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Contact:
John W. Porter Building
Suite 313
Dept. of Teacher Education
College of Education
Eastern Michigan University
Ypsilanti, Michigan 48197
Phone: 734.487.7120 x2633
Fax: 734.487.2101
Email: vpolakow@emich.edu
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Professor, Educational Psychology, Early Childhood and the Educational Studies Doctoral Program, Department of Teacher Education, College of Education.
I teach courses on Children in Poverty, Piaget/Vygotsky Constructivist Perspectives, and Qualitative Methods. Doctoral level courses include Qualitative Methods 1 and 11 as well as Children and Families in Poverty with a focus on inequality, and educational and social policy.
My scholarship is dedicated to advocacy on behalf of women and children in poverty, and in my writings I have attempted to document the lived realities of those who have been shut out— from early childhood education, from K-12 education, and from post-secondary education; and to give voice to those whose rights have been violated by poverty, race and gender discrimination. My work encompasses the impact of public policies on welfare, homelessness, youth (in)justice, and access to child care and post-secondary education in national and international contexts. My most recent book Who Cares for Our Children argues that child care should be a human right and chronicles the resilient struggles of low-income women across the country as they confront an acute crisis of child care. I am currently involved in an international seven-country collaborative project that focuses on children’s rights with particular emphasis on poverty, child care, and educational and social exclusion.
Co-Editor of PowerPlay, A Journal of Educational Justice
Major Awards
| 1994: |
Kappa Delta Pi Book of the Year Award (for Lives on the Edge) |
| 1995/1996: |
Fulbright Scholar, Denmark |
| 2001: |
Ronald W. Collins Distinguished Faculty Scholarship Award, Eastern Michigan University. |
| 2010: |
Distinguished Contributions to Gender Equity in Education Research, American Educational Research Association |
Major Publications
The Erosion of Childhood (1982)
Lives on the Edge: Single Mothers and their Children in the Other America (1993)
The Public Assault on America’s Children: Poverty, Violence and Juvenile Injustice (2000)
Tab af Rettigheder (2000) (with T. Halskov & P. S. Jørgensen)
Diminished Rights (2001) (with T. Halskov & P. S. Jørgensen)
International Perspectives on Homelessness (2001) (with C. Guillean)
Shut Out: Low-Income Mothers and Higher Education in Post-Welfare America (2004) (with S. Butler, L. Deprez, & P. Kahn)
Who Cares for Our Children: The Child Care Crisis in the Other America (2007)
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