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Welcome to Five New Faculty Members

The School of Education is pleased to welcome five new faculty members to our ranks. The new faculty will be joining Elementary & Early Childhood Education, Educational Administration & Secondary Education, and Special Education, Language & Literacy with diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise.

 


                                 

Patricia A. L. Ehrensal will be joining the Educational Leadership program in the Department of Educational Administration & Secondary Education. She holds a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from Temple University. Dr. Ehrensal previously taught at The George Washington University and Fordham University.

Dr. Ehrensal published articles in The Journal for a Just and Caring Education, Religion and Public Education, Educational Policy, Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, Educational Administration Quarterly, and PowerPlay. She is the author of Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing: Schools, Managerialism and Altering Ideologies, in Making Public Services Management Critical (2009), and a co-author of “Understanding School Board Politics: Balancing Public Voice and Professional Power” in the Handbook on the Politics of Education (2008), and “The American Melting Pot Versus the Chinese Hot Pot in Ethical Leadership and Decision Making” in Education: Applying Theoretical Perspective to Complex Dilemmas (2001, 2nd Edition 2005, 3rd Edition 2010). Additionally, she authored 8 entries in the Encyclopedia of Education Law (2008).

The major focus of her research is the critical analysis of discourses surrounding public school organizations. Her work has a critical postmodern theoretical perspective, and the primary “methodological” approach is critical discourse analysis (CDA). This interdisciplinary research includes Critical Theory, Postmodernism, Organizational Theory, Education Policy, Law and Education, Critical Legal Studies, Politics of Education, Ethics, and Education, Social Justice, Feminism, Critical Race Theory, Discourse and Discourse Analysis, and Cultural Studies. Additionally, Dr. Ehrensal has a special interest in School Boards and Governance.

Lauren Shallish is one of two new faculty members joining the Department of Special Education, Language & Literacy. She is a doctoral candidate in Cultural Foundations of Education and Disability Studies at Syracuse University. Her dissertation, titled “A Different Diversity?”, investigates how disability is/is not considered a form of diversity in higher education.

Lauren currently serves as the research assistant to the Dean for the Syracuse University School of Education, qualitative research assistant for the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia University, and as a qualitative research assistant for  “Mind the Gap”, a multi-institutional research project to establish a center for the study of accessibility within the SUNY college system. She has taught courses on international inclusive education, social justice, and Disability Studies, and has been a co-instructor for the School of Education’s study abroad program to Brazil.

Sarah Domire will also be joining the Department of Special Education, Language & Literacy in the fall. She will be receiving her Ed.D. in Special Education from the Pennsylvania State University after defending her dissertation titled, “Generalization Effects of Video Self-Prompting on Teaching Daily Living Skills to Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders.”

Before her doctoral studies, Sarah was a classroom teacher in NYC and an Alternative Assessment School-Based Coach, focusing on students with autism, severe disabilities, and complex communication needs. Sarah’s scholarly interests include video-based instruction, academic and behavioral interventions for students with autism spectrum disorders and severe disabilities, assistive technology, and visual support systems.

Jonathan Davis will be joining the Department of Educational Administration & Secondary Education this fall. He received his Ph.D in Sociology, with a focus on education, at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. He currently works as a public high school social studies teacher and instructional coach at Eagle Academy for Young Men II in Brooklyn, NY. He has taught various courses as an adjunct lecturer at Brooklyn College, Hunter College, and John Jay College.

Before pursuing his Ph.D., he was a public high school social studies teacher in northern Kentucky for three years and then returned to New York City to teach in a small public high school. He has taught every high school social studies subject, including AP US History, and created an elective on racism in the US. While teaching in NYC, he has served as a cooperating/mentor teacher and social studies department chair.

Minsoo Kim-Bossard will be joining the Department of Elementary & Early Childhood Education in the fall. She is receiving a Ph.D. at The Pennsylvania State University in Curriculum and Instruction – Early Childhood Education and Comparative and International Education, studying under the educational anthropologist Joseph Valente. She holds an MS in Art Education and a BA in Art History. Prior to and during her doctoral study, she worked as a preschool teacher and art teacher in Pennsylvania.

Her research combines the fields of educational anthropology, reconceptualist scholarship in early childhood education, and studio-based pedagogical practices borrowed from art education. As an educator, scholar, and activist artist, she often draws on her experiences navigating multiple communities as an international researcher to inform how she thinks about teaching, research, and service.

Contact

School of Education
Education Building, Suite 102
The College of New Jersey
P.O. Box 7718
2000 Pennington Rd.
Ewing, NJ 08628

609.771.2100
educat@tcnj.edu

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