"Diversifying the U.S. Teaching Force" lecture by Dr. Villegas

Professor Ana Maria Villegas of Montclair University will be giving a special lecture on the issue of teacher diversity on May 31st. See the flier for details. Dr. Villegas is one of the major scholars internationally on issues related to multicultural teacher education. FYI, I have attached a paper that she published with Jackie Irvine on the issue of diversifying the US teaching force. Here is a brief bio for her.

Dr. Ana María Villegas is a Professor in the Department of Secondary and Special Education and the Director of the PhD Program in Teacher Education and Teacher Development at Montclair State University. Prior to joining MSU in September 1996, she was a Senior Research Scientist with the Division of Education Policy Research of Educational Testing Service. A former classroom teacher in the New York City Public Schools, she has worked for more than 40 years to improve the education of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Dr. Villegas’ scholarship raises questions about educational research, policies and practices that are often unexamined and offers novel ways of thinking about persistent issues. Her work in teacher education has helped to re-envision the field by placing student diversity at the heart of the teaching-learning process and providing a framework for how to systematically infuse attention to issues of diversity throughout the teacher preparation curriculum. Her research on teacher diversity has shaped national and state policies and practices related to the recruitment and preparation of a teaching force. The racial/ethnic teacher diversity index she developed has offered the education community a way to measure state and local efforts to diversify the teaching force.

Over the years Dr. Villegas has received awards for her scholarship, including the Early Career Award by the AERA Committee on the Role and Status of Minorities in Research; the ETS Research Scientist Award; and the Margaret B. Lindsay Award for Distinguished Research in Teacher Education from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. In 2012 she was named AERA Fellow.

See also: Diversifying the Teaching Force: an Examination of Major Arguments.