Researcher- Theory & Practice In Teacher Education

This position will serve as a Researcher for the Big Words project funded by Reading Reimagined, which is an inclusive Research and Development (R&D) program under the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund (AERDF). AERDF is a national nonprofit initiative that pursues breakthrough outcomes in student learning, well-being, and opportunity. The position will start August 1, 2024, for up to one year and a half (up to December 2025 - position is soft-funded). The Knoxville campus of the University of Tennessee is seeking candidates who have the ability to contribute in meaningful ways to the diversity and intercultural goals of the University.

The University and Region

UTK is the state's flagship, land-grant university. We are a Research 1 university with 11 colleges and more than 30,000 students. With strong leadership at the system, university, and college levels, UTK is poised for dramatic positive change focused on solving some of the most audacious, pressing problems our country and world face today. The city of Knoxville is a hidden gem surrounded by eight gorgeous lakes, with a beautiful and walkable downtown, a diverse music scene including internationally recognized festivals, active neighborhoods, unique restaurants, and a robust offering of cultural and outdoor activities. UTK is located within easy driving distance to the Great Smoky Mountains, Atlanta, Nashville, Asheville, Charlotte, Louisville, and Cincinnati. It is only a day's drive to Memphis, Chicago, and Washington D.C. Knoxville and the surrounding counties have a population of more than 850,000 people.

The Department

The Department of Theory and Practice in Education includes 4 research professors, 27 tenured and tenure- track faculty, 15 clinical-track, and 7 lecture-track faculty. The department provides undergraduate majors in education and audiology and speech pathology, deaf studies, and special education with multiple minors offered. The graduate programs offered are a Master of Science with 12 concentrations, an EdS, or Specialist in Education, and a PhD with three concentrations and several specializations. The mission of TPTE is to benefit local, regional, national, and global communities by conducting research, preparing teachers, and engaging in outreach and service.

Project's Purpose: It is critical that students in the upper elementary grades have access to high quality, evidence-based instruction to read and write big words in order to be skilled readers and writers as they progress through school and to ensure later life success and career-readiness. Utilizing Design-Based Research methodologies and through a collaboration with upper elementary learners, teachers, and community experts, the project will develop and evaluate the effects of instructional components on students' decoding, encoding, sentence production, fluency and their confidence to read when provided in online self-paced workshops.

Project Leaders: The project is led by Professors Zoi A. Traga-Philippakos from the University of Tennessee and Margaret Quinn at Texas A&M and consists of a dynamic team of student researchers and partners.