EDTHP Current Students on the Job Market

Research Interests:  youth civic participation, political socialization, youth agency, education policy, democracy in schooling, comparative and international education

Dissertation title: Rethinking youth political socialization: The relationship of youth civic participation to democratic schooling processes and democratic political contexts.

Career goal: Dr. Dagistan’s graduate work has focused on the social construction of civic participation of young people and the educational policies that sustain or inhibit their participation. As a Ph.D. student, Dr. Dagistan has had the opportunity to work on several projects on educational policies regarding youth empowerment, youth-adult collaboration and student leadership. Dr. Dagistan is seeking a full-time faculty position that allows the opportunity to teach about foundations and philosophies of education, where she would be able to have engaged discussions about democratic public education; analyze and critique education policy; further investigate youth political socialization; and examine educational opportunities from the perspectives of minoritized stakeholders. 

Research interest: teacher voice, teacher policy engagement, teachers as policy actors, teacher activism, intersections between student voice and teacher voice work, youth-adult partnerships, educator preparation

My dissertation:  As it stands, little is known about how teachers perceive their role in policy and how policy engagement can influence their job-related experiences, especially beyond the school-level. Cohron's dissertation examines ​teacher policy (dis)engagement across their careers through life history interviews with State and National Teacher of the Year finalists. She aims to identify supporting and inhibiting factors for teacher engagement with policy, provide vignettes of what that those engagements look like, understand how those moments are informed by teacher perceptions and motivations, and illuminate the potential of policy engagement on teachers’ work.

Research interests:  social-emotional costs of school accountability policies; social outcomes of education-based meritocracy; and educational changes associated with global development goals and norms. 

Ph.D. Dissertation:  His dissertation study argues that accountability in education serves as an institutional generator of academic pressure, triggering concerns about non-academic aspects such as student wellbeing. Understudied to date is the unintended consequence that accountability policies may incur as a psychological toll on students. Using the large-scale data of PISA 2018 which included the questionnaires about student wellbeing as well as school accountability, the findings of the study are important to an enhanced understanding of the impact of accountability not only on academic achievement, but also the socioemotional health of students.

Research interests: district policies, especially regarding equity; school boards; democratic education; and research-practice partnerships  

Dissertation: Dulaney's dissertation studies the formation and implementation of equity policies at the district level. Using a case study approach, she analyzes how school boards come to adopt policies that are explicitly focused on equity and to what extent district equity policies influence district decision-making. Dulaney also considers the relationship between equity focused capacity-building activities and district decisions to create or implement an equity policy. Her study contributes to the small field of literature on school boards, specifically reflecting on the role and responsibilities of school boards in democratic education. 
 

Research Interests: Policies affecting teacher labor markets; educational inequalities and segregation; international development

Dissertation topic: Educational Inequalities in Teacher Quality and Segregation Across Social Groups in India 

Career goal: To work for a think tank or NGO in the field of international education development