Bustamante earns national dissertation support grant

08 Apr 2014    

The “Modern Language Journal” and the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers has awarded CEHS doctoral student Carolina Bustamante a national dissertation support grant of $2,500. Bustamante competed with students from across the country. The only other recipient was a student at Georgetown University. The purpose of the grants is to provide resources to graduate students who are in the process of researching or writing their dissertation.

Bustamante’s dissertation explores professional development on Web 2.0 for teachers of Spanish. She used a mixed methods approach researching the experiences of 18 teachers of Spanish in grades 7-12 in rural and urban Nebraska. She found mainly positive learning experiences and significant knowledge growth using Web 2.0 resources for professional development. The study also revealed some issues of access to technology and the use of the target language by teachers. Her doctoral advisor was Ali Moeller in Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education.