Faculty Experiences with Diverse Populations ____________________

Virtually all School of Education faculty have had extensive experiences with individuals from diverse backgrounds both while in the public schools and in higher education. Our new dean, Dr. Sheets, spent several years administering the Migrant Student Record Transfer System for the state of Arkansas. Dr. Byra Ramsey was certified for and taught trainably mentally challenged students in California. She also taught Asian, Hispanic, and African-American students. In Mississippi she was certified for Education of the Handicapped K-12 and taught At-risk groups of several kinds. Five of Dr. Sid Womack’s Texas certificates are in special education, as is one of his Oklahoma ones. He taught in several school districts in East Texas that were designated by the Federal Register as Economically Distressed districts. After completing his doctorate in curriculum and instruction at Texas A&M, he spent four additional years of public school experience teaching students with MR, LD, and ED in alternative school and resource/self-contained settings in Texas and Oklahoma. Dr. Gwen Morgan did her student teaching in a bilingual classroom, taught English and Spanish. She went to Mississippi upon graduation and was one of the first white teachers in what had been an all black school until desegregation. Dr. Morgan designed and implemented two gifted programs while in two different school systems in Mississippi. She coordinates the graduate program for additional licensure and master's in gifted education. She has facilitated the awarding of the Cora McHenry Minority Scholarship each semester for a number of years.

Dr. Sammie Stephenson spent 21 years at the University of the Ozarks as a reading specialist in a learning disabilities program teaching LD college students to read, write, and spell. She completed an intensive two-year program in assessment and remediation of learning disabilities that was in addition to her other academic work. Dr. Stephenson completed 15 hours toward a master’s degree in special education at the University of Central Arkansas before beginning her doctorate at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Dr. Timothy Leggett worked at a Black college in Mississippi from 1998-2002 as a faculty member. From 1998 to 2002 he also supervised HeadStart Employees in HeadStart centers throughout Northern Mississippi doing counseling, seminars, and training.

In the Center for Leadership and Learning, Dr. Mary B. Gunter was the Governor’s Liaison for Chicot County, AR, dealing with issues in the diversity of the population (African American) She was a consultant for multiple districts in multiple States Districts as large as Springfield, MO to small as Oark, AR. Dr. Rebecca Shopfner designed and directed the Arkansas Leadership Academy’s Teacher Institute which was developed to help teachers teach students of geographic and gender diversity particularly. Dr. Randy Powell was a board Member of the Small School Association of Oregon. He was Chair, School of Education & Business Standards & Practices, which had to do with the recruitment of Native American candidates for teaching. He was Director of Personnel for two school districts in Oregon, dealing with all of the complex diversity issues that come with such a position. Dr. Powell developed, planned, & carried out K-12 School Governance & Institutional Methods for Diverse Learners at Eastern Oregon University. Dr. Kandis Croom worked as a counselor in a 50/50 minority/white school. She worked with homeless (Stuart McKinney Act) and migrant departments in a large school district. She was the Safe and Drug-Free Coordinator for a school district of 12, 700 students that had 32 languages spoken within it. In 33 years of teaching in k-12 schools, she has multiple experiences teaching in minority schools, including one 90/10 minority situation.

Faculty in the unit reported 11 certificates or licensures from various states that are either held or have been held in specific areas of special education or gifted education, for an average of almost one per faculty within the department of Curriculum and Instruction.

A multicultural experience that the School of Education, including the teacher education unit, has had since 1996 has been the teaching of graduate level Taiwanese students. These masters-seeking students come to us with minimal English and some of them with minimal experience in their own public schools. They take majors in Instructional Improvement, Instructional Technology, and Informational Technology. The total experience concomitant with teaching these students goes beyond the classroom to meals or home visits or field trips, broadening the cultural horizons of all involved. ATU averages three cohorts (classes) each term, with some Unit faculty teaching classes each time. Some have taught a dozen classes for Taiwanese cohorts since the inception of this program in 1996. Mrs. Zimmer has taught about 30 classes; Dr.Womack, 12 ; other faculty, variously as many as 10 or 12 or more.

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