Fall 2022 Newsletter

Dear Readers,

The Ed.D. Newsletter is designed for current and prospective students, as well as our alumni. It will keep you up to date on Webster University's Doctor of Education program. This includes news from our doctoral students, conference presentations and publications, professional development opportunities, updates to the program, and more. It is scheduled to be published twice a year, and it is available online.

Enjoy reading!

Dr. Lee-Johnson, Ph.D.

Director of Ed.D.

Research Assistant & Executive Editor

It is my pleasure to introduce our Research Assistant, Mary Rose Reynolds, to all readers. Mary Rose has been working on research projects, searching for grants, and working closely with our faculty, staff, and students since August. Our program success relies upon Mary Rose's professional contributions.

Mary Rose is currently pursuing her Master of the Arts in Teaching with a concentration in Art Education here at Webster University. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2020 with Bachelor of the Arts degrees in English, Environmental Studies, and a minor in Art History. She is interested in the intersections of the arts, ecology, and social justice in education.

In This Issue

Program Updates
Recent Presentations and Publications
Welcome New Students & Student Interviews
Upcoming Conferences
Job Board
Contact Us

Program Updates

In Fall 2022, our Doctor of Education (EdD) program attracted more than 100 prospective applicants and 70 applications on SLATE. Our new online asynchronous program in Transformative Learning in the Global Community, which is our flagship emphasis, admitted the largest number of applicants since the inception of the program. We have two new cohorts (each has ten students) and they have participated in our Orientation/Residency sessions on August 20th and 27th. We are very excited to have 20 new students in the program.

Another exciting news is that we joined the Carnegie Project on Education Doctorate (CPED) as an explorer member in 2022. CPED (https://www.cpedinitiative.org) is a consortium with more than 130 members with EdD programs. The consortium has a transformative definition of the degree, professional framework centering justice and equity, and professional resources (awards, journal, conventions, and book series) for supporting member institutions. It is a milestone in program development that we joined CPED in 2022. We appreciate the Interim Dean's support in making this happen.

This year’s CPED Convention theme was Transforming the Advanced Preparation of Educational Professionals to Lead Through Scholarly and Equity-minded Practice. The convention was place-based, and it was hosted by the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, PA. The convention attracted more than 350 participants and held three days of workshops and concurrent sessions from October 12th to 14th. Webster University’s Ed.D. Director, Dr. Yin Lam Lee-Johnson and four doctoral students, Trezette Dixon, Jennifer Ono, Tamara Rodney, and Ashley Spencer submitted a panel proposal, and the proposal was accepted upon peer-review. The panel presentation, entitled Transforming a Transdisciplinary Ed.D. with Equity-centered Scholarship and Practice tackled the definitions of equity-centeredness in education and showcased four dissertation projects. The Webster Today article on the CPED Convention can be found here: https://news.webster.edu/2022/edd_students_present_at_cped_convention.php

Webster Doctoral Students (From left to right: Trezette Dixon, Jennifer Ono, Ashley Spencer, and Tamara Rodney) and EdD Director (middle: Dr. Lee-Johnson)

Webster’s Doctoral Students at CPED’s Scholarly Practitioner Alliance (SPA) Gathering

Tamara Rodney and Trezette Dixon at Opening Ceremony

Trezette Dixon responded with a summary at the Closing Remarks.

We have started to construct a Peer Mentorship Program that pairs up Year 3 Doctoral Candidates with Year 1 Doctoral Students. We appreciate Kornblum Institute for funding this initiative. This initiative supports peer mentorship in the program. Mentor and mentee pairs meet three times in a semester for professional connections, research and theory discussions, and they construct a supportive community for identifying and narrowing down research topics for dissertation projects. Please read on for our recent research output.

On Saturday, November 5th, 2022, Webster University’s Ed.D. Director Dr. Yin Lam Lee-Johnson and Research Assistant Mary Rose Reynolds hosted a Research Seminar for the Year 3 doctoral candidates and Year 1 new students. Dissertation Chairs and Committee Members of Year 3 doctoral candidates were also invited. Doctoral Candidates Chavon Curry, Ruby Parks, Kerri Fair, Trezette Dixon, and Tamara Rodney presented on their dissertation projects during the seminar.

Below is an image from the Ed.D. Research Seminar:

*Image from Ed.D. Research Seminar, 11/05/2022 (Back row from left to right: Dr. Basiyr Rodney, Dr. Lee-Johnson, John Link, Monica Stacker, Ruby Parks, Dr. Monica Barnes-Boateng; front row from left to right: Trezette Dixon, Tamara Rodney)

Recent presentations and publications

Our program has a strong emphasis on collaborations for presentations and publications. Since the inception of the program, we have greatly increased the number of presentations and publications, as well as collaborative research between faculty and students. We are proud to announce our research output in this issue:

Publications

Fyfe, B., Lee-Johnson, Y.L., Yu, G., Reyes, J. (in press). Affirming the Rights of Emergent Bilingual and Multilingual

Children and Families: Interweaving Research and Practice through the Reggio Emilia Approach. Routledge.

Lee-Johnson, Y.L. (2022 early view). When Immigrant Mothers of Color Become Public School Teachers for English

Language Learners: Intersectionality for Transformative Teacher Preparation. TESOL Quarterly.

https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3171

Lee-Johnson, Y.L., Flewellan, V., Fair, K., O’Connor, K., Dixon, T., Ono, J., Spencer, A., Singler, J., Schmuke, M., Hanses,

J., Barton, A., & Rodney, T. (2022). Adapting an Ethnographic Research to an Online Survey Amid COVID-19:

Transformative Lens in Educational Research. In Sage Research Methods: Doing Research Online.

https://methods.sagepub.com/case/ethnographic-online-survey-covid-19-transformative-lens-educational

Lee-Johnson, Y.L. (2022). The transformative power of co-researching. Innovations in Early Education: The International

Reggio Emilia Exchange, Spring Issue, p. 13.

Altrogge, V.E, Ruby Parks (2021) “Digital Professional Development,” Chapter in Shifting to Online Learning Through

Faculty Collaborative Support.

Altrogge, V.E, Ruby Parks, Lori Howerton, Kate Leenerts, Amber Sinnamon and Abraham Leach (October 15, 2020) Staying

Apart, Learning Together: An Analysis of Educator Responses to the COVID -19 Pandemic, a paper and presentation at

the 2020 Annual Conference Virtual Global Research of International Society of Educational Planners.

Altrogge, V.E. and Ruby Parks (October 18, 2019) Preparing Leaders for Diversity, Social Justice and Global Awareness, a

paper and presentation at the Annual Conference of International Society of Educational Planners (ISEP), Lisbon,

Portugal.

Accepted Publication Proposals

Lee-Johnson, Y.L., O’Connor, K., Fuller, J. (under review). Subversive Power of Intersectionality: Counterstory Analysis of

Biracial and Multiracial Microaggressions Among School-age Learners.

Lee-Johnson, Y.L., Fair, K., O'Connor, K., Rodney, T., Ono, J., & Dixon, T. (under review). Reflexivity for Restorying

the Ontological Truths in Qualitative Research. CPED Journal Special Issue.

Conference Presentations

Curry, Chavon (2022). "Leading through Trauma." Summer Leadership Institute. St. Louis Public Schools – July 27th & July

28th.

Lee-Johnson, Y.L., Ono, J., Dixon, T., Rodney, T., & Spencer, A. (2022). Transforming the advanced preparation of educational

professionals to lead through scholarly and equity-minded practice. CPED 2022 Annual Convention. Pittsburgh. Oct 12-

14.

Rodney, T., Lee-Johnson, Y.L. (2022). Pushing the Boundaries of Epistemologies to Create Transformative Learning

Experiences. Creativity Week. Webster University – Geneva. June 9.

Rodney, B. (2022). Braintrust: Conceptualizing the Jamaican Diaspora as a Resource for National Education Reform. SOPHE

Convention. Sep. 29 – Oct. 1.

Dr. Basiyr Rodney – SOPHE Presentation 2022: Dr. Rodney presented a paper on the way in which Jamaican political leaders frame the historical outmigration of professional classes from the country. The presentation entitled Braindrain or Braintrust: Conceptualizing the Jamaican Diaspora as a Resource for National Education Reform, presents a thought starter on an emergent prime ministerial discourse that characterizes Jamaica as a “net exporter of talent.” In the presentation, this language game is investigated through a discourse analysis of recent prime-ministerial speeches to members of the Jamaican diaspora in different countries. Beyond the language game inherent in the new discourse, Dr. Rodney advanced a dialectic of the Jamaican education system as having both local and global impacts. As such current attempts to reform the Jamaican education system should examine this dialectic of the local and the global is they frame professional training and expertise as well as reinforce local economic pathologies. Rodney argues in the think-piece that the socio-historical impact of a mercantile economy rooted in chattel slavery positions the prime ministerial language game as potentially damaging to national development and grossly subservient to neoliberal as well as neocolonial demands. Economic growth will remain limited if the educational system fails to turn out adequate talent to serve both local development and the enduring neoliberal export demand which drives Jamaican outmigration patterns. Similarly current neoliberal arrangements will constrain the education system to produce low and mid-level functionaries for service industries. This will be at the expense of the 4th industrial revolution skills in advanced technology and entrepreneurship, careers that lead to extended national development for a developing nation. A full paper is being prepared for the Journal of the Philosophy and History of Education.

Accepted Conference Proposals

Five submitted proposals have been accepted in 2023 AERA conference program! According to the acceptance emails, "AERA received more than 11,000 submissions this year." Being accepted into AERA with the peer-review process is a professional recognition of our academic rigor. I would like to congratulate our doctoral candidates, Kerri Fair, Tamara Rodney, Katherine O’Connor, and Jimmy Fuller, for having this achievement in their doctoral journey.

"Stories Most Difficult to Tell are the Most Vital to Share" Kerri Fair
"Confronting White-Epistemology: A Theoretical Analysis of African American Graduates of a Predominantly White High School" Tamara Rodney
"Unraveling Monochromatic Truths: Counter-stories of Biracial and Multiracial Microaggressions in preK-12 Schools,” Yin Lam Lee-Johnson, Katherine O’Connor, Jimmy Fuller
"Counter-stories for Multigenerational Resilience: “Let the Truth Be Told” by Women of Color Educational Researchers,” Yin Lam Lee-Johnson, Juana Reyes, Nahid Hashemi
"Radical Truths about Reggio-inspired Approach: Transforming the Status-quo for Emergent Multilinguals,” Yin Lam Lee-Johnson

Welcome, New students

First of all, we welcome 20 new students to the EdD program! They have just completed a project with their professional websites. Here is a list of the new students' professional websites:

Rokhatoy Boltaeva

https://sites.google.com/view/rokhatoyboltaeva/home

Dana Kyne

https://sites.google.com/view/danakyneeducation/home?authuser=1

Tina Chaney

(pending addition of professional photos)

Sue Donze

https://sites.google.com/view/sue-donze/home

Oybek Imomov

https://sites.google.com/view/oybekimomov/home

Sarah Leedberg

https://sarahleedberg.wixsite.com/transformation

LaToya Griffin

https://sites.google.com/view/latoyagriffinmed/home

Monica Stacker

https://the-kaleidoscope-llc.webador.com/

Sylvia Stewart

https://sites.google.com/view/highereducationreform/home?authuser=1

Canny Wang

https://cannywang.godaddysites.com

Kimmala Cox

https://sites.google.com/view/kimmalacoxmba/home

Shawnta Davis

(prefers not to publish site)

Andrea Drone

https://adrone4577.wixsite.com/mysite

Kaylan Norton

https://www.kaylanjnorton.com

Cherie Stalks

https://sites.google.com/view/cheriestalks/home

Erika Starr-Hunter

https://sites.google.com/view/erikastarr-hunter/home

Aeisha Teaste

https://sites.google.com/view/aeishasteaste/connect-with-me

Sarah Vernier

https://sites.google.com/view/sarahvernier

Nelly Zhang

https://sites.google.com/view/nellyzhangswebsite/首页

Amanda Harman (work in progress)

Student interviews

For our Fall 2022 Newsletter, we had the opportunity to hear from some of our Webster doctoral students about their research, dissertation topics, and philosophies of teaching, as well as their experience with the Webster community and what being transformative in education means to them.

This semester, we were able to speak with three Ed.D. students here at Webster, Erika Starr-Hunter, Rokhatoy Boltaeva, and Nelly Zhang, to discuss a bit more about who they are and their experience in the program so far.

erika Starr-hunter

Erika Starr-Hunter graduated in 2002 from Truman State with BAs in History, Art History, and a Minor in Women's Studies. She then went on to pursue her MAE in History from Truman in 2003, and began teaching Social Studies at Long Middle School with SLPS (St. Louis Public Schools). After receiving her MAE in School Counseling from UMSL in 2012, Erika began working as the school counselor for Long Middle School in 2018.

"I was born in California, but moved to St. Louis when I was 1 year old. I grew up in Webster Groves, MO a suburb of St. Louis. I did have a privileged childhood, however, early on I recognized their was social injustice in the world. In middle school I won first prize in the Urban League essay contest writing about the racism I saw in my school. I've been motivated throughout my life to seek social justice. I went off to college to get a degree in education. I also met my wife during this time. We've lived all over South City, St. Louis for the past 22 years. We now have a son who attends a neighborhood school in St. Louis Public Schools." (Erika Starr-Hunter - About (google.com)

Can you tell us more about your professional work and passion for education?

ESH: I’m a school counselor with SLPS, I work at Long International Middle School in South St. Louis by the Bevo Mill. I’ve been with the district for 18 years; I was a teacher for 13 years and switched over to school counseling about five years ago. My passion for education is my students, of course, and providing them the absolute best I can for their education -- just creating a place of safety, a space where they feel comfortable to explore, learn, make relationships within the building, with students and staff. If they need anything specific, I want to help in meeting those needs.

What is your definition of a transformative educator?

ESH: I think a transformative educator would honestly be someone who can see what is really needed, what their students need and how they might create a classroom, a district, a building that can meet those needs. With the pandemic, we used a lot of digital tools, like iPads and lots of educational software. But there is also the basic level of forming relationships with students and what is needed to create those relationships with your students. For example, if you have a student that speaks another language, you are going to figure out how to get an interpreter, or if there may be different cultural norms and understanding what their needs are. Really, it is figuring out the ways and the resources needed to help.

Can you share a bit about what drew you to the field of education, and how you decided on becoming a doctoral student?

ESH: I decided at a very young age to be a teacher. My grandmother was a teacher, my dad was a pastor, my uncle was a pastor. I've always enjoyed working with kids. I always say I have a lot of patience for kids, and not so much for adults. I pursued a degree in education, art history, and history, taught for a couple of years, and then recognized a real gap in my building in meeting the needs of our kids. I wanted to put myself in that gap and figure out how I could meet those needs. I’ve always really enjoyed education and always knew for my life goal I wanted to pursue my doctorate. I looked for a few years for a doctorate program, but nothing really sparked my interest until I found Webster. I liked the transformative lens and thinking about education globally. The main thing that drew me to Webster was the emphasis on social justice. Working in SLPS it’s something that’s always been on my mind. It's easy to see the disparities. How do these gaps impact students down the road? It’s always on my mind – how do we create equity not just in our city or state, but within our system. Thinking about neighborhood, magnet, and charter schools, how do we create equity across a system and within our own schools? How do you serve one group versus another?

What is your research interest that might develop into a dissertation topic? What is the problem that you are trying to tackle?

ESH: I really want to look at the impact that community schools have on community. By community schools, I mean neighborhoods schools, that specifically serve kids from certain neighborhoods, and how they in and build or stabilize community in that area. There has been a lot of research on the impacts of charter and magnet schools have had, and I want to sort of jump off from there and look at what the impact is of having a community school – is it positive or negative? St. Louis schools are unique, you don’t see charter schools or magnet schools within the county system, but there you do within the city system. There are lots of destabilized neighborhoods, so how can neighborhood schools help build community?

Have you met with your Peer Mentor yet? How did it go?

ESH: Not yet! I’m with Vince Flewellen. We have chatted over the phone and on Zoom, but we haven’t had a chance to meet in person yet.

RHOKATOY BOLTAEVA

Rokhatoy Boltaeva, who previously worked as a Senior Teacher of English for more than 15 years as well as a teacher-trainer and examiner for 5 years until she did her 2nd MSc in Innovation, Creativity, and Leadership at Cass Business school, City University of London (2019-2020). Nowadays, she is a Doctoral student at Webster University, Program Leader for MA in Education and Innovation and B.Ed. at Webster Tashkent, as well as Adjunct Instructor, teaching Design Thinking as well as Creativity and Innovation courses.

Can you tell us more about your professional work and passion for education?

RB: Having completed my first Master's Degree in English Linguistics at Uzbekistan State World Languages University, where I worked as a Senior Teacher of English for more than 15 years, I also worked for UzSPIC as a teacher-trainer, where I put my heart and soul to inspire and motivate teachers from different Higher Educational Institutions to grow professionally, increasing their personal learning network by showcasing the process of attending and presenting at conferences as well as training them on the course: Language Testing and Assessment.

As a part-time employee, I have worked as an Examiner for the State Testing Center since 2017, creating test items for high-state exams. Having arrived from the UK after finishing my second masters, I wanted to take up a job in the business industry, however, my passion for education pulled me again to work as an editor for the online content of the English language lessons for schoolchildren to broadcast during COVID times.

As a judge for the National Teacher-2020, 2021 awards I served to evaluate the essays and interviews of public school teachers (http://chusttumanxtb.zn.uz/2020/11/26/ustoz-2020-mukofoti-uchun-2-bosqich-hakamlar-hayati-azolari-elon-qilindi/ ). In November 2020, I started working as a Program Coordinator for MA in Education and Innovation at Webster University in Tashkent, applying the knowledge and skills I acquired from my second master's program in the UK to create a culture of creativity and innovation in the field of education.

What is your definition of a transformative educator?

RB: When it comes to my definition to the term of a transformative educator, I believe this type of the teachers share their knowledge and skills through inspirational demonstration of the useful information that can make students produce fresh thoughts on the application of the shared knowledge in the real world. In the same way, as a Doctoral student, as well as Adjunct Professor of Design Thinking course, I am promoting and cultivating creativity and innovation for learning, service and leadership, teaching the instructional methods and technologies for transformative learning, interdisciplinary problem-solving and developing future design team leaders and learning facilitators to transform the education field.

Can you share a bit about what drew you to the field of education, and how you decided on becoming a doctoral student?

RB: I imagine myself as a tree growing stronger year by year, whose branches are UzTEA, TESOL-Arabia, IATEFL, and TESOL International, WCCI, teacher training, and projects with BC, Ministry of Public Education, and Innovative Development. I feel honored to have a strong network with teachers from HEIs of Uzbekistan, which is the fruit of my involvement in PRESETT and Enspire_U projects with British Council Uzbekistan, TPD@scale with UNESCO and Professional Standards with UzTEA. My participation in UzTEA conferences paved the way for my first international workshop at TESOL Arabia and inspired me to attend more prominent conferences.

As a C-group Creativity scholarship, I presented a workshop at IATEFL’s 50th-anniversary conference and coming back to my country, I inspired teachers to be members of the professional network. Therefore, being a part of the international social bunch, putting the theories and practices into a bigger paper and serving our students to become the change leaders led me to apply to the Ed.D. program on Transformational at Webster University. Moreover, dissatisfaction from my local PhD studies due to several changes in terms of doctoral studies stages in Uzbekistan, as well as ignorance of my thesis – a product of four years of hard academic work in a poorly-operating research system also made me get my doctoral degree internationally.

What is your research interest that might develop into a dissertation topic? What is the problem that you are trying to tackle?

RB: Having traveled to different educational establishments across Uzbekistan, together with my colleague, we organised Design Sprint workshops with the students and professors to encourage transformative learning and innovation in higher educational establishments in the country. Design sprints conducted across Uzbekistan's higher educational universities and ministries of education encouraged the change in the K-12 education system through the application of the 21st-century skills using the five stage approach to solve the existing problems in education through empathy, ideation, prototyping, and testing. (Vebster universiteti mutaxassislari ishtirokida seminar bo'lib o'tdi – Telegraph) The Republican Education Center under the Ministry of Education has already started including soft skills into the textbooks and brought new content involving many international and local experts. This was then shared with the international scholars at the Geneva-Creativity Week: Creativity Week: News Around Webster: Andrea Miller, Animation Workshop and Tashkent Creativity Week. As the next step to transformation, I would like to take this approach of application of Design thinking in education, narrow down the topic and develop the approach in my doctoral dissertation.

Have you met with your Peer Mentor yet? How did it go?

RB: The idea of having a mentor in the Ed.D. program sounded fantastic to me when I first heard about it during our Ed.D. orientation meeting via Zoom. After the exchange of two emails about finding out the suitable time to meet online via Microsoft Teams app, we finally managed to meet with my mentor Jonathon Singler. The online meeting lasted for an hour where we shared our research interests and discussed the ways of transforming the K-12 education through Design thinking. Jonathon shared his research on chess education and gave recommendations on what to do, how to start the research and narrow down the topic. There are times when it is hard to write anything or feel you are not making any progress. There are times when you are overwhelmed with data. There are times when you just need a second opinion. A mentor who has seen the journey I am starting can relate to me, ideate with me, help me steer my ship in a direction that is not familiar to me. Mental blocks are very common when working on any project - dissertation included. So, bouncing off my ideas with my mentor will help me a lot during the upcoming scheduled meetings too.

Nelly zhang

Nelly received her Master of Business Administration (MBA Degree) from Webster University and Shanghai University of Finance & Economics Joint MBA Program from 2006 to 2008. She then went on to pursue her Master’s Degree in International Relations (MA) from Webster University, from 2011 to 2014. From 2014 to 2015, Nelly pursued the Global Leadership Academy in Higher Education Management from Webster University. Presently, she is pursuing her Ed.D. from Webster University as well! In addition to her educational background, Nelly has worked from 2005 to the present in Education Admission and Registration, as the Student Service Deputy Director in China and as the Director of China Partner Programs through Webster University.

Previously, she worked from 1996-2005 in Business & Finance at the Aon Corporation Beijing Representative Office AIA Shenzhen – AIG group, and the Taiping Life Insurance Headquarter in Shanghai.

Can you tell us more about your professional work and passion for education?

NZ: I have quite abundant experience in both business and education fields. In the first 10 years’ professional life, I worked in the US financial institutions – Aon and AIG. During the last 17 years I have worked for Webster University in China, supporting Webster joint programs in China, and coordinating with Chinese partner schools. I have gained deeper understanding about Chinese and Western higher education system; also, the small office operation in China started with 2 staff has accumulated my experience in various fields such as admission, registration process, developing local partners and operating programs, finance, HR, marketing, office operation, alum service, etc. I believe my passion for education coming from two major resources.

My parents were both teachers in China, from very young, I helped my mother grade her students’ tests. When I grew up and have my own family and child, I want to set a good example for my daughter for lifelong learning and self-reliance spirit. Also, I firmly believe that education could change people and influence a person’s whole life. I feel very lucky that during the most important 6 years of my middle and high school, I met a lot of great teachers and wonderful schoolmates, where I shaped my value system and laid my foundation of life.

What is your definition of a transformative educator?

NZ: In my understanding, a transformative educator needs to ensure the teaching materials, curriculum, pedagogy and learning environment fit the new generation’ needs, make them feel valued, acknowledged, safe and inclusive in the learning process as an active member. A transformative educator also needs to teach towards the future, to provide the knowledge and ideas for future sustainability and world peace. A transformative educator should be the innovator for change, to embrace the new technologies and open to new ideologies.

Can you share a bit about what drew you to the field of education, and how you decided on becoming a doctoral student?

NZ: May I say it is a fate for me to be in the field of education? Both of my parents were teachers for their entire career life, I watched them teaching, I played together with my mom’s students, and I even graded the students’ exam papers. In that case, I did a lot of preparation of being a teacher unintentionally. Also, it is a coincidence as well. A good friend of mine was once in my current position in China, she needs to go to the US to get married. So, she recommended me to take over her post and since then, I have been worked for 17 years on current job. Seeking for a doctor education is my long-term plan, since I graduated from the MA degree. But I could not find a suitable program which I could learn online and keep my regular work. I feel after working in the higher education field for over 17 years, I have gained plenty of practical working experiences but lack of systematic theoretical learning on education. That is the primary motivation for me to apply the Webster online Ed.D. degree. Since I got two master's degrees from Webster University, I am very familiar with the university, understand the teaching style and familiar with Canvas- the online teaching system Webster University uses. It will be easy for me to get started quickly. Another important factor that I decided to pursue a doctor degree, is I am trying to set an example for my daughter for the meaning of life-long learning.

What is your research interest that might develop into a dissertation topic? What is the problem that you are trying to tackle?

NZ: I am very interested in globalization in the higher education field, and I feel it is a very important topic after the COVID-19 with Anti-globalization wave. "Globalization of education refers to the worldwide discussions, processes and institutions influencing local educational practices and policies. " - Taylor & Francis (2022). There are many approaches or perspectives on globalization in education fields. It cannot be merely described as harmful or beneficial, but depends on one’s position, perspective, values, and priorities. As an educator, we should not only react to globalization and related processes, but purposefully interact with them, to prepare students to respond to challenges and opportunities posed by processes associated with globalization. After these years’ working and talking to the universities, I found out that study abroad and establishing international campuses are two main goals for the institution’s “internationalization”. I would like to research on these topics from theoretical and practical perspectives, trying to offer a reference for the institutions in these fields.

Have you met with your Peer Mentor yet? How did it go?

NZ: Yes, I have met Vincent Flewellen, my peer mentor also a third year Ed.D. student at Webster. Vincent and I had a very helpful hour-long conversation. I consulted him a few questions about the learning process, the dissertation topic, the research methods, etc. Vincent offered me quite a few very valuable suggestions, and I feel more confident now for completing the degree. We have set up two more meetings in the Fall 2022.