Associate Professor, Educational Psychology
Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations (LEPF)
As a teacher educator, I am interested in moving beyond the language of skills and competencies to discuss the teacher as a whole person. My research examines the first years of teaching as part of teachers' unfolding life story. I explore the identity struggles of new teachers and the difficulties they encounter when they don't feel they have fully reached adulthood. One aim of this work is to challenge the prevailing model of teaching skills rooted in the language of "standards" and "accountability." In the long term, my aim is to develop mentoring experiences to guide new and pre-service teachers in their identity development in order to help them to both become more effective in the classroom and to create meaningful experiences for themselves and their students.
Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations
Graham 223
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-753-4404
lepf@niu.edu