Janell Miller, a student in the NC State College of Education’s Ph.D. in Teacher Education and Learning Sciences literacy and English language arts concentration and Goodnight Doctoral Fellowship recipient, has been selected as the third-place winner of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) Holmes Scholar Dissertation Funding Competition. 

The Holmes Scholar program is designed to enhance the education profession by recruiting, preparing and sustaining scholar-leaders. Miller’s third-place proposal was selected from among more than a dozen submitted from around the country. 

“It means everything to me to receive this award,” Miller said. “This award affirms the importance of my work and reinforces my commitment to developing a meaningful and practical tool for teachers.”

As a previous recipient of the Goodnight Doctoral Fellowship, Miller has acknowledged the role that additional funding plays in helping her pursue her Ph.D. full time and engage in worthwhile opportunities noting that “there have been many compromises involved in pursuing a Ph.D. full-time, especially financial ones. But getting chosen as a Goodnight Doctoral Fellow will make sure that I can benefit from worthwhile opportunities.”

Miller’s dissertation, entitled “Avoiding Harm, Centering Humanity, and Cultivating Understanding: A Qualitative Approach to Developing and Validating a Scale for Criticality in ELA Education,” focuses on defining and measuring the dimensions of critical teacher consciousness among high school English teachers. 

Using a multiphase approach, the study will develop and validate an instrument to capture varying levels of critical consciousness. The ultimate goal, Miller said, is to create a tool that supports teacher development by helping educators assess and reflect on their beliefs, knowledge and pedagogical decisions in ways that promote transformation and meaningful student engagement. 

A former high school English teacher and first-generation college student, her pursuit of a master’s degree and now a Ph.D. in the College of Education was inspired by her own experiences in the classroom and wanting to understand how to help students become active participants in their education. Additionally, understanding from her own experiences the challenges of navigating difficult classroom conversations, Miller dedicated her doctoral work to help teachers think critically about their beliefs and classroom practices.

She will use the funding she receives from the Dissertation Funding Competition to offer participant incentives, purchase digital software to aid in her data analysis and cover other research-related costs. 

“I am passionate about making criticality accessible and actionable for teachers, not just in theory but in practice,” said Miller, who was inspired to pursue this research from her own experiences as a high school English teacher. “I hope this research will serve as a resource for educators who want to align their instructional choices with their values while creating meaningful learning experiences for their students.”

Amelia Rivera, who is also a doctoral student in the Department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences, was among the top six finalists in the competition.

This post was originally published in College of Education News.