Brief Biography
My journey in education has been wide and varied, including: 1) Working informally with elementary, middle school, and high school aged youth in the context of environmental and wildlife education 2) Teaching multiple levels of high-school biology 3) Running a music and art based non-profit designing and executing programming for children with disabilities, children processing grief from the loss of significant people in their lives, and youth in the foster care system and 4) Running a program based in Restorative Practices that took in students who were suspended from school for the purpose of helping them academically and in the context of their suspension.
Research Interests
My research interests lie at the crossroads where education meets the various challenges in students lives. My studies focus around the use of Restorative Practices as a vehicle for human-centered interaction and science education as a healing lens that drives motivation and identity formation. I am curious about what role affect, curiosity, and vulnerability play in the context student-teacher relationships, the expression of authentic teaching-self, and the creation of emergent, significant moments with students. I look to apply the knowledge from research to both educational and non-educational systems. Separately, I believe in the contextual functionality and utility of all types of commas and not just the use of one comma type for all purposes.
Publications & Conference Presentations
1. Schafer, Z. & Scharmann, L. (2021). Empowering Salieri – Extracting the “genius” in our students. The Science Teacher. 89(2). http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/teachlearnfacpub/471
2. Presenter for Racial Literacy Roundtable at University of Nebraska-Lincoln - April 2021
3. Schafer, Z. & Scharmann, L. (2022). Understanding “Death”: Creating student opportunities for meaningful emotional expression in the science classroom. The Science Teacher. 90(1). http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/teachlearnfacpub/500
4. Schafer, Z. (2022). Restorative Practices for Para-Educators. Project Para. University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
5. Schafer, Z. (2023). Heart-Stopping Rollercoasters: Restorative Practices, Motivation, and the Formation of a Science Identity. The Science Teacher. 90(5). https://www.nsta.org/science-teacher/science-teacher-mayjune-2023/heart-stopping-rollercoasters