Alison Cook-Sather
Associate Professor in Education and Coordinator of Teaching Learning Initiative
Biography
Alison Cook-Sather, Associate Professor of Education and Coordinator of Bryn Mawr's Teaching and Learning Initiative, holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. She works with a wide range of learners and teachers, including Bryn Mawr and Haverford students and alumni/ae preparing to teach at the secondary level, high-school teachers and students who participate in that preparation, and college faculty interested in pedagogical issues. Her dissertation and subsequent research have focused on how to connect and translate between commonly posed dichotomies in education: teacher and student, theory and practice, different educational contexts. Toward the same end of fostering more informed conversations among teachers and learners, she designs courses and workshops that facilitate communication and understanding among high-school teachers, aspiring scholars, and experienced college educators.
In addition to her work in the Education Program, Alison is Coordinator of the Teaching and Learning Initiative, which works to create new campus spaces and structures at both Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges within which all members – faculty, staff, and students – interact as teachers, learners, and colleagues. For more information, visit http://www.brynmawr.edu/tli
Research
Recent publications include the following:
International Handbook of Student Experience in Elementary and Secondary School. Dennis Thiessen and Alison Cook-Sather (Eds). Springer Publishers (2007).
Working the Tensions: Constructing Educational Studies within a Liberal Arts Context. Co-authored with Alice Lesnick and Jody Cohen. Taking Teaching Seriously. Paradigm Publishers. (2007).
Direct Links: Using Email to Connect Pre-Service Teachers, Classroom-Based Teachers, and High School Students within an Undergraduate Teacher Preparation Program. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education 15, 1 (2007) 11-37.
Repositioning Students in Initial Teacher Preparation: A Comparative Case Study of Learning to Teach for Social Justice in the United States and in England, with Bernadette Youens. Journal of Teacher Education 58, 1 (Winter 2007), 1-14.
Production, Cure, or Translation?: Rehumanizing Education and the Roles of Teacher and Student in US schools and Universities. FORUM 48, 3 (2006), 319-326.
Sound, Presence, and Power: Exploring 'Student Voice' in Educational Research and Reform. Curriculum Inquiry 36, 4 (Winter 2006), 359-390.
'Change Based On What Students Say': Preparing Teachers for a More Paradoxical Model of Leadership. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 9, 4 (October-December 2006), 345-358.
Newly Betwixt and Between: Revising Liminality in Learning to Teach. Anthropology and Education Quarterly 37, 2 (June 2006), 110-127.
The 'Constant Changing of Myself': Revising Roles in Undergraduate Teacher Preparation. The Teacher Educator 41, 3, (Winter 2006), 187-206.
Education Is Translation: A Metaphor for Change in Learning and Teaching. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.