February 2019
THE COLLEGE INSIDER
NEWS ABOUT FACULTY, STAFF, AND STUDENTS
OF THE UA COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
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Fall 2018 College of Education
Staff Award Winners
Each fall semester, the College of Education Dean’s Office recognizes two staff members for exceptional performance. Last semester, Disability and Psychoeducational Studies Office Supervisor
Sandy Durazo
and Director of Academic Advising
Sara Knepper
were awarded as the College of Education Staff Award Winners.
Disability and Psychoeducational Studies Office Supervisor Sandy Durazo is known by her peers as “the glue that holds the DPS department together.” Always with a smile on her face, Durazo demonstrates respect and dignity and goes beyond the call of duty (and normal office hours) to support fellow staff members, faculty, and, most importantly, the college’s students. She is known as a true leader who can solve just about any problem with her resourcefulness, drive, and sincere concern for the college and its community.
As director of academic advising, Sara Knepper is recognized within the college as a leader and a collaborator. Colleagues and students alike view her as a “go-to” resource for needs that are well beyond her normal job requirements. She is known for her open-door policy and willingness to help, no matter the task at hand. She regularly works with college faculty and university-wide committees to serve as a voice for students and their needs. Her impact on the lives of our students goes far beyond their years at the college. It is clear that her genuine care for the success of the college and, most importantly, its students is what drives her every day.
Congratulations to both for this well-deserved recognition!
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Professor John Umbreit presented Outstanding Leadership Award from the Council for Exceptional Children with Behavioral Disorders
The Council for Exceptional Children with Behavioral Disorders
granted our very own Professor of Disability and Psychoeducational Studies
John Umbreit
the Outstanding Leadership Award in the field of behavior disorders. The purpose of the award is to honor an outstanding leader in the field of behavioral disorders who has made significant contributions and has had a significant impact on the field. Umbreit’s dedication to his students and, ultimately, the well-being and growth of the field are a testament to his impact. He prioritizes his students, both current and former, making each of them feel as if they are the main focus of his efforts in higher education. Former student
Candace Gann
says, “Dr. Umbreit is the first to acknowledge all the great things we have done in our careers and in our lives as former students; yet, he is the last to recognize the tremendous role he has played in our lives. I would not be where I am today in my academic career if it were not for Dr. John Umbreit.”
Congratulations on this well-deserved award, Professor Umbreit!
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College of Education doctoral student Norma Gonzalez awarded 2019 Marshall Foundation Dissertation Fellowship
The college is excited to announce that Educational Leadership and Policy doctoral student Norma Gonzalez was awarded a 2019 Louise Foucar Marshall Foundation Dissertation Fellowship! A prestigious award, the fellowship is granted to only six
University of Arizona
graduate students annually.
The
Marshall Foundation
was established by Thomas and Louise Foucar Marshall in 1930 as the first private foundation in Arizona. Louise Foucar Marshall, an ex-university professor, businesswoman, and philanthropist, created the foundation to enhance the lives of the citizens of Tucson and Pima County through its support of charitable and educational institutions. Together, the Marshall Foundation and the
University of Arizona Graduate College
offer this fellowship to help exceptional Arizona graduate students complete their doctoral dissertation.
Learn more about the fellowship
here
.
Congratulations, Norma!
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College of Education alumnus Rufus Glasper to be featured in UA
Cats in the Corner
on February 4
Wildcats, mark your calendars! College of Education alumnus
Rufus Glasper
, our 2018 Alumnus of the Year, will be featured in this month’s
Cats in the Corner
interview on February 4. The conversation, hosted by
The University of Arizona Alumni Association,
will be live on Facebook from noonto 1 p.m. Glasper will discuss his career and current role as president and CEO of
The League for Innovation in the Community College
.
Learn more about Glasper and the
Cats in the Corner
interview
here
.
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American Indian Language Development Institute facilitates training workshop as part of NSF Language Vitality grant
In 201
6, AILDI was awarded a Documenting Endangered Languages
National Science Foundation
grant for a project called “
Workshop: Assessing and Documenting the Vitality of Native American Languages
.”
The pilot project reviews existing assessment tools and survey methodologies to enable participants to create their own innovative assessment tools for use in documenting the vitality of Native American languages.
Active participants of the project include representatives from
the Ak-Chin Indian Community, San Carlos Apache Tribe,
Navajo Nation, and the Tohono O’odham Nation
.
Last month, the participants gathered together to share
the expertise they have
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Marcy Wood and Julio Cammarota to lead Department of Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies
In case you haven’t heard the news yet, the College of Education is excited to announce that Associate Professor
Marcy Wood
and Professor
Julio Cammarota
will lead the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies this year, beginning on July 1. Wood will serve as department head, working closely with Cammarota. Professor
Walter Doyle
has very ably served as Interim Head of the department for the last two years and will continue in this role through June.
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Arizona Online education
programs ranked 29 out of
299 programs nationwide
You may have heard the news that the College of Education’s online graduate education programs jumped from #180 to #29 on the U.S. News and World Report list of
Best Online Graduate Education Programs
. The
UA News article
states, “The largest increase was in the ranking for the education program, which jumped from No. 180 last year to No. 29 out of 299 programs in 2019.”
The untold story is that three of the five Arizona Online graduate education programs are housed in the college’s Department of Disability and Psychoeducational Studies! These include the three special education degrees: 1)
Behavior Support
, 2)
Deaf and Hard of Hearing
, and 3)
Disabilities
. The other two programs (
Educational Technology
and
Second Language Learning and Educational Technology
) are housed in the College of Humanities and UA South.
Congratulations to the faculty and staff who are working hard to build and grow these Arizona Online graduate programs!
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Reducing plastic straw use, spreading compost awareness, connecting art with science education: How the Cooper Campus Outreach Team is increasing sustainable behaviors at the UA
Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies graduate student
Deanna Kulbeth
is in her second year as leader of the Cooper Campus Outreach Team. The team represents the connection between the ecological concepts and philosophies taught at the nearby Cooper Center for Environmental Learning, and is funded through a grant from the
UA Green Fund
.
For the last three years, this team has been working on building partnerships with groups both on campus and in the greater Tucson community.
One example is their partnership with
UA Student Unions
. Through this partnership, they are working to reduce plastic straw use on the UA campus through an educational campaign called
Skip the Straw
. Their goal is to reduce the annual amount of straws used on campus from 670,000 to 335,000. The outreach team has also initiated a pilot program within Resident Life. By giving 2,300 freshmen Cupanion stickers connected to an app, which sends water to a country in need with each water bottle reuse, they hope to increase the behavior of using reusable water bottles on campus.
To promote and increase access to experiences in the environment, the team started a
Sunset Hike and Yoga
series last fall, which includes a hike and yoga session at the
Cooper Center
in the beautiful outdoors of the Sonoran Desert. The group has also collaborated with the
UA Museum of Art
,
The Next Generation Sonoran Desert Researchers
, and the graduate students in Art and Visual Culture Education, to create a tour for an exhibit that will demonstrate how art, science, and consciousness about the environment and need for sustainable living can merge and connect people to the Sonoran Desert. The Cooper Campus Outreach Team will host the private tour of the exhibit at the museum on
Tuesday, February 19, at 3 p.m
.
To highlight environmental impacts of fast fashion and globalization, the team has partnered with local sustainable apparel store
Fed By Threads
to launch a 100% recycled material T-shirt design contest, which is open to any UA student.
Submissions are due by February 15!
The winner of the contest will receive a Fed By Threads swag bag with $200 worth of sustainable merchandise, two T-shirts with their winning design, and two tickets to a film screening of
The True Cost
on Thursday, March 28.
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Alberto "Tico" Arenas appointed editor-in-chief of the Journal of Environmental Education
Associate Professor of Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies
Alberto "Tico" Arenas
is the new editor-in-chief of the
Journal of Environmental Education
beginning in 2019. JEE is the oldest English-language environmental education journal in continuous operation in the world, and one of the most prestigious in the field. The journal, published by Taylor & Francis/Routledge, will allow the College of Education to position itself as a key academic center for the study of environmental and sustainability education worldwide. Joining Arenas are doctoral students Austin Cruz as managing editor and Kelly Smith as assistant editor.
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Exploring another language from
a linguistics perspective
Last fall, Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural graduate student
Ali Yaylali
began teaching the first
Linguistics for Teachers
class (TLS 402) in the college. To familiarize students with features of languages unfamiliar to them, including Hindi, Arabic, and Korean, he implemented an activity called "Exploring Another Language: An in-class field work" into his class. Seven fellow graduate students who speak different languages attended this activity so Yaylali’s students could ask questions about the linguistic and functional aspects of each language. Students were able to apply their learning to a new situation and practice exploring another language from a linguistics perspective.
As the second
Linguistics for Teachers
class begins this spring, Yaylali plans to incorporate this activity into the coursework again.
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New HSI Fellows kick off 2019 with
a theme of “Stories from
Visionary Doers”
In January, the HSI Fellows had their first official meeting with a theme of “Stories from Visionary Doers.” The fellows were joined by a panel of four community members including:
- Maribel Alvarez, Associate Dean of Community Engagement, College of Social & Behavioral Science, and Executive Program Director of the Southwest Folklife Alliance
- Jansen Azarias, Executive Director and Founder of Higher Ground
- Bryan Carter, Associate Professor, Africana Studies, and the Director of the Center for Digital Humanities for the College of Humanities
- Melissa Silva, Cochise County Student Services Coordinator, UA South, and creator of Education Unidos
The panelists shared stories and experiences of challenging the status quo, which further inspired the group to be “champions for transformational change.” COE Assistant Professor of Practice and HSI Fellow
Vanessa Perry
assures us that big things are coming from this fellowship! Pictured above are Perry and Associate Professor and HSI Fellow
Nolan Cabrera
.
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Tucson Regional Teacher
Professional Learning Institute looking for data and College of Education representative
In the
October
College Insider
, the college announced a planning grant received from the
Community Foundation of Southern Arizona
to design a regional
Tucson Regional Teacher
Professional Learning Institute. Now the college is in the data collection phase to complete a resource and needs assessment in the region.
If you provide professional learning to teachers, the institute wants to hear from you!
Please take 5-10 minutes to complete
this survey
so we can learn about the amazing work you are doing with local teachers.
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Language difference or learning disability?
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Jenny Lee speaks at 2019 THE Emerging Economies Summit
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Sara Tolbert attends 2018 AAAS Human Rights Coalition as keynote panelist
L
ast year, Associate Professor
Sara Tolbert
was a keynote panelist at the
AAAS Human Rights Coalition
in Washington, D.C. In the panel discussion, she emphasized the importance of forging partnerships with local organizations. Learn more about the discussion
here
.
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Faculty Publications and Reports
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A critical content analysis of reading programme
Reading Wonders
Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies Associate Professor
Elizabeth Jaeger
published an article in the latest issue of the
Journal of Curriculum Studies
. The title of her article is
The achievement ideology of Reading Wonders: a critical content analysis of success and failure in a core reading programme
. In her critical analysis, Jaeger offers a critical content analysis of the core reading programme
Reading Wonders.
Read the full article
here
.
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A call for a shift in how we teach STEM to
English-learning K-12 students
Associate Professor of Science Education
Sara Tolbert
was commissioned by the
National Academy of Sciences
to write a paper on secondary science education for emergent bilingual students. She presented to the committee twice – in Washington, D.C., and Irvine, CA – as they developed their report. Tolbert’s paper and the final National Academy of Sciences report can be found
here
.
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Grad students, faculty, and staff: We want to highlight and promote your research!
To feature your research on our Research Highlights page,
complete and submit the form at the link below. Please contact
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Be sure to send in your news for the next
College Insider
!
We're interested in workshops, publications, new faculty and staff,
stellar students to feature, and awards. Click the link below to submit.
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Spotlight on Stellar Students!
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Rebecca Perez
and
James Burton
, both literacy, learning, and leadership students, have teamed up to work on
Linking Southwestern Heritage Through Archaeology
, a program that connects youth from the Southwest to their cultural histories using regional archaeology. The program offers high school students throughout Tucson the opportunity to visit national and state parks and participate in hands-on activities, like archaeological digs, to connect them with the rich history of the Southwest.
Students also get the chance to spend an extended amount of time in a higher education setting that goes beyond visiting campus for a day
. The program is a collaboration with the
UA School of Anthropology
and is in its sixth year, but is new to the College of Education. Perez and Burton are working under the direction of Assistant Dean of Research
Sara Chavarria
. With backgrounds and interests in nature, instruction, and sustainability, both students easily make a perfect fit for the job.
Perez, who was born in California (but really grew up here in Tucson), has felt a strong tie to environmental sustainability for as long as she can remember. During her years at
Tucson High School
, and even after graduation as a volunteer, she was involved with a science camp at a research station in the Chiricahua Mountains, just east of Tucson. This experience opened her eyes to career opportunities within environmental preservation, conservation, and field research. After graduating from high school, she explored career paths that would allow her to blend her passion for the environment with her interests in teaching students outside of the traditional classroom. This ultimately led her to the College of Education, where she could pursue a bachelor’s degree in literacy, learning, and leadership and a minor in sustainability and education. Last year, as a
UROC AWARDSS
student, she met AWARDSS Project Director
Vicky Mullins
, who connected her with Chavarria about the
Linking Southwestern Heritage Through Archaeology
program. While working with these high school students through the program, Perez hopes to spark passion and appreciation for the history of where they live. She says when you have a deep understanding of your roots, “you develop a love for the land, which leads you to take care of it and live more sustainably.”
Burton comes to Southern Arizona all the way from Massachusetts. Before finding his way to the College of Education, he worked in a number of settings throughout the country, including dude ranches, youth programs, and summer camps in states like Montana, New York, Colorado, and Southern Arizona. All of these have two elements in common: nontraditional education and an outdoor setting. He ended up in Southern Arizona about eight years ago for an opportunity to work on a dude ranch in Three Points, just southwest of Tucson. In the years he spent there, he grew close to the family who owns the ranch. Eventually, the mother encouraged him to pursue a degree at the UA. When considering his degree options, he reflected on a week-long backpacking trip he went on with
Camp Chewonki
in Maine during his high school years. He specifically remembered the backpacking guides, who each had academic backgrounds in outdoor education, nontraditional learning, and outdoor adventure and recreation. The idea of a similar career path sounded like the perfect fit for him. Now, a literacy, learning, and leadership student pursuing a minor in recreation and sport in communities, parks, and schools, he’s excited to apply what he’s learned in the classroom to a hands-on, outdoor experience. In the
Linking Southwestern Heritage Through Archaeology
program, he’s looking forward to sharing his affinity for national and state parks, and the outdoors in general, with these high school students.
As they prepare for their first trip, which is scheduled for
Saguaro National Park
West in early March, they’re both looking forward to working outdoors again. Moreover, Perez is excited to gain more experience with high school students. She hopes to earn their trust and help them feel comfortable in a university setting so they feel confident in going on to college after high school. There are so many exciting aspects about this program, but “exposing them to higher education is the main focus,” they note. Being out in the field, the students in the program will be exposed to not only a cultural history of their homeland, but also a variety of career options in fields like archaeology, history, education, sustainability, and more. Burton says, “The bigger you can make someone’s world, the more they are aware of their own potential.”
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