What led you to Oregon State University, and how long have you worked for the College of Education?
I joined the College of Education in June 2021. Before moving to Oregon three years ago, I worked as an advisor for several years at another university like Oregon State and missed it. I enjoy the setting, values and energy of a large, public land-grant university. Education has always been an area of passion for me as well (my mother was a teacher), so when this job opportunity came up it felt like the perfect combination of where I wanted to be (OSU) and what I love to do (advising).
Tell me about your position including what you do day-to-day and what makes your job interesting?
As the Head Advisor, I work individually with students interested in becoming a teacher to help them navigate college and achieve their goals. In addition to this, I also develop processes, systems, and supports that improve the educational experience for all students. A typical day for me may include one-on-one student appointments, discussions with advisors across campus around ongoing issues and developing solutions, engaging in critical conversations with colleagues around how to address biases and systematic barriers that directly impact our students, putting together resources or tools to help students get into their desired Education program, and of course, lots of emails! I also get to work with our student ambassadors to plan community events and provide peer support for their fellow students.
What is your favorite part about your job?
The best part of my day is meeting with students. When a student reaches out or comes to see me because they are confused and frustrated and they leave with a clear direction and hope for the future, it provides purpose and meaning to all the work I do.
What do you like to do in your free time, outside of work?
Outside of work I spend a lot of time with my two kiddos (ages 8 and 3) and my husband. It’s never a dull moment in our house! I also enjoy going to the beach, reading, hiking/being outdoors, playing sports, horseback riding, watching Netflix, and taking naps.
Dr. Becky Crandall is an Adult and Higher Education Professor of Practice at the College of Education, CrossFit enthusiast, and Portland Thorns fan.
What led you to Oregon State University, and how long have you worked for the College of Education?
“I was excited to join the College of Education in June 2021. Three things drew me to Oregon State University: the amazing people who comprise the OSU community, the ways in which the position and the College’s values align with what I believe to be my life’s purpose, and Oregon as a place where I had wanted to plant my life.”
Dr. Becky Crandall (left) with Dean Susan Gardner; Dr. Tenisha Tevis, Assistant Professor of AHE; President Becky Johnson and her wife, Laurie Elkins.
What kind of research do you do? Can you give us the “elevator pitch” of a current or recent project?
“My scholarly approaches are hallmarked by a commitment to equity and supporting student populations such as intercollegiate athletes, LGBTQ+ students, and graduate students in higher education and student affairs programs. For example, two colleagues and I recently had a manuscript accepted that highlights senior student affairs officers’ perspectives of social justice education within higher education graduate preparation programs. Other colleagues and I are currently developing a study that will explore the experiences of LGBTQ+ student-athletes at religious institutions. For the past five years, I have also engaged in campus climate assessment projects alongside my colleagues at Rankin and Associates Consulting, LLC, a company that aids educational institutions in making data-informed decisions toward maximizing equity.”
What made you decide to engage in that kind of research/work?
close to two decades of postsecondary leadership experience, I consider myself a “scholar-practitioner.” In many ways, that work, namely the inequities I saw manifest at the various institutions at which I served, prompted me to engage in this kind of scholarship.”
Dr. Becky Crandall enjoys dirt biking in her free time.
What is your favorite part about your job?
“I love getting to engage with and learn from my colleagues and the wonderful AHE students!”
What do you like to do in your free time, outside of work?
“In my free time, I enjoy CrossFit, cheering on the Portland Thorns, and spending quality time with my close friends.”
Dr. Becky Crandall enjoys CrossFit in her free time.
If you are interested in being featured in a “Get to Know” faculty feature story, contact maia.farris@oregonstate.edu.
The Arthur Applebee Award for Excellence in Research on Literacy is presented annually to honor an outstanding article in literacy research published in a refereed journal in the previous calendar year. Amanda Kibler (Professor in the OSU College of Education) and her co-authors, Judy Paulick, Natalia Palacios and Tatiana Hill received the award for their recent research article, Shared Book Reading and Bilingual Decoding in Latinx Immigrant Homes, published in the Journal of Literacy Research. This ethnographic study identified recurring literacy practices in which mothers, older siblings, and younger children participated during shared reading in the home. The researchers found that families engaged in context-sensitive and cooperative shared reading practices around decoding that the authors describe as “transcultural decoding.” These findings highlight decoding as a cultural and social practice rather than simply a technical skill, and one to which immigrant families bring significant and varied expertise.
This award was presented at the LRA conference in Atlanta, GA on December 2, 2021.
Award details:
The Arthur Applebee Award for Excellence in Research on Literacy is presented in memory of Professor Arthur N. Applebee (University at Albany – SUNY Distinguished), internationally renowned for his seminal scholarship in the fields of literacy and language learning.
Author bios:
Amanda K. Kibler is a professor at Oregon State University’s College of Education. Her research focuses on the interactional and ecological contexts through which multilingual children and adolescents develop language and literacy expertise, as well as the ways teachers understand these processes.
Judy Paulick is an assistant professor of elementary education at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on supporting preservice and in-service teachers to engage in solidarity with culturally and linguistically marginalized families and to use what they learn from families to inform culturally sustaining classroom literacy practices.
Natalia Palacios is an associate professor of Education in the Educational Psychology – Applied Developmental Sciences program at the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development. Her research explores the familial and instructional process that support children’s academic and socio-emotional development during the transition to school and the early elementary period, with an emphasis on families and children from minoritized backgrounds.
Tatiana Hill is Evaluation Analyst on the Strategic Information and Planning Team at the First 5 Contra Costa Children and Families Commission in Contra Costa County, California. She currently focuses on research and evaluation of local early childhood and family-serving programs and systems, with a culturally responsive and equitable evaluation lens.
The OSU College of Education is pleased to announce that we have again received two partner pathway “Grow Your Own” grants from the Oregon Educator Advancement Council for the second year of the program. These grants, totaling nearly $700,000 in year one and $700,000 in year two, enable OSU to build and strengthen partnerships with local community colleges and school districts in order to diversify the teacher workforce and address teacher shortages by attracting and retaining candidates from local communities. We are excited to be continuing this work and look forward to potential additional funding over the next few years.
Free Instructional Design Career Panel | July 21, 2021 | Featuring three Ecampus instructional designers who will be discussing their career pathways and providing tips for those entering the field.
Phil Chambers Phil started working for OSU Ecampus as an Instructional Design Specialist at the beginning of 2020, and has been working in the field of education since 2010. His first degree is a BA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language and he has used it to teach English to students in K-12 and higher education in China, Singapore, Macau, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. He also holds a Master of Education in Applied Linguistics, and a Doctor of Education focusing on digital literacy policy. He switched from teaching in-person classes to online course design in 2017. His interest and experience using technology in education has led to prior roles such as Technology Advisor, Senior Academic Manager for blended and online courses, and Coordinator for Digital Innovation.
Ashlee Foster Ashlee serves as an Instructional Design Specialist with OSU’s Ecampus. She collaborates with faculty across various disciplines to design online and hybrid courses that align with research and industry best practices. Additionally, she designs college orientations that provide all Ecampus students with a supportive transition into major advising. Ashlee holds a Master’s of Science in Education and a certificate in Instructional Design from Western Oregon University. Professional areas of interest include the application of neuro, cognitive and learning science in course design, open pedagogy and open educational practices, Universal Design for Learning, and accessibility.
Brittni Racek Brittni began working at OSU Ecampus in 2017 and transitioned to the Course Development and Training team as an Instructional Design Specialist in the spring of 2020. She has been in higher education since 2011, with the majority of that time spent working directly with online learners. Some of her previous roles include academic advising, student success counseling, and coaching. Brittni holds an MSEd in Information Technology with a Graduate Certificate in Instructional Design from Western Oregon University and a BA in English Literature from Florida State University. She also teaches online at WOU in the Division of Education and Leadership. She is passionate about advocating for online students and keeping learners at the center of what they do. Some of her primary areas of interest include building community in online learning, developing instructor presence, and exploring the value of learner feedback to improve teaching and design processes.
The College of Education at Oregon State University, along with many institutions of higher education across the United States, has taken additional measures to support racial justice, equity, and inclusion , following the deep and significant challenges the country has faced over the past year. As a College dedicated to education, our outreach often takes the shape of providing impactful experiences in learning, inquiry, and research. Although the College has always supported equity and inclusion, our increased focus on supporting racial and social justice this year was met with a timely response from the state in the offering of a grant in the amount of $160,000 from Oregon’s Department of Education, Educator Advancement Council.
This grant has dedicated funds to the creation of a course to support the teaching of antiracism for in-service educators with the following call and rationale: “In response to the current and on-going challenges we face as a state and as a nation with regard to racial justice, the Educator Advancement Council (EAC) wants to partner with Oregon public university education programs to host an online, antiracist course for current Oregon teachers.”
The grant is guided by several key aims as described the EAC language:
To support Oregon teachers as critical, antiracist educators.
To deepen the learning of teachers on antiracism through reflection and connection with other teachers on race and bias in education.
To support in-service teacher development of antiracist pedagogical knowledge.
To foster an awareness of how racism impacts success and belonging for students of color.
About the seminar
The “A Teacher’s Journey to Antiracism” seminar will run from April 19, 2021 to May 28, 2021 and will be taught by a highly experienced educator in diversity and inclusion.
The aim of this seminar is to support Oregon teachers to become critical, antiracist educators. It explores how antiracist perspectives and actions can be incorporated into curriculum design, teaching strategies, and interactions with students and parents.
The seminar will be online; however, participants will also be part of a facilitated, district-based group focused on making district, school, and community connections. District Facilitators will meet regularly with participants in district-based groups.
For this seminar, participants will complete 2-4 hours of work per week and earn approximately 24 PDUs (Professional Development Units).
Spots are exclusive to teachers in our partner districts. Specific districts have information about how to apply. This blog page’s purpose is to house the course’s details in the early stages of this initiative.
Application deadline: March 31, 2021
Follow this blog post and on social media for future updates about this course.
In this blog post, Allison List writes about how her Brave Space idea came to life with the combined efforts of her Counseling program colleagues and professionals at other Oregon universities.
I sat to write this blog post on 1/6/21, the day our Capitol was attacked. There is so much irony in writing about the experience of our Brave Space initiative colliding on the day’s events. As I began to construct my thoughts while also watching the day continue to unfold, I pivoted from this blog to writing statements to my students and colleagues communicating concern for yet another trauma resulting from white supremacy. I want to be clear, there is no getting around this term anymore and there is no getting around the argument that white supremacy is the underlying reason why I am writing this blog post in the first place. White supremacy is the exact reason why we strive to create safe and brave spaces for students to discuss their experiences away from groups at large. Sure, there is safety in smaller numbers and it is no doubt easier to be vulnerable in a smaller group, but the groups and structures in which our students find themselves in at large do not provide safety to discuss experiences that fall outside of what our society has deemed normative. What’s important about the term “normative” is that it dangerously creates structures that build upon a narrative that racial injustices and inequalities are the status quo; where we accept such acts great and small as normal. Each new event of racialized crimes and actions that strive to keep the dominant narrative alive and well, while all unique, also play a repeated theme and reflect how we feel and have felt about race in America. In my opinon, it is crucial that we provide the space to discuss the differences in narratives, and the pain that is associated with the dismissal of experiences held by many of our students and collegues.
A little less than six months ago I joined a team of colleagues in a series of on-going meetings called, “Call to Action” within the College of Education that addressed the current state of racial affairs across the country. Throughout our meetings of discussing civil unrest and reckoning, a pandemic was swirling with no end in sight and wildfires were sweeping across California and Oregon. While I had carried my own burdens from COVID, I was still able to leave my home and not be ridiculed for being associated with the virus. Despite social distancing, I could feel safe in my own skin in my neighborhood and community because no matter where I go, I can move freely. My home was not under direct threats from wildfires. To my core, I could still feel a sense of safety amidst the various swirls of chaos, and to hold that level of privilege, as beneficial as it is, is just as equally undeserved. As I sat in my own reckoning with this particular experience, there was only one obvious answer in addressing my experience and the intense suffering of those around me: advocacy.
Later that day, a little idea sprouted about holding virtual safe spaces designed for students and faculty to process how they were experiencing the world and it was pitched to my department. We quickly went from a single person idea to a team of three. That team of three strengthened the original pitch and together formed a greater alliance that extended to our Counselor Educator colleagues beyond our Corvallis backyard and across the state of Oregon. Those efforts grew our team to nine, spanning across five organizations/institutions. Our team of nine held what we called, “Brave Spaces,” which were online groups designed to support those who were suffering in our communities and foster a sense of connection. Across the last eight weeks of the fall term, 13 Brave Spaces were held for 17 graduate students in Oregon institutions, some of which attended multiple sessions. This effort was not about contracts and work loads. We gave our time because we believed in the cause and we wanted to support where we could.
While it is always nice to have data to help us understand the experience in a different way, this project was never about the numbers. This project was about humanity and connection. This project has allowed us to flex our positions of power and privilege to step up and do something.
In my experience across the past two decades in education, advocacy work has been lonely. I often feel like I was and often am swimming upstream alone. Colleagues that I thought were like minded and on board, quickly dwindled when the work got hard, controversial or it meant giving something up of their own. To see the efforts in which we came together as clinicians and counselor educators across the state will forever make me feel less lonely. Our team of nine, will forever have my utmost respect and admiration for giving when their tanks were no doubt empty or close to. Our team made a difference in a student’s life when they reported feeling unsure whether they mattered or belonged. THAT moment of giving will be something that I will consider a success and a spark of inspiration on the days where I feel like we are going nowhere or can’t influence any type of change. Our Brave Space team will be connected through this work as colleagues and allies. I would like to thank each and every one of them for the help and support to get this project up off the ground. I would like to especially thank Arien Muzacz and Kok-Mun Ng for their ideas, support and willingness to keep trudging on with full plates. Without the two of them, we wouldn’t have been able to see the potential and lines of support that existed outside of our little backyard, and without all of you, none of this would have taken place. With that I say, we continue to push on and center our work on challenging the status quo and provide safety and connection in our community.
We would like to recognize the following people for their time, energy and contributions to the project:
Gloria Crisp grew up in Houston, Texas, with parents who told their daughter in no uncertain terms that she would go to college. But it had to be a community college, she said, and Gloria had to get a scholarship to attend.
“So I did just that: I found a community college that gave me a scholarship – for dance, because I was a dancer,” says Crisp. “I didn’t even consider any other options, because I didn’t have any mentors helping me.”
Although her mother had never gone to college, she was her daughter’s primary mentor as Crisp embarked on her higher-education journey. Crisp attended several different community colleges around Houston, selecting class times that fit her work schedule as she juggled multiple jobs to pay for college.
Crisp earned a bachelor’s degree in business, assuming she would open a dance studio. Later, thinking maybe she wanted to be a school psychologist, she obtained a master’s in psychology. Ultimately, Crisp completed a doctorate in educational leadership and has been a professor of education for 14 years, the last five at Oregon State University, where she is chair of the Adult and Higher Education programs.
It wasn’t until Crisp was well into graduate school, however, that she became interested in learning about the value of mentors – people who could help illuminate the complex path through academia and career choices.
“Like most community college students and first-generation students, I really struggled to find my way, to find the resources and survive in the academy,” she says.
This lack of mentorship is why Crisp’s research has focused on the impact of mentorship on undergraduate student success.
She developed a mentor survey, the College Student Mentoring Scale, which is used at institutions worldwide to evaluate the effectiveness of mentoring programs. Her research shows that mentoring matters for student success, and students need more than just a single mentor.
Students need different kinds of support, including emotional and psychological support, Crisp says. For some faculty mentors, this might not be their strength, so it is critical that students have access to staff and peer mentors, as well.
Her research has also shown that mentorship needs change over time. What is critical as a freshman transitioning into college is different from what’s needed as a senior prepares to transition out of college and into a career.
Crisp describes ideal mentoring as “fluid and complex” with multiple individuals at multiple points in time providing different types of support that add up to success.
“It’s a mentoring network, really, that students need,” she says. “It’s messy and complicated, but that’s why I like studying mentoring.”
Crisp was recently honored with the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Award for Mentoring. “It’s really an honor to receive that award, because it says you’re contributing to the development of researchers and scholars in your field,” she says. “And that’s really my passion, what I deeply care about: developing the best in my colleagues and students.”
