Stephanie Behm Cross
Associate Professor - Teacher Education Middle and Secondary Education- Education
Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies, Virginia Tech, 2001.
Master of Arts in Education in Curriculum and Instruction: Secondary Mathematics Education, Virginia Tech, 2003.
Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction, Virginia Tech, 2008.
- Specializations
Urban teacher preparation
Teacher residency models
Critical Whiteness Studies
Critical ethnography
Clinical field experiences
- Biography
Stephanie Behm Cross is an associate professor in the Department of Middle and Secondary Education in the College of Education & Human Development. Her scholarly work focuses on urban teacher preparation and whiteness in K-12 and university settings.
Cross’ most recent research, funded through a multi-year Department of Education grant, investigates the impact of a three-year residency program–Collaboration and Reflection to Enhance Atlanta Teacher Effectiveness–on teachers’ retention, satisfaction, and overall critical consciousness. Using critical co-ethnography, and drawing on both Critical Whiteness Studies and Critical Race Theory, Cross and her colleagues investigate the overall culture and equity-centered practices within this teacher residency program.
Cross coordinates the Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning, Teaching and Teacher Education concentration and works closely with undergraduate students enrolled in the B.S.E. degree program in Middle Level Education. She teaches undergraduate teacher preparation courses on human diversity, power, and oppression in schools, middle level curriculum and pedagogical practices, and critical issues in middle grades education. She also teaches doctoral seminars in urban teacher education. She previously worked as a middle grades mathematics teacher and implemented project-based, integrated curriculum across multiple grades at her school.
- Publications
Favors, S., Neely, A., Chisholm, G., & Cross, S. B. (2021). Discomfort, resistance, and othering: A poetic inquiry into urban teacher preparation program redesign. Journal of African American Women and Girls in Education.
Hackett, J., Williams, R., Davis, C., Cross, S. B., Behizadeh, N., Hearn, E. (2021). Tensions in designing a third space in a justice-oriented teacher residency: Toward an authentic collaborative for clinical practice. Peabody Journal of Education.
Davis, C. & Cross, S. B. (2020). When whiteness clouds mindfulness: Using critical theories to examine mindfulness in teacher education. Equity & Excellence in Education.
Cross, S. B., Cannon, S. O., Williams, M. J., Hale, J. J., Donovan, M. K., Thomas, C. O., Chea, M., & Downey, C. A. (2020). Criticality and the narrative inquiry table: Travel stories and tensions. Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue, 22.
Cross, S. B., Bayazit, N., & Dunn, A. H. (2019). Whiteness as a dissonant state: Exploring one white male student teacher’s experiences in urban contexts. Journal of Teacher Education, 70(4), 306-318.
Behizadeh, N., Thomas, C.*, & Cross, S. B. (2019). Reframing for social justice: The influence of critical friendship groups on preservice teachers’ reflective practice. Journal of Teacher Education, 70(3), 280-296.
Cross, S. B., Behizadeh, N., & Holihan, J.* (2018). Critically conscious or dangerously dysconscious?: An analysis of teacher candidates’ concerns in urban schools. The Teacher Educator, 53(2), 124-149.
Cross, S. B., Dunn, A. H., & Dotson, E. K. (2018). The intersections of selves and policies: A poetic inquiry into the hydra of teacher education. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 26(29), 1-34. http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.26.2813
Cross, S. B. (2017). Whiteness in the academy: Using vignettes to move beyond safe silences. Teaching in Higher Education, 1-9. Available at http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/jhZTqIs6GcS8WNEybzMC/full.
Cross, S. B., & Thomas, C.* (2017). Mitigating new teacher burnout: How reimagined partnerships could support urban middle level teachers. Middle Grades Review, 3(1), 1-9. Available at: http://scholarworks.uvm.edu/mgreview/vol3/iss1/3.
Cross, S. B. (2016). Reexamining pitfalls of experience in urban teacher preparation. Journal of Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research, 12, 116-123.
Jett, C. C., & Cross, S. B. (2016). Teaching about diversity in black and white: Reflections and recommendations from two teacher educators. The New Educator, 12(2), 1-16.
Cross, S. B., & Dunn, A. H. (2016). “I don’t know of a better way to prepare to teach:” A case study of paired student teaching abroad. Teacher Education Quarterly, 43(1), 71-90.