University of California, Santa Barbara
Faculty Member, Education
Professor and Director of Center for Literacy & Inquiry in Networking Communities
Gevirtz Graduate School of Education
Thesis Title: Pedagogical Styles Differences as Related to Comprehension in Grades 1 through 3
Paul Ammon
John Gumperz
Robert Ruddell
About
Biography:
My teaching and research focus on teaching-learning relationships, disciplinary knowledge as socially constructed, and ethnographic research and discourse studies of the patterns of everyday life in classroom.
Questions that I explore in my research and in my classes include:
• How do children gain access to school knowledge?
• What counts as literacy and learning in school settings?
• How is disciplinary knowledge socially constructed?
• What opportunities for learning are constructed in
classrooms, and who has access to these opportunities?
• How does the theory you select shape your research
questions, the methods you use, and the claims that you
can make about a phenomenon?
• How can educational reforms be evaluated using a
dynamic and over time process?
As a founding member of the Santa Barbara Classroom Discourse Group, a collaborative community of teacher ethnographers, student ethnographers and university-based ethnographers, I explore questions guided by theories on the social construction of knowledge. Our goal is to identify principles of practices that teachers (and others) use to support equity of access for all students.
As a co-director of LINC, the Center for Education Research for Literacy and Inquiry in Networking Communities (http://www.education.ucsb.edu/linc), I work with teachers and researchers to explore how the new advanced technology networks support innovative learning opportunities. My colleagues and I have an approach to curriculum and technology in which teachers and students create a virtual and interactive community in which they plan collaborative research across city, state and national borders and share their local inquiry to make global connections.
Educational Background
I have been teaching for more than 4 decades across levels of schooling (K-20). I received my M.A. in Educational Psychology from California State University, Northridge (1970), where I learned about child and language development. I received my Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, where I explored the relationships between teaching and learning, literacy and knowledge construction. My recent research focuses on how classroom practices support access to students across academic disciplines in classrooms and in virtual communities.
Emphasis:
Learning, Culture & Technology Studies, Research Methodology, Cultural Perspectives & Comparative Education
Research Interests:
Learning within and across disciplines; Learning and technology; Classroom research; Literacy across disciplines; Learning in community; Research methods--qualitative, ethnographic; Cross case research; Action research; Early childhood education; Knowledge construction in classrooms
Contact Information
Gevirtz Graduate School of Education
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
805-5893-4781
sec 805-893-4515
