Mark Vagle

My research, teaching, and service are intentionally linked as I study, teach, and lead efforts designed to critically examine some of the broad social and philosophical concerns that take concrete (lived) shape in the curriculum and pedagogies of elementary education—a field that I envision as a fluid intellectual space in which the more particularized fields of early childhood education (Birth-8 years) and middle grades education (10-14 years) can be put in dynamic dialogue with one another; developmental stage discourses can be considered and troubled, and commitments to multidisciplinary curricula and pedagogies can be continually re-imagined. To this end, I use phenomenological research methods to empirically examine some of the ongoing, dynamic tensions between social/philosophical concerns and technical aspects of how the curriculum is enacted in classroom teaching; theorize these tensions using phenomenological and critically oriented philosophies and theories; and engage my students in the never-ending process of interrogating their (our) assumptions given these tensions.

The CLASSroom Project

In some of my recent research on classroom-based formative assessment in high-poverty school contexts, I have become acutely aware of the profound influence social class has on the ways in which teachers and students perceive (and engage with) one another, how particular pedagogies are enacted, and what learnings are made possible in these relations. Informed by this issue, a colleague and I have launched The CLASSroom Project, which centers on what we have termed social class-sensitive pedagogies designed to meet the needs of working-class and poor students and their families as they navigate schools steeped in middle-classed assumptions of normality.

Over the past 2 years, we have worked with over 1000 educators in our professional development workshops and consultations and have written two journal articles--one at Curriculum Inquiry and a second forthcoming. Currently, I am working with a group of elementary school teachers as they learn to create social class-sensitive photo stories, and in turn use social class-sensitive photo stories to establish deeper, more meaningful connections with their students, particularly with those who come from poor and working-class backgrounds.

Awards

• Marty & Jack Rossmann Award
• for exceptional level of creativity and productivity in scholarship, teaching, and service, University of Minnesota, 2017 
• Outstanding Qualitative Research Book Award
• AERA Qualitative Research SIG, 2016 
• Early Career Award Finalist
• AERA Division G, 2016
• College of Education Faculty Senate D. Keith Osborn Award for Teaching Excellence: Assistant Professor Category, The University of Georgia, 2010
• Outstanding Mentoring Award Nominee, The University of Georgia, 2010  

Associations/Memberships

• AERA
• Literacy Research Association

Sponsored Projects

Alternative Pathways to Teaching: Examining Equity-Based Teacher Education Jan 1, 2015 - Dec 31, 2017

Sponsored by the Bush Foundation 

BAM Adventures Study, August 2012-February 2013 

Sponsored by the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) 

Minnesota Reads: A Higher Education Partnership to Better Prepare Faculty and Future Teachers for Reading Instruction, 2002-2007

Sponsored by the Bush Foundation