Dawn Abt-Perkins
Professor
Education

Phone 847-735-5177
E-mail abtperkins@lakeforest.edu

Specialization
Secondary Education
Teacher Education
Multicultural Education
English Language Arts Education
Secondary Reading Instruction

Interests
Multicultural Literacy
Teacher Development
Urban Education

Education
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin- Madison
M.S., University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.S., University of Wisconsin-Madison

Courses Taught
ED 215: Instructional Communication Theory and Practice
ED 313: Reading in the Content Areas
ED 315: Middle School Fieldwork and Seminar
ED 420: Discipline-Specific Secondary Instructional Design
ED 421: Student Teaching and Secondary Seminar

Books
Greene, S. and Abt-Perkins, D. (Eds.) (2003).  Making Race Visible:  Literacy Research for Racial Understanding.  Teachers College Press, New York, New York.

Articles
Pettengill, R., Abt-Perkins, D., and Buckley, S. (in press). Teaching difficult dramatic texts:  A Collaborative Inquiry Using Dramaturgy.  English Journal.

Abt-Perkins, D. (2009). Finding Common Ground: Conditions for Effective Collaborative Professional Development For Professors  of History to Teach Middle and High School Teachers.   In R. Ragland and K. Woestman (Eds.), The Teaching American History Project:   Lessons for Historians and History Educators.  Routledge. 

Ragland, R., Pettengill, R. and Abt-Perkins, D. (2008).  Dimensions of Collaborative Faculty Development.  Academic Exchange Quarterly, 12 (4).

Abt-Perkins, D. (2008).  Learning to Speak the Same Language:  Collaboration between arts and science and teacher education professors on assessment of teacher candidates.  Center for Success in High Needs Schools Journal.

Dudley-Marling, C., Abt-Perkins, D., Kyoko, S., and Selfe, R. (2006).  Teacher quality:  The perspectives of NCTE members.  English Education.  38, (3).

Sherman, S.,Abt-Perkins, D. and Rosswurn, S. (2005).  Finding Home:  Preparing Pre Service Teachers for High Needs Schools.  Center for Success in High Needs School Journal.  Associated Colleges of Illinois, Chicago, IL.

Ebner, M., Ragland, R. and Abt-Perkins, D. (2003).  Teaching American history:  A report from the field.  Organization of American Historians Newsletter, 31, 1.

Abt-Perkins, D. (2002).  Reports from the states:  Illinois.  English Education, 34 (2), 156.
 
Abt-Perkins, D. and Hauschildt, P. and Dale, H.(2000)  Becoming Multicultural Supervisors:  Lessons from a Collaborative Field Study.  Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 16,1,1218-48.
 
Abt-Perkins, D. and Rosen, L.M. (2000). Preparing English teachers to teach students of color: Beliefs, challenges, proposals for change. English Education, 32,4, 251-267.

Abt-Perkins, D., Dale, H., and Hauschildt, P. (1998).  Letters of intent:  Collaborative self-study as reform in teacher education.  In A. Cole and G. Knowles (Eds.), The Heart of the Matter: Teacher Education Reform Perspectives and Possibilities. Caddo Gap Press.

Abt-Perkins, D., Hauschildt, P. and Dale, H. (1998). Critical pedagogy in process: A collaborative self-study.  Teaching Education, 9, 2, 101-107.

Abt-Perkins, D., and Hightower, D. (1998).  Designing liberal arts teacher  education to attract students of color.  Views and News.  Association of  Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education, 10, (2), 14-17.

Abt-Perkins, D. (1996).  Teaching diverse learners in a middle school writing workshop.  In F. Rios, (Ed.), Teacher Thinking in Multicultural Contexts, Albany, NY:  State University of New York Press.

Gomez, M.L. & Abt-Perkins, D. (1995).  Sharing stories for practice, analysis, and critique. Education Research and Perspectives, 22, (1), 39-52.

Abt-Perkins, D. (1995).  Are you calling her a racist?:  Language, context, and the struggle to better understand conflicts concerning race.  Women and Language, 18, (1), 25-30.

Smith, M. W. & Abt-Perkins, D. (1994)  Preservice teacher education.  In A .C. Purves (Ed.),  Encyclopedia of English Language Arts, pp. 945-948. Urbana, IL:  National Council of Teachers of English.

Abt-Perkins, D. & Pagnucci, G. (1993).  From tourist to storyteller:  Reading and writing science.  In S. Tchudi (Ed.), The Astonishing Curriculum:  Integrating Science and Humanities through Language,  Urbana, IL:  National Council of Teachers of English.

Abt-Perkins, D. & Gomez, M .L. (1993).   A Good place to begin:  Examining our personal perspectives.  Language Arts, 70, (3), 193-204.

Abt-Perkins, D. (1992) From alienation to authorship:  Creating a writing community for high school basic writers.  Journal of Teaching Writing,  11,  (1). 

Pagnucci, G. & Abt-Perkins, D. (1992) The Never making sense story:  Reassessing the value of narrative. English Journal, 81, (3).

Invited Talks
Abt-Perkins, D. (2009).  Reforming a Teacher Education Program to Serve a High-Needs School District: A Design Study.  American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA., April 14.

Abt-Perkins, D., Gambro, J., Woo, D., Fitzsimmons, J. and Diehl-Yang, C. (2009).  Preparation for Bringing Quality Teachers to High-Need Schools, Association of Teacher Educators Annual Meeting, February 9, Chicago, IL.

Abt-Perkins, D., Diehl-Yng, C., Fitzsimmons, J. and Navarro, J .(2008). Transforming Teacher Preparation:  K-12 Roles in High-Poverty Schools. Annual Meeting of the  Association of Supervision and Curriculum Developers, New Orleans, April.

Abt-Perkins, D., Fischer, E. Wiser, D., Houde, A. Schappe, S. (2008). Developing a Level Playing Field: Fresh Approaches to Established Teaching Techniques.  Associated Colleges of Illinois Center for Success in High Needs Schools Arts and Science Colloquium, September, 27th, Chicago, IL.
 
Abt-Perkins, D., Sherman, S., Galovich, S. and Fischer, E. (2006).  Building Our Knowledge Base:  Collaboration as a Liberal Arts College Faculty Development Experience.  Associated Colleges of Illinois Center for Success in High Need Schools Arts & Sciences Colloquium, September 29th.

Abt-Perkins, D. (2005).  Why race as a construct for literacy research in 2005?  Presentation for the research award winners at the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Conference, November 21st.

Abt-Perkins, D. and Babcock, K. (2005).  Community-Based activism to combat colorblind instruction:  A Report on a professional development initiative with new teachers.  International Conference on Teacher Education and Social Justice, October 16th.

Abt-Perkins, D. and Greene, S. (2005).  Researching Race.  Assembly for  Research Conference.  Ohio State University, February 19th.

Abt-Perkins, D. (2004).  Multicultural Literacy Education.  Urban Education Program of the Associated Colleges of Illinois 50th Anniversary Conference.  July 7, 2004, Chicago, Illinois.

Abt-Perkins, D. (2004).  Multicultural Education and the Preparation of the English Teacher.  Pennsylvania Conference on English Education, April 14, 2004.

Ragland, R.G., Abt-Perkins, D. and Sherman, S. (2001).  Dispositions and Values:  A Process for Developing Assessments.  Illinois Association of Teacher Educators, November 8th, Charleston, Illinois.

Abt-Perkins, D. and Greene, S. (2000).  The role of the literacy researcher when focusing on race.  Paper presented at the National Council of Teachers of English annual meeting, November, Milwaukee.

Abt-Perkins, D., Hauschildt, P., and Dale, H. (1998). Disrupting the silences on  the triplicate forms: Raising cultural diversity and equity issues in preservice teacher supervision.  Paper presented at the American Education Research Association annual meeting, San Diego, California.

Abt-Perkins, D. and Babcock, K. (1998).  Moving ahead: A dialogic school-to-work curriuclum project.  Presentation at the National Council of Teachers of English annual conference, Nashville, Tennessee.

Abt-Perkins, D., Dale, H., and Hauschildt, P. (1996).  Telling stories:  Issues of analysis in teacher research.  Presentation for the research strand of the  National Council of Teachers of English Conference, Chicago, Illinois.

Abt-Perkins, D. Dale, H., and Hauschildt, P. (1996).  What difference does community context make in challenging school literacy instructional traditions?  Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, New York, New York.

Abt-Perkins, D. and Dale, H. (1995).  On questioning ourselves and our  projects:  Meaning and usefulness of qualitative research.  Presentation for the Research Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English annual meeting, San  Diego, California.

Abt-Perkins, D., Hauschildt, P. and Dale, H. (1995).  When we don’t ask the tough questions:  On Raising issues of equity and justice as teacher educators in urban, suburban, and rural communities.  Paper presentation at the American Educational Research Association Conference, San Francisco, California.

Dale, H. and Abt-Perkins, D. (1994).  In whose image?  Competing voices in student teaching.  Presentation at the National Council of  Teachers of English Conference, Portland, Oregon.

Abt-Perkins, D., Hauschildt, P., and Dale, H. (1994).  Naming our silences:  Raising issues of race, class, and gender as teacher educators in urban, suburban, and rural settings.  Presentation at the Research on Women and Education Conference, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Abt-Perkins, D. & Hansen, L. (1993).  The Reading/writing workshop:  Sharing
dilemmas of practice in a multicultural setting.  Presentation at the National Council of Teachers of English Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Gomez, M. L. & Abt-Perkins, D. (1993).  Using narrative to prepare prospective teachers for diverse classrooms:  The “Rumble” and other  stories. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, Atlanta, Georgia.

Abt-Perkins, D. & Shedivy, J. (1992) Teacher-researchers from the start:  New ways of thinking about teaching teachers. Paper presented at the National Council of Teachers of English, Washington, D.C.

Abt-Perkins, D. & Gomez, M. L. (1992) “Wanna see a rumble?”:  Stories about teaching and the development of the speaking consciousness.  Paper presented at the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing Conference on Curriculum Theory and Classroom Practice, Dayton, Ohio.

Abt-Perkins, D. & Pagnucci, G. (1992)  Narrative learning:  What happens when  high school students become storytellers?  Paper presented at the National Council of Teachers of English, Louisville, Kentucky.

Abt-Perkins, D. (1992)  On making sense of teaching diverse learners:  The conversations of practice.  Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association’s Research on Women and Education Conference, Pennsylvania State University.

Other Talks
What’s Really at Stake Here?  High Stakes Assessment for Teachers and Our Students.  Co-Chair with Deborah Appleman, Carleton College.  Annual Colloquium of the Conference on English Education of the National Council of Teachers of English, November 19th, 2001, Baltimore, Maryland.

Teaching Other People’s Children.  Panel participant, Conference on English Education Colloquium, November, 2000, National Council of Teachers of English Annual Meeting.

Towards a Democratic Vision of Literacy:  A Workshop on Teacher Research. National Council of Teachers of English, November 22, 1999, Denver, Colorado, with Stuart Greene.

Powerpoint as More than a Fancy Overhead:  The Interactive Lecture. ACI/  Ameritech Conference, Chicago, Ilinois, June, 1999, with Diane Snedden.
 
Moving ahead: A career academy language arts curriculum for at-risk  freshmen. Connections Conference. Illinois State Board of Education.  April 21, 1998.  St. Charles, Illinois, with Kathy Babcock.

Authentic and Performance Assessment: Politics and Possibilities.  Presentation for the Gilmore Middle School faculty, Racine, Wisconsin, May 20, 1998.

Maintaining integrity, identity and independence while meeting national accreditation standards.  Presider, National Forum, Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education, Seattle, Washington, July, 1998.

Narrative Theory and Practice in Learning to Read Science and Like Scientists. Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English and the Wisconsin Reading Association, regional meeting, Muckwanago, Wisconsin, October 7, 1995.

What does cultural identity have to do with the preparation of teachers? Associate Chair, National Council of Teachers of English Conference, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, November 21, 1993.

Searching for the Thread among Whole Language, Response-Based Literature, and Writer’s Workshop Approaches. Wausau, Wisconsin, October 5, 1991 with David Schaafsma.

The Writing Process:  Changes including Technology. Stoughton, Wisconsin, November 5, 1991.

A Conversation about our Profession:  Changes on the Horizon, Wausau, Wisconsin, December 5, 1991.

Grant-Funded Projects
Science and Math Learning Collaborative.  October, 2007-currently.  Grant from the Associated Colleges of Illinois Center for Success in High Needs Schools ($40,000 annually for three years) through Illinois Board of Higher Education to support the development of  gender-conscious teacher education programming for middle school teachers.

Linking Learning Communities:  New Teacher Leadership Project. Part of the Associated Colleges of Illinois, Center for Success in High Needs Schools.  United States Department of Education Teacher Quality Grant, 2004-currently.  Grant author and Project Director ($750,000 for five years).

A Model Collaboration:  Rethinking American History.  United States Department of Education, 2001, with Michael Ebner, Rachel Ragland, Janet McCracken and Waukegan Schools administration.

Awards and Honors
Meade Award, National Council of Teachers of English, for distinguished research in English language arts and teacher education, 2003, with Stuart Greene.

Distinguished Paper Award, American Educational Research Association, Instructional Supervision Special Interest Group, 1998

Hotchkiss Fellowship, Lake Forest College, Fall, 1997.

A.S. Barr Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1992-1993

Carrie R. Barton Memorial Award in English Education, Univeristy of Wisconsin-Madison, 1991-1992

Supervisor, Student Teacher of the Year, Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English, 1991

American Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation Journalism Award, 1989

Dow Jones Fellowship for Promising Journalism Teachers, 1988