Teaching and Leadership
Faculty
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Corinne Roth Smith
Professor, Program Coordinator, Department Chair
Inclusive Elementary & Special Education
315-443-9321
crsmith@syr.edu
Ph.D. Syracuse University, 1973
School psychological assessment and intervention practice; learning disabilities
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Christine Ashby
Assistant Professor
Inclusive Elementary & Special Education
315-443-8689
ceashby@syr.edu
Christy Ashby is an Assistant Professor in the Teaching and Leadership Department of the School of Education at Syracuse University. She teaches in the Inclusive Elementary and Special Education Program and the Graduate Inclusive Education Programs. Her teaching and research focuses on inclusive education broadly, with specific emphasis on students with labels of autism and other developmental disabilities. Her work also includes differentiated instruction, collaborative teaching and inclusive school reform. She teaches courses on inclusive education for students considered to have significant disabilities as well as the introductory course for the Inclusive Elementary and Special Education Program. Additionally, Christy is the Research Director for the Facilitated Communication Institute and Co-Director for the Schools of Promise initiative. Dr. Ashby's research has been accepted for publication in journals including the International Journal of Inclusive Education, Disability and Society, and Intellectual and Developmental Disability.
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Sharif Bey
Assistant Professor
315-443-1048
shbey@syr.edu
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Douglas Biklen
Dean, Professor
Inclusive Elementary & Special Education
315-443-4751
dpbiklen@syr.edu
Ph.D. Syracuse University, 1973
Professor, Cultural Foundations of Education, Disability Studies, Teaching and Leadership Programs; Senior Faculty, Center on Disability Studies, Law and Human Policy
Dean Biklen specializes in school inclusion, autism, deinstitutionalization, disability studies, facilitated communication, mental retardation, the representation of disability in popular culture, social policy, and the sociology of disability. He is on the executive board of the Autism National Committee. He co-produced the 2004 Academy Award nominated, CNN/State of the Art Inc. documentary film Autism is a World. His most recent book, Autism and the Myth of the Person Alone (2005) is published by NYU Press. Biklen introduced the technique of facilitated communication to the United States from Australia in 1989 and is author of Contested Words, Contested Science: Unraveling the Facilitated Communication Controversy (Teachers College Press, 1997) and Communication Unbound: How Facilitated Communication is Challenging Traditional Values of Autism and Ability/Disability (Teachers College Press, 1993). His work has been featured on ABC's PrimeTime Live and the CBS Evening News, as well as the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report.
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Diane Canino-Rispoli
Instructor
315-443-1721
dcaninor@syr.edu
Certificate of Advanced Study Syracuse University, 1991
Diane Canino-Rispoli brings her 30 years of experience as a public school administrator as principal, curriculum coordinator, human resources administrator and district level leader to the CAS program in Educational Leadership. Her position is designed to provide a practitioners perspective and align theory with practice in order to strengthen school cultures for all learners. She maintains strong relationships with leaders in a variety of area school districts and is interested in the recruitment, retention and ongoing professional development of school administrators. Areas of particular interest and expertise are the supervision and support of teachers and their ongoing professional growth. While she had had a broad range of experiences, the majority of her focus has been on urban education and she has been a long standing leader in the Syracuse City School District. She has been responsible for the recruitment of candidates into the Educational Leadership Program, with a particular focus on those from under represented groups and has been responsible for several cooperative grants between the Syracuse City School District and Syracuse University related to leadership development. Her position signals the collaboration that is valued by the University with the schools in the area.
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Julie Causton-Theoharis
Assistant Professor
Inclusive Elementary & Special Education
315-443-9651
jcauston@syr.edu
Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison
Julie Causton-Theoharis is an Assistant Professor in the Inclusive and Special Education Program in the Department of Teaching and Leadership at Syracuse University. Her teaching, research and consulting are guided by a passion for inclusive education. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on including students who have traditionally been marginalized in school settings and creating student centered classrooms through differentiation, curricular adaptations and universal design of curriculum and instruction. Before she was a professor, Julie taught special education in diverse and inclusive educational settings at elementary, middle and high school levels.
Julie’s research and writing focus on best practices in inclusive education, particularly lesson planning for inclusive settings, maximizing interaction through paraprofessional support, inclusive education as social justice, and inclusive teacher training programs. Her published works have appeared in such journals as Exceptional Children and Teaching Exceptional Children.
Dr. Causton-Theoharris' Home Page
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John Coggiola
Associate Professor/Program Chair
Music Education
315-443-5896
jccoggio@syr.edu
Chair, Associate Professor in Music Education, Teaching and Leadership Programs and Teaching and Curriculum Programs
Ph D., Florida State University, 1997.
Music education (Instrumental emphasis); jazz studies; music technology; effective respond to music.
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Elisa Macedo Dekaney
Assistant Professor
Music Education
315-443-4854
emdekane@syr.edu
Ph.D. Florida State University
Dr. Elisa Macedo Dekaney is an assistant professor of music education in the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the areas of choral music, research in music, world music, and co-directs the SU Brazilian Music Ensemble. In the fall of 2001, Dr. Dekaney was appointed the music director of the Syracuse University Oratorio Society, the choir that performs regularly with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Dr. Dekaney earned a bachelor’s degree in piano performance at the Seminário Teológico Batista do Sul do Brasil and a bachelor’s degree in communication from Universidade Federal Fluminense. She continued her studies in the United States, earning a master’s degree in choral conducting from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a Ph.D. in choral music education from the Florida State University. She has been an active researcher, clinician, and choral conductor in the United States, Greece, Spain, and Brazil. Dr. Dekaney is currently the repertoire and standards chair for Ethnic and Multicultural Music for the New York State American Choral Directors Association and a member of honorary music society Pi Kappa Lambda.
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Helen M. Doerr
Professor
Mathematics Education
315-443-1485
hmdoerr@syr.edu
Ph.D. Cornell University 1994
Helen M. Doerr, dual professor of teaching and leadership programs and mathematics, specializes in secondary mathematics education, with particular interests in teacher learning, mathematical communication, and mathematical modeling. She studies these issues in urban settings, drawing on design-research methodologies. She currently teaches undergraduate mathematics and is a former teacher of mathematics at the middle and high school levels.
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Benjamin Dotger
Assistant Professor
315-443-1937
bdotger@syr.edu
Ph.D. North Carolina State University
Dr. Benjamin Dotger is an Assistant Professor of Teaching and Leadership in Syracuse University’s School of Education. He holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in English Education from Elon University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from North Carolina State University.
Dr. Dotger's work explores the use of simulated interaction models to help teachers and school leaders learn how to better engage in and address scholastic problems of practice. Using the medical education pedagogy of standardized patients, Dr. Dotger implemented the Standardized Parent Conferencing Model (SPCM), a teacher development model that uses (standardized) parents, students, and paraprofessionals to help future teachers learn how to better interact with and support parents and caregivers. Through his partnership with SUNY Upstate Medical University, Dr. Dotger is extending the use of simulated interactions to also enhance the professional preparation of school leaders.
Dr. Dotger’s work with simulated interactions has been generously supported by the Spencer Foundation, the Ewing Marian Kauffman Foundation, and the Institute for Education Sciences. His work has been published by such journals as the Journal of Moral Education, Teacher Education and Special Education, Teaching Education, Educational Leadership, Planning & Changing, and the New Educator. Examples of his work with simulated interactions can be seen viewed at:
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Sharon Dotger
Assistant Professor
Science Education
315-443-9138
sdotger@syr.edu
Ph.D. North Carolina State University
Sharon Dotger received a BA degree in biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, then taught high school chemistry, physical science, and earth science in North Carolina for five years. During that period, she earned a teaching certificate at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a M.S. degree in science education from Montana State University. She completed her Ph.D. degree in science education at North Carolina State University. Her research interests include the development of pre-service science teachers and the effective use of constructivist teaching strategies in science classrooms.
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Gail Ensher
Professor
Early Childhood Special Education
315-443-9650
glensher@syr.edu
Ed.D. Boston University, 1971
Gail Ensher, professor of special education in teaching and leadership programs, is a specialist in early childhood special education and coordinates the master's degree program in early childhood special education at Syracuse University. She has published two editions of the text Newborns at Risk (Pro-Ed, 1986 and 1994), in the fall 2005 will publish a new infant toddler assessment titled Playmates: Assessing Infants and Toddlers in Natural Contexts with Thomson-Delmar, and is working on a new text in Early Childhood for Paul H. Brookes.
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Beth Ferri
Associate Professor
315-443-1465
baferri@syr.edu
Ph.D. University of Georgia 1997
Beth Ferri, associate professor in teaching and leadership programs, is the coordinator of the Inclusive Special Education Program (7-12). Her research interests are inclusive special education and disability studies. Ferri recently published an important book on an overlooked aspect of the struggle for racial equality in this country. In Reading Resistance: Discourses of Exclusion in Desegregation and Inclusion Debates (Peter Lang), she and coauthor David J. Connor relate that, 50 years after the Brown decision and 30 years after similar disability-related legislation, the promise of fully integrated schools remains largely unfulfilled. In Reading Resistance, Ferri and Connor explore how the entanglement of race and disability worked to create and maintain new mechanisms of exclusion. Ultimately, they explore the nexus of two questions: How has special education contributed to the failure of Brown? And, how did Brown fail to consider disability as a tool for resegregating students of color within otherwise integrated schools?
Curriculum Vita
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Wendy Harbour
Lawrence B. Taishoff Assistant Professor
Inclusive Elementary & Special Education
315-443-2685
wharbour@syr.edu
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Eunjoo Jung
Assistant Professor
315-443-5778
ejung03@syr.edu
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Gerald Mager
Associate Dean, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor in Teaching and Leadership
315-443-4752
gmmager@syr.edu
Ph.D. Ohio State University 1978
Jerry Mager is the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor in Teaching and Leadership Programs and the coordinator for Teaching and Curriculum, and is serving as the Interim Chair of Instructional Design Development and Evaluation.
Jerry completed doctoral studies at Ohio State University, specializing in teacher education, supervision, and curriculum.
He continues to teach in the undergraduate and graduate teacher preparation programs, and in the Educational Leadership program. He coordinates the doctoral program in Teaching and Curriculum. He serves on the New York State Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching.
Currently, he is also Co-Director of the New York Partnership for Statewide SystemsChange 2000, and he chairs the Higher Education Task Force on Quality Inclusive Schooling which supports colleges and universities from across the state in planning and implementing teacher preparation programs for inclusive schooling practice.
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Jeffery A. Mangram
Assistant Professor
Social Studies Education
315-443-3293
jamangra@syr.edu
Ph.D. Syracuse University, Teaching and Leadership
Jeffrey Mangram distinguished himself in the classroom as a social studies teacher before returning to the School of Education to complete his Ph.D. degree, including being named a finalist for the New York State Teacher of the Year award. Mangram successfully defended his dissertation this spring in Teaching and Leadership, and will continue teaching in that department in the fall. Mangram holds a B.A. degree in policy studies/political studies and a M.A. degree in social studies education, both from Syracuse University.
Curriculum Vitae
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Joanna Masingila
Professor, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence
Mathematics Education
315-443-1483
jomasing@syr.edu
Joanna Masingila, professor of mathematics and mathematics education, is the coordinator of the mathematics education program and a Laura and Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence. She teaches courses in methods and curriculum in teaching mathematics, learning theories, teacher education, and undergraduate courses in mathematics. She studies students' out-of-school mathematics practice, and teacher development. She has published widely in journals and books and has developed a number of multimedia case studies examining issues in teaching practice. Masingila was a Fulbright Scholar to Kenya in 1998.
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Emma Rodriguez Suarez
Assistant Professor
Music Education
315-443-5897
erodri05@syr.edu
Ph.D. University of Toronto
Emma Rodriguez Suarez was born and raised in the Canary Islands, Spain. Suarez holds a Level III Orff Schulwerk Teacher Training certificate and a Kodaly Certificate from the Kodaly Musical Training Institute. She has published numerous articles and contributed to Strategies for Teaching: K - 4 General Music (Rowman & Littlefield), Performance Standards for Music: Grades PreK - 12 (Music Educators National Conference) and Strategies for Teaching Elementary and Middle-Level Chorus (Rowman & Littlefield). She earned her B.A. and M.A. degrees in music education from the Hartt School of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut. Her Ph.D. degree in music education is from the University of Toronto.
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James Haywood Rolling Jr.
Associate Professor, Program Chair
Art Education
315-443-2355
jrolling@syr.edu
James Haywood Rolling, Jr. is a Dual Associate Professor in Art Education and Teaching and Leadership at Syracuse University. Dr. Rolling earned his Ed.D. and Ed.M. in art education at Teachers College, Columbia University. In his earlier education, Dr. Rolling completed his M.F.A. in studio arts research at Syracuse University as a Graduate Fellow in the African American Studies Department, and earned his B.F.A. in visual arts with a minor in creative writing at The Cooper Union School of Art. As a doctoral student, Dr. Rolling also served as the Director of Academic Administration in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College from 1999 to 2003. After completing his doctoral studies, Dr. Rolling served as a visual arts teacher and curriculum designer for grades K, 2, 3, and 4 at The School at Columbia University, a new elementary school that opened espousing a fully integrated curriculum; he was also an adjunct faculty member at New York University and Teachers College at this time. In 2005, Dr. Rolling became an Assistant Professor of Art Education at the Pennsylvania State University. In 2006, Dr. Rolling was awarded the Narrative and Research Special Interest Group (SIG) Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Education Research Association (AERA) for his doctoral dissertation, Un-Naming the Story: The Poststructuralist Repositioning of African-American Identity in Western Visual Culture. He was also the recipient of the 2006 Roy C. Buck Award from Penn State's College of Arts and Architecture for the best refereed article in a scholarly journal. Dr. Rolling has published articles, essays, and book reviews in peer-reviewed journals such as Qualitative Inquiry, Studies in Art Education, the Journal of Aesthetic Education, the Journal of Curriculum Studies, and the Journal of Curriculum & Pedagogy; serves on the review panel of Art Education, the journal of the National Art Education Association; and is an associate editor of the upcoming SAGE Encyclopedia of Identity. A founding member of the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Dr. Rolling’s research interests include: arts-based research; the studio arts as research practice; visual culture and identity politics; curriculum theory; autoethnography; social justice; and narrative inquiry in qualitative research.
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Jeffrey Rozelle
Assistant Professor
Science Education
315-443-1616
jrozelle@syr.edu
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Mara Sapon-Shevin
Professor
Inclusive Elementary & Special Education
315-443-5088
msaponsh@syr.edu
Ed.D. University of Rochester, 1976
Mara Sapon-Shevin, professor of teaching and leadership programs, is a specialist in diversity and social justice issues, including full inclusion, anti-racism teaching, bullying and harassment, cooperative learning, the politics of gifted education, multicultural education, and school reform and restructuring. She has written more than 150 books, book chapters, and articles and has presented workshops on cooperative learning and cooperative games for the classroom throughout the United States, in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, and England.
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Joseph Shedd
Associate Professor
315-443-1468
jbshedd@syr.edu
Collective bargaining; organizational behavior
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George Theoharis
Assistant Professor
Inclusive Elementary & Special Education
315-443-5271
gtheohar@syr.edu
Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison
In addition to being an accomplished scholar, George Theoharis also has had extensive field experience in education as a teacher, administrator and principal in the Madison Metropolitan School District. He is an assistant professor in educational leadership and inclusive elementary education in the department of Teaching and Leadership. He teaches classes in educational leadership and elementary social studies methods.
His research focuses on public school leaders committed to equity and justice, they success/reforms these leaders accomplish, and the resistance they face. His interests and work focuses on issues of equity, justice, diversity, inclusion, urban schools, and school reform.
Theoharis completed his Ph.D. degree in educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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John Tillotson
Associate Professor
Science Education
315-443-9137
jwtillot@syr.edu
Ph.D. University of Iowa, 1996
John Tillotson, dual associate professor of science education in teaching and leadership programs and the Department of Science Teaching, is coordinator of the Syracuse University Secondary Science Teacher Education Program. He teaches courses in methods of science instruction, curricular issues, teacher development, and the nature of science. His research focuses on the influence of preservice teacher education programs on science teachers' beliefs and practices, as well as the impact of educational reform on high-need rural school districts. Since 2001, he has served as executive director of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching.
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Patricia Tinto
Associate Professor
Mathematics Education
315-443-5087
pptinto@syr.edu
Ph.D. Syracuse University, 1990
Patricia Tinto focuses on field-based research on teacher change/teacher research, applications of new technologies supporting classroom dialogue, and investigations of learning environments supporting the development of mathematical thinking by all students. Her publications look at reformed instructional practice and teacher change. She was chair of the Research Advisory Committee of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and a member of the PBS TeacherLine National Advisory Board for online professional development in mathematics, science, and technology. Tinto is the principal investigator for a Teacher Leader Quality Partnership project for urban schools building communities of inquiry around mathematics learning, and a co-principal investigator on a New York State Mathematics Science Project (MSP) grant, Beyond Access to Mathematics Achievement. This project focuses on improving mathematics learning in urban classrooms grades 3 to 8. She also serves as a co-PI on a leadership grant aimed at involving principals and administrators in mathematics reform efforts. She works collaboratively with the Living SchoolBook on the development of the Dialogue Project and has served on several grants using technology in education.
Emeriti
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Robert Bogdan
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
315-443-7612
rcbogdan@syr.edu
Ph.D. Syracuse University, 1971
Robert Bogdan is well known for his work in qualitative research methods and has written numerous articles and books on subjects related to methodology. His books, Introduction to Qualitative Research (3rd edition 1998 with S. Taylor) and Qualitative Research for Education (3rd Edition 1998 with S. Biklen) are widely used graduate texts. Bogdan's research is wide-ranging and includes research on life histories of former residents of institutions for mentally retarded people, school inclusion, communication in neonatal wards, the wilderness, and visual depictions of disability in popular culture. He has published extensively on a large variety of topics and often gives workshops and lectures on qualitative research and disability studies here and abroad. His book Freak Show, a social history of the practice of exhibiting people for amusement and profit, was heralded as an important contribution to the relatively new field of disability studies. His book, Exposing the Wilderness (1999), looks at early 20th century Adirondack photographers and their depictions of the wilderness. Bogdan is active in a number of professional organizations and on the editorial boards of numerous journals.
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David Krathwohl
Professor Emeritus
Inclusive Elementary & Special Education
315-443-7612
drkrathw@syr.edu