GST Teacher Center director Stacie Harris earned her Doctorate in Education after successfully defending her dissertation on February 29, 2024. Her three year journey at Kent State University began with fourteen classes focused on interprofessional leadership and the cultural foundations of education. The program centers equity and social justice, prepares graduates to apply their knowledge to complex problems of practice, and is aligned with the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate. The six CPED principles support the education doctorate as a rigorous program that honors the local context of the student.
Stacie’s dissertation, Becoming a Coconspirator: Balancing Antiracist Teaching and School Wide Behavior Management Plans to Create and Nurture Black Joy, explores the role of white teachers and their impact on the disproportionate discipline of Black students. Working with local educators, Stacie conducted a number of interviews to better understand the experiences and perspectives of elementary educators. Immersing herself in published research and first person accounts, Stacie recalls, “it’s easy to say that this only happens in big cities; but in reality, it happens everywhere. The data shows us that Black students are more likely to drop out of school and less likely to take advantage of higher education. But hearing the stories from our local teachers helped me to better understand that this isn’t just a big city problem, and many of our teachers are working hard to change the statistics.”
Engaging in this learning not only allowed Stacie to explore a very complex problem of practice at a micro level, but it has also helped to focus the work of the Teacher Center on offering more high quality offerings in the arena of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Centering the voices of Black educators, recent book studies include the work of Dr. Bettina Love, Dr. Chris Emdin, and Dr. Gholdy Muhammad. Stacie is excited to continue to offer these opportunities for learning to educators throughout the region.
Throughout the dissertation phase, Stacie was fortunate to be supported by an all-female dissertation committee comprised of sociologists, anthropologists, and classroom practitioners. These women provided countless hours of their time during the drafting and editing phase, challenged her hypothesis and findings, and were the first to welcome her to the table as Dr. Harris after her defense. At their urging, her dissertation will be submitted for consideration for the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate Dissertation in Practice of the Year this summer.
Congratulations, Stacie. We are proud of you and #PROUDTOBEGST.