Virginia Commonwealth University

Faculty Member, Educational Foundations

Assistant Professor

Education Policy and Leadership

Thesis Title: Teachers' perceptions of stress as a result of high-stakes tests and its relationship to teacher motivation.

About

I completed my Ph.D. at The Ohio State University, in the Educational Psychology program in the College of Educational Policy and Leadership. I will be joining the Educational Foundations faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University in the summer of 2012, on the tenure-track.

My work centers around the intersection of policy and education. Currently, I am examining the effects of neoliberal educational policies at the federal and state levels on teachers and students in the classroom. Specifically, I examine effects including motivation for learning, beliefs about schooling and what education is and what it is for. Examples of policies I am examining include the high-stakes testing policies introduced through No Child Left Behind, interpreted at the state level, and their effects on teacher motivation for teaching and student motivation for learning as defined by teacher efficacy, classroom goal structures, goal orientations, and other variables commonly studied in the motivation literature. Other examples include privatization efforts, charter schooling, and teacher evaluation
}policies.

Additionally, I am currently examining teacher beliefs about recent socio-political events including anti-collective bargaining legislation efforts and negative rhetoric surrounding teaching and education, and how teachers think these things are manifesting in the classroom.

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