Jenelle Reeves Professor & Graduate Chair
2002 Ph.D., University of Tennessee, Language, Literacy, and ESL Education
1996 M.Ed., University of Washington, Curriculum and Instruction: Teaching English as a second language
1991 B.A., Central College, English
Dr. Reeves’ research focuses on teacher identity development in multilingual schooling contexts. Specifically, she is interested in how teachers of English-learning multilinguals conceptualize effective instruction, position themselves and learners in multilingual classrooms, and develop expertise for teaching with multilinguals. Dr. Reeves is also interested in the potential of travel study for teacher learning, and she leads travel study trips to South Korea, the Netherlands, and Ecuador exploring the schooling of immigrant, indigenous, and newcomer youth in these contexts.
Dr. Reeves is the graduate program chair for the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher education, and she is a contributing faculty to the university’s ELL endorsement and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) graduate certificate.
She teaches courses related to language education, curriculum, and educational research, including:
TEAC 413/813P Teaching English as an International Language
TEAC 949 Seminar in Education: Curriculum Studies
TEAC 801 Curriculum Inquiry
TEAC 833 Comparative Education: Ecuador
TEAC 902A: Language Policy: Ecuador
TEAC 413/813A Second Language Acquisition
TEAC 317 Teaching Multilingual Learners in Elementary Schools
TEAC 813M Teaching Multilingual Learners in Content Areas
TEAC 413E Special Topics: Immigrant Education in the Dutch Context
Selected Publications
Reeves, J., Leijgraaf, M. & Gu, X. (in press). “I am not the other”: A Yazidi American teacher’s identity work. In Language Teacher Identity Tensions: Nexus of Agency, Emotion, and Investment, edited by Zia Teheddin and Bedrettin Yazan. Routledge. To be published March 2024.
Wessels, S., Catalano, T., Reeves, J., Leonard, A., Ganesan, U., Barbici-Wagner, A., & Gallardo, C. (2023). “Just attaching a face”: Engaging local refugee communities in preservice teacher education focused on students with immigrant/refugee backgrounds. TESOL Journal. DOI: 10.1002/tesj.782
Reeves, J. (2023). Bilingual paraeducators’ navigation of narrow identity spaces in a rural elementary school. In Educating Multilingual Students in Rural Schools: Illuminating Diversity in Rural Communities in the United States, edited by M. R. Coady, P. Golombek, and N. Marichal, pp. 70-97. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
Reeves J. (2022). Understanding language teacher agency. In Theory and Practice in Second Language Teacher Identity: Researching, Theorizing, and Enacting, edited by K. Sadeghi and F. Ghaderi, pp. 75-88. Switzerland: Springer.
Catalano, T., Ganesan, U., Barbici-Wagner, A., Reeves, J., Leonard, A., & Wessels, S. (2021). Dance as Dialog: A Metaphor Analysis of Arts and Community-Based Learning with Preservice Teachers and a Local Refugee Community. Teaching and Teacher Education, 104, 103369.
Catalano, T., Reeves, J. & Wessels, S. (2018). "The soccer field, it has dirt”: A critical analysis of teacher learners in contact with emergent multilingual students. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, (15)1, 1-20.
Reeves, J. (2018). Teacher identity. In TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching, J.I. Liontas (Ed), pp. 1-7. Oxford, UK: Wiley.
Reeves, J. (2018). Teacher identity work in neoliberal schooling spaces. Teaching and Teacher Education, (72), 98-106.
Wessels, S., Trainin, G., Reeves, J., Catalano, T., & Deng, Q. (2017). Preservice teachers’ confidence and attitudes toward teaching English learners. Teacher Education and Practice, (30)3, 443-461.
Varghese, M. M., Motha, S., Park, G., Reeves, J. & Trent, J. (2016). In this issue. TESOL Quarterly, 50, 545-571.
Honors and Recognition
Fulbright Hays Group Projects Abroad, U.S. Department of Education grant winner (2019 – 2023). Education fever: Lessons for Great Plains K-12 teachers in Korea’s education system. (2019 - 2023). Principal investigator. Award of $87,351. Dr. Reeves led 12 Nebraska teachers on a 4 week travel study of Korean language, culture, and educational system.
Donald R. and Mary Lee Swanson Award for Excellence in Teaching (2015).
College of Education and Human Sciences (CEHS) Distinguished Teaching Award. (2011).
TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), Inc. Teacher Education Interest Section (2013). Chair.
Areas of Expertise:
English Learners
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
Teacher Identity
Teacher Development