Eckerson receives dissertation award



Eckerson receives dissertation award

21 Sep 2016    

Janet Eckerson, a 2015 Ed.D. graduate from Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education, has been recognized by the Carnegie Project on the Educational Doctorate with an honorable mention award in the Dissertation in Practice Awards. Her advisor in her Ed.D. in education studies was professor Ted Hamann from TLTE.

Eckerson’s dissertation, “Teacher Perspectives on Professional Development Needs for Better Serving Nebraska’s Spanish Heritage Language Learners,” was cited as an exemplary Dissertation in Practice, an alternate to traditional dissertations based upon professional practice programs. The award honors scholarly practitioner work that seeks to create change in practice and adhere to the CPED definition of Dissertation in Practice as a scholarly endeavor that impacts a complex problem of practice.

“Janet wrote the epitome of an iterative problem of practice dissertation,” said Hamann. “First she found a network of Spanish as a heritage language teachers, then she figured out their professional development needs, then she figured out how to get their professional learning recognized as professional learning. It’s a dissertation I intend to show to many others.”

Eckerson plans to remain teaching in her Lincoln classroom but is “interested in teacher leadership, teacher research, teacher-driven professional development and pre- and in-service teacher learning in the service of learners of Spanish as heritage language.”

She serves as the president of the Nebraska Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese and the secretary of the Nebraska International Language Association.


College of Education and Human Sciences
Teaching, Learning & Teacher Education