Student Highlights

 

Student Highlights

Conference

Doctoral fellow Amie Perry opening the conference. Amie has played a major role in the organization of the ETSU Early Childhood Conference for the past two years. 

Honor

Congratulations to Ph.D. student Angela Shelton for being named Professor of the Year by the Literacy Association of Tennessee! We are so proud! Angela serves as a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Early Childhood Education where she mentors our licensure students towards success

2024 Representation at National Conferences

Many from our Ph.D. program attended the National Association for Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) in Anaheim in November. Ph.D. Fellows Clara Puni Nyamesem and Nicolas Arias presenting a poster at NAEYC. Top right: Ph.D. Fellows Amie Perry and Clara Puni Nyamesem received travel grants to attend NAECTE. 

Program Implementation

Starting last fall, Amie Perry began leading the Morning Glory program at Seedkeepers Forest School in Jonesborough. This program is designed for infants, toddlers and their families to come together once a week for an hour and a half. Amie plans provocations and activities for the children and families. In the spring, she collaborated with an ETSU biology professor, Trevor Chapman, for a salamander hike. Salamanders are Dr. Chapman’s research interest, and he joined the Morning Glory program to share tips for finding salamanders before children and families went searching for them in the forest. Amie and Trevor also worked together to create a resource for families to use. 

2023 ACT Presentation

Candi Clevinger and Clara Puni-Nyamesem presenting at the Association for Constructivist Teaching Conference in Boone, NC. 

2023 NAECTE Presentation

Maria Dias virtually presented “Bilingual education in today’s world” at the Universidad Latina de Costa Rica. Attendees were students and professors in the preschool bilingual education program. She explained “I talked about what bilingual education is and what it means to be bilingual in the 21st century, and briefly compared bilingual education in the US and Latin America. I also shared some strategies to use in the classroom such as book selection, reading aloud, and creating.” 
Maria is also a recipient of the 2023 NAECTE Foundation Doctoral Grant. Her NAECTE colleagues will recognize and honor her at the NAECTE 2023 Awards and Recognition Reception, to be held Wednesday evening, Nov. 15. This funding supports Maria’s dissertation research, providing funds as an incentive for recruiting participants and for her use of Dedoose software to code data. Maria’s dissertation title is, “Understanding Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices in Supporting Multilingual Children in Early Childhood Education. 

2023 Presentation

Clara Puni Nyamesem, a first-year PhD student in the Department of Early Childhood Education, was invited to be the keynote speaker at the 5th Biennial Convention of the Offinsoman Association, a Ghanaian community living in the U.S. and Canada, in New Jersey. She presented on “Young Children’s Screen Media Use and Its Impact on Their Brain Development.” The audience comprised parents and experts from various fields. Ms. Puni Nyamesem discussed how the new technological environment and prolonged use of screen media affect children’s development, especially executive functioning, motor development, social interaction, and the relationship to mental health-related issues. She suggested alternative approaches parents can adopt to lower the risk of screen media effects. These included setting screen time limits, engaging in co-viewing with children, promoting outdoor activities, creative play, routines and engaging them in daily activities at home. 

Publication

Shelton, A. (2024). If I Could Turn Back Time: An Educator’s Reflective Journey Into Trauma-Informed Care. Childhood Education, 100(2), 36–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2024.2330304

This article serves as a culminating assignment from an independent study with Dr. Julia Atiles as part of the Early Childhood Education PhD program of study.

Leading a Teacher Workshop

In February 2024, Amie Perry, a doctoral student in the Department of Early Childhood Education (ECED), along with Dr. Alissa Lange, who is the Director of EC STEM Lab, CESE, and the NE TN STEM Innovation Hub as well as a Professor in ECED, led an all-day virtual workshop. The workshop focused on childhood STEM and social-emotional learning. The Northwest Area Education Agency invited Amie and Dr. Lange to lead a STEM-focused day at their annual Centering on Centers event. Their workshop, titled "Rockets and Messy Science," was attended by 76 early childhood educators from across Iowa. The experience was great for Dr. Lange, Amie, and their audience as they learned about hands-on & messy projects that can create fun learning activities for young students. 

Presentation

Maria Dias, Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Early Childhood Education, presented with Dr. Natalia Ward, Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the ESL Program, at the virtual Cultura Inglesa Teachers' Conference. 

Cultura Inglesa Brazil recently organized an English Language Teachers conference. Initially founded in São Paulo, Brazil, the organization now operates in seven states nationwide and is celebrating its 90th anniversary. During the conference, Dr. Ward and Maria Dias conducted their session titled "Fostering Language and Agency Through Children's Literature." The session provided valuable insights and practical tools for promoting multilingual children's language development and agency. 

Presentation and Publication

Maria Dias, a Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Early Childhood Education (ECED), presented at the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Conference in Tampa Bay, FL, last week. Early Childhood Teachers' Beliefs and Best Practices in Supporting Multilingual Children, educated attendees on the research methods that supported this projects, sharing the common themes and practices of six different early childhood teachers teaching multilingual children in mainstream schools in Tennessee. 

Maria co-authored an article with doctoral fellow, Kehinde Helen Orimaye that was published in the Spring issue of Exchange Magazine. The article, Early Childhood Educators Exploring Materials from the Perspective of Children, introduces an assignment from the Brain Research & Creativity Course (ECED 6640) taught by Dr. Broderick and shares the insights from students' explorations.

 

Presentation for ETSU Equity and Inclusion Conference

Clara Puni-Nyamesem presented at the 5th edition of ETSU's Equity and Inclusion Conference with the theme "Beyond Checking the Box: Strategies to Make Research Findings Accessible to Communities that Need it Most." In her presentation, she emphasized the importance of sharing research findings with marginalized populations beyond the traditional methods of publications and conference presentations. The focused population in her research includes parents, non-readers, and everyday individuals who cannot access research articles or are not consumers of research. 

Graduation and New Position

Dr. Olawale Olubowale started his new position as Assistant Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University for the Fall 2023 semester prior to graduating from the ETSU Early Childhood PhD program in December 2023.

Graduation and New Position

Dr. Ehichoya Edokhamhen graduated from the PhD Program in Spring 2023 and started his new position as Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

New Position

Dr. Narges Sareh (2020 graduate) started her new position as an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood at East Tennessee State University. We are glad to have her back with us!

Book Release

Congratulations to Dr. Kim Cassidy (2015 graduate) on the 2021 release of her new book!

Cassidy, K. and Sande, B. (2021). Advising Preservice teachers through narratives from students with Disabilities. Information Science Reference.