Marisa Cannata, a post-doctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of education and human development, has been awarded the American Educational Research Association, Division L (Education Policy and Politics) Outstanding Dissertation of the Year.
The national award will be presented at the organization’s annual conference on March 25 in New York City.
Her dissertation, “Where to Teach? Developing a More Comprehensive Framework to Understand Teacher Career Decision,” was completed at Michigan State University in 2007 with support from a Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship. It considers how teachers come to work in particular schools, their preferences for schools and how their career decisions relate to their social and cultural background.
According to the dissertation award committee chair, “the reviewers thought the work was highly original in its use of theory to explain teacher labor market decisions and in its creative use and analysis of mixed methods data.”
Cannata is a research associate at the National Center on School Choice at Vanderbilt and part of a National Science Foundation-funded project on new middle school mathematics teachers’ induction experiences. She focuses on issues of teacher quality, including teachers’ career decisions, work experiences, professional community and hiring. Cannata also considers how teacher qualifications and work experiences vary between charter and traditional public schools.
She has recently published peer-reviewed articles in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis and Education Policy Analysis Archives.
Cannata is the second Peabody researcher to win the top AERA top dissertation award in their respective field this year.
Christopher Loss, assistant professor of public policy and higher education, won the award for the post-secondary division.
Media Contact: Melanie Moran, (615) 322-NEWS
melanie.moran@vanderbilt.edu