EHE News
PhD prizes recognize top research serving society
8-2-2010
Bill Loadman
Heather Bandeen spent five years coordinating teacher education and professional development programs in three different states. She periodically saw a disconnect in understanding between policymakers who mandated school policies and the teachers who implemented them.
This experience inspired Bandeen to study the policymaking process from the teachers' point of view. Her results, described in her dissertation, illuminate new reasons and ways for administrators to bring teachers into the policymaking dialogue. Schools would benefit, especially the children.
As a parent and a university administrator, Chinwe Okpalaoka saw middle-school Black females who had immigrated from West Africa struggle to form new ethnic identities, even though they spoke fluent English and came from middle-class backgrounds. She searched the research to learn more about their educational and sociocultural needs but found a void.
Okpalaoka decided to study these girls, describing in her dissertation how their needs differ from those of non-English-speaking East African refugees. Her work revealed considerable pressure on West African girls to identify with either their parents' ethnic heritage or that of their African-American school peers. Teachers, administrators and the girls themselves would benefit from her recommendations.
Honoring the exceptional
Professor Emeritus Bill Loadman wanted to honor exceptional studies like those of Bandeen and Okpalaoka for their groundbreaking contributions to our knowledge. So in 2009, he donated funds to create the Loadman Dissertation Prizes Competition, one for each section of the School of Educational Policy and Leadership.
He repeated his gift in 2010, resulting in a ceremony on May 28 to honor student achievement.
Professor Eric Anderman, interim director of the school, presided at the event, emphasizing Ohio State's focus on research. "Our students are being trained as top researchers and have received local, national and international recognition," he said.
He named dozens of students, listing their presentations, publications and honors received during the year. He also praised both faculty and staff of the school for going above and beyond to support these students in their scholarly inquiries.
Loadman spoke about his passion for supporting new knowledge. He urged everyone present to thank both mentors and family for their support.
The recipients of the five prizes for academic year 2009-2010 were:
Section: Cultural Foundations, Technology and Qualitative Inquiry
Chinwe Okpalaoka (center) is congratulated by her advisor Antoinette Errante (left) and prize donor Bill Loadman.
Loadman Prize Recipient: Chinwe Okpalaoka (PhD, March 2009)
Advisor: Associate Professor Antoinette Errante
Dissertation Title: "You Don't Look Like One, So How Are You African? How West African Immigrant Girls Learn to (Re) Negotiate Ethnic Identities in Home and School Contexts"
Findings: This study is among the first to examine how home and school experiences shape the ethnic identities of West African girls and what it shows about their educational and sociocultural needs. Faced with a need to choose, some of the girls selected their family ethnic identities in resistance to negative stereotypes about them or in opposition to their perceptions of African Americans. Others chose American or African-American identities in response to internalized negative stereotypes about Africa.
Section: Educational Administration
Heather Bandeen
Loadman Prize Recipient: Heather Bandeen (PhD, August 2009)
Advisor: Associate Professor and Section Head Helen Marks
Donor Support Received: Roald and Della Campbell Memorial Educational Administration Scholarship, Dan H. Eikenberry Scholarship, Franklin B. and Jane Walter Scholarship
Dissertation Title: "Elusive Practices of Gender, Power and Silence: Theorizing the Relational Power of Elementary Teachers in the Policy Epidemic"
Findings: Bandeen created a new theoretical model to explain the complexity encountered when educational policy is implemented. She found that policymakers and teachers use contrasting strategies to gain or maintain power. Policy uses direct strategies, such as resource allocation; teachers tend to use silence and shifting alliances. She recommends a new way to involve teachers in policymaking to avoid relying solely on a narrow measurement of certain outcomes. The approach would consider communities, student/family life situations and shifting demographics.
Section: Educational Psychology and Philosophy
Bill Loadman (right) congratulated Sarah Silverman (center) and her advisor, Bryan Warnick, on receipt of the prize.
Loadman Prize Recipient: Sarah Kozel Silverman (PhD, August 2009)
Advisors: Assistant Professor Bryan Warnick and Assistant Professor Heather Davis
Dissertation Title: "On Responsibility: Teachers' Conceptions of Promoting Social Justice"
Findings: This study is the first to focus on teachers' beliefs about their responsibilities as individuals and as professionals regarding the promotion of social justice in their classrooms. The results indicate that teachers who felt close alignment between their private identities and their professional teaching identities approached social justice as an integral part of teaching, whereas those who held more distinct identities saw it as their role to challenge the educational establishment to grow toward a more social justice-focused model.
Section: Higher Education and Student Affairs
Advisor Ada Demb (left) praises prize recipient Davida Haywood (center) as Bill Loadman presents her prize.
Loadman Prize Recipient: Davida L. Haywood (PhD, June 2009)
Advisor: Associate Professor and Section Head Ada Demb
Donor Support Received: Porterfield-Dickens Graduate Research Support Award; Educational Policy and Leadership Graduate Student Travel Grant; Dai Ho Chun Graduate Fellowship
Dissertation Title: "(Re)Inventing in the 'Dark': African American Women and Presidential Leadership"
Findings: This study is among the first to examine how African-American women college presidents "make sense" of presidential leadership by recalling familial expectations, being aware of their raced and gendered realities, entering into personal and professional role modeling and mentorships, relying on faith and developing value systems. They "perform" the presidency in the traditional sense (i.e., by writing and giving speeches); they also become their "performances" by employing rhetorical strategies historically associated with the African-American female experience, including testifying and storytelling.
Section: Quantitative Research, Evaluation and Measurement
Shannon Flaum-Horvath (second from right) celebrated receipt of her prize with advisors Ann O'Connell and Dorinda Gallant and prize donor Bill Loadman.
Loadman Prize Recipient: Shannon K. Flaum-Horvath (PhD, June 2009)
Advisors: Assistant Professor Dorinda Gallant (committee chair) and Associate Professor and Section Head Ann O'Connell (committee co-chair)
Dissertation Title: "Application of the Regression Discontinuity Technique to the Response to Intervention (RTI) Model of Service Delivery for Determining the Effects of Early Intervention in Reading"
Findings: Flaum examined the appropriateness of the regression discontinuity research design in analyzing reading intervention data for first-grade students. First-grade students who received a Tier 2 reading intervention over the course of the school year were compared to students not receiving the intervention. While findings revealed the intervention was effective, limitations exist in conducting this type of analysis. The strengths and weaknesses of regression discontinuity are discussed.
You can support groundbreaking graduate research
In addition to Professor Emeritus Loadman's prizes, donors' endowed gifts supported some of these graduate students' research. More such assistance is needed to increase the number of EHE graduate students supported in their groundbreaking studies. To explore opportunities, please contact Tracy Kirby, senior director of development, at (614) 292-5538 or trkirby@ehe.osu.edu.
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