Journal of Youth Development.
Prof. Peter Mundy published “Research on social attention in autism and the challenges of the research domain criteria (RDoC) framework” in Autism Research.
Prof. Alicia Rusoja co-authored “‘Mi Lucha es Tu Lucha; Tu Lucha es Mi Lucha’: Latinx immigrant youth organizers facilitating a new common sense through coalitional multimodal literacies,” published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.