story by Claire Miller
Distinguished University Professor Daphne Greenberg has created the first post-doctoral fellowship training program in the country specifically designed to support new Ph.D. graduates interested in studying adult literacy.
Greenberg, who serves as director of the College of Education & Human Development’s Adult Literacy Research Center, will work with co-principal investigator Elizabeth Tighe from Georgia State University’s Department of Psychology; Joseph Magliano, Kathryn McCarthy and Sarah Carlson from the Department of Learning Sciences; and Scott Crossley from the Department of Applied Linguistics and ESL to recruit four post-doctoral fellows from diverse academic and demographic backgrounds for the new training program.
Eligible candidates will have earned doctoral degrees from programs such as learning sciences, adult education, applied linguistics, curriculum and instruction, developmental psychology and other related fields. Greenberg and her colleagues are particularly interested in finding applicants from rural, African-American and/or low-income communities to participate.
Those chosen for the program will be paired with a mentor faculty member, receive hands-on training in research methods and analysis, and learn more about adults outside of the traditional K-12 school systems who have gaps in their literacy knowledge and skills.
“As a result of this training, fellows will be prepared to conduct research on adult samples drawn from different education settings, to communicate across fields and with technical and nontechnical audiences, and to help inform policy and practice relevant to a large portion of adults who struggle with basic skills,” Greenberg wrote in the grant.
This training program is supported by a five-year, $760,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. For more information, click here.