Notes on Contributors
Thomas L. Alsbury
is Professor of Educational Leadership at Northwest University. His research interests include school board governance, organizational theory, and school district reform. Recent publications include an article in the journal Research in Educational Administration & Leadership (Vol. 3, 2018). He is editor of the volume The Future of School Board Governance: Relevancy and Revelation (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008) and coeditor with Phil Gore of the book Improving School Board Effectiveness: A Balanced Governance Approach (Harvard, 2015). Prior to his academic career, Alsbury served almost 20 years as a high school teacher, K–12 principal, and district administrator.
Mary Ewart
is Assistant Professor of Education at Northwest University. Her research interests include culturally responsive teaching, instructional design, and STEM education; her proposed doctoral research will focus on pedagogical strategies to strengthen mathematics understanding and combat mathematics anxiety in preservice elementary school teachers. Her master’s thesis centered around teacher leadership, specifically how to create and maintain cross-departmental professional learning communities, with an emphasis on collaboration between secondary mathematics and English departments. Prior to joining higher education, she taught mathematics and science for 13 years in secondary schools.
Linda Hargreaves
is Reader Emerita in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. Her background is in psychology and primary education, and her research interests include educational provision in small rural schools and classroom interaction in various contexts. Relevant publications include “Theory as the Source of ‘Research Footprint’ in Rural Settings” with Rune Kvalsund in Doing Educational Research in Rural Settings (Routledge, 2014), edited by Simone White and Michael Corbett, and “Turning Talk Around: Time for Children to Talk and Teachers to Listen in Primary Mathematics” with Rocío García-Carrión in Promoting Academic Talk in Schools (Routledge, 2018), edited by Robyn M. Gillies.
Susan K. Johnsen
is Professor Emerita in the Department of Educational Psychology at Baylor University. She is editor in chief of Gifted Child Today and the author of more than 300 articles, monographs, technical reports, chapters, and other publications related to gifted education. Johnsen has written three tests used in identifying gifted students: Test of Mathematical Abilities for Gifted Students, Test of Nonverbal Intelligence, and Screening Assessment Gifted Students. She has received awards for her work in the field of education, including the National Association for Gifted Children’s Ann F. Isaacs Founder’s Memorial Award and the Council for Exceptional Children’s Leadership Award. Her research interests focus on assessment, standards, and serving gifted students from diverse populations.
Eija Kimonen
is Senior Researcher with the RICEI Project at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. This project studies international educational reforms carried out in the United States, Russia, China, and India in a comparative context. She is also Adjunct Professor of Intercultural and Comparative Education at Northeast Normal University in China. Her research interests include the interplay between education and society generally, and reform pedagogics, outdoor education, and work-based education more specifically. Kimonen most recently authored the book Education and Society in Comparative Context (Sense Publishers, 2015) and coedited the volume Reforming Teaching and Teacher Education (Sense Publishers, 2017) with Raimo Nevalainen.
Suzan Kobashigawa
is Professor of Education at Northwest University. Her research interests include English language teaching, teacher development, intercultural communication, and language revitalization. Her research in language revitalization focuses specifically on generational use of the Hawaiian language and the context needed for continued growth. An outgrowth of this research has centered on schools and the role they play in Indigenous language education, both in Hawaii and in Washington State. In addition, Kobashigawa conducts training for English language teachers in the United States and globally in pedagogy, teacher reflection, and intercultural communication.
Karon N. LeCompte
is Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Baylor University. She teaches courses with an emphasis in social studies education, where she involves preservice and Texas teachers in civics education and law-related education. Her research interests include social studies education and leadership theory. She has authored or coauthored over 25 book chapters and articles on topics related to civics education and leadership and has presented at state, national, and international conferences. LeCompte was named a Baylor iCivics Fellow in 2012 and spent six weeks in Washington, D.C., working with the national iCivics team established by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
Suzanne M. Nesmith
is Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education and Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Baylor University. A specialist in science and environmental education, she has published extensively on the ways in which content, instructional strategies, and instructional contexts work together in the construction of meaning and understanding. Her recent studies include exploring elementary preservice teachers’ perceptions toward using literature in science, educators’ design and implementation of environmental education curricula, and the influence of professional development experience on how educators apply green chemistry concepts. Nesmith is also director of the Wetlands Environmental Academy for Educators.
Raimo Nevalainen
is a Lecturer in the University Teacher Training School and a researcher at the Research for International Comparison of Educational Innovations (RICEI) Project at the University of Jyväskylä. Along with his research work, he has presented his studies around the world, particularly in the United States, India, and China. His research interests include active learning, curriculum change, teacher professionalism, teacher competencies, and teacher social participation in the process of community education. He is a coeditor with Eija Kimonen of the recent volumes Transforming Teachers’ Work Globally (Sense Publishers, 2013) and Reforming Teaching and Teacher Education (Sense Publishers, 2017).
Lakia M. Scott
is Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Baylor University. She teaches courses in elementary reading methods and diversity issues to preservice teachers and has over 10 years of combined experience teaching at the elementary, secondary, undergraduate, and graduate levels. She is a recognized scholar in the field of urban education and has coauthored and coedited books, book chapters, and educational evaluation reports. Most recently, she coedited the book Culturally Affirming Literacy Practices for Urban Elementary Students (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) with Barbara Purdum-Cassidy. Scott is currently conducting research on national reading and language intervention programs for urban students with a particular focus on the urban dialect.