Dr. Matthew Shirrell has been selected as a 2020 NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow.
Sponsored by the National Academy of Education and the Spencer Foundation, the NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship supports and encourages early career scholars at the postdoctoral level to pursue critical education research projects. Through professional development, funding, and mentorship from senior scholars, the fellowship enhances the career and research opportunities of the fellow.
As a highly competitive initiative, this fellowship annually identifies and supports the most exceptional researchers conducting postdoctoral studies relevant to education. This year, only 30 awards were made from a pool of more than 200 applicants.
This award is a strong expression of the organizations’ confidence in Dr. Shirrell's potential contribution to the knowledge, understanding, and improvement of education. Well deserved, Dr. Shirrell!
Read more about Dr. Shirrell's selected research study, "From Accomplishment to Influence: Professional Knowledge, Educational Infrastructure, and National Board-Certified Teacher Leadership":
The last thirty years have seen significant efforts to build systemic coherence in U.S. public education and "couple"? classroom instruction to the administrative structures of districts and states. In some settings, these efforts have altered organizational routines and structures, yet we know little about how these changes have impacted teachers' conceptions of professional knowledge or their interactions with their colleagues, despite the importance of these understandings and interactions to educational improvement. My study explores whether and how efforts to build systemic coherence shape teachers' understandings of professional knowledge and expertise, as well as teachers' interactions with their colleagues about teaching and learning. As cases of systems aiming to build coherence, I examine three school districts that built educational infrastructures centered on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standard's Body of Knowledge for Accomplished Teaching. Using analysis of interviews and social networks, I explore the ways that this body of knowledge, along with specific infrastructure elements, shaped teachers' conceptions of professional knowledge and expertise, as well as teachers' work-related social interactions. Findings of this study will inform the design of coherent education systems that build professional knowledge and collegial interactions in ways that are most likely to lead to educational improvement.