The University of Iowa College of Education’s Department of Teaching and Learning has recognized six graduate students following its annual Student Research Award competition.

The award recognizes doctoral students who served as a first or sole author on research publications that are under review, accepted, or published in peer-reviewed journals. 

The committee chose three winners, who each received a $500 scholarship, and three runners-up. 

The awardees were: 

Syed Usman Hashmi, whose paper “From silence to voice: Co-constructing confidence and belonging” uses a community-engaged approach to study how anxiety, identify, and investment intersect for multilingual learners’ English. This paper was published in the conference report for “Languages are FUNdamental.” 

May Kannika Ross, whose paper “Teaching across many Thailands: Regional perspectives on special education practice" reports on a series of interviews she conducted with special educators in Thailand and the barriers they experience in meeting the needs of their students. This paper is currently under review. 

I-Chun Hsiao, whose paper “English as a medium of instruction (EMI) as opportunity or burden? Research pressure and teaching responsibilities for faculty in Taiwan’s non-English-dominant context” employed a mixed methods design to study how EMI interacts with research, evaluation systems, and institutional support. This was recently accepted by the Journal of Higher Education. 

The runners-up were: 

Colleen Kollasch, whose paper “Evaluating LGBTQ+ history curriculum: Inquiry, criticality, teacher agency, and digital affordances” describes a close and critical analysis of how LGBTQ+ history and identities were represented in six educational websites. This paper is currently under review. 

Godwin Paintsil, whose paper “Attempting solidarity: A critical autoethnography of community-engaged research with Ghanian performing arts teachers” presents a critical autoethnography based upon his experiences conducting community-based research with a group of Ghanian performing arts teachers. This paper is currently under review. 

Li Zhu, whose paper “U.S. rural students’ mathematics performance: A transfer learning study of PISA 2022” describes an analysis of a large U.S. dataset on mathematics education to explore differences between students in rural and urban areas. This paper is under review.