 Community of Learners: Students Accessing the Informal Curriculum
Mindy J. Hopper is a PhD candidate at the University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education and Human Development specializing in teaching, curriculum, and change. Hopper’s research interests are qualitatively-based and grounded in informal/incidental learning practices. She views informal learning as a socio-cultural practice. Hopper’s dissertation study, scheduled to be completed in May 2010, will investigate informal curricula that is supported by students’ own capital and funds of knowledge.
Hopper has been teaching in the fields of deaf education and interpreting training for over 20 years. Prior her doctoral program she coordinated and taught the deaf and hard of hearing certificate grant program at East Carolina University for nine years. Before that she spearheaded several paraprofessional programs at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) focusing on programs involving informal student leadership training practices. There Hopper emphasized the importance of informal learning opportunities and how they can be connected to what students learn in their classes or may learn in their future employment.
|
 Looking Back-Looking Forward: One Person’s Perspective on Progress in Our Profession
Susan Rose, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She is the coordinator of the special education program and the graduate program in education for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. She served as the faculty representative for American Sign Language as a world language undergraduate program for the past 20 years. She was a teacher serving children who are deaf or hard of hearing in classroom and itinerant settings for more than a decade prior to her career in teacher education and research. In addition to her experiences as a speech pathologist and as a teacher at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels, Rose has served on several national and state professional and community organizations with people who are deaf and hard of hearing. She has conducted research in the areas of communication, reading and writing, and computer-based technology. Rose has an extensive list of publications, including journal articles, books, technical manuals, and software. She co-authored the Reading Bridge series and the revised Reading Milestones with Drs. Quigley and McAnally, and is the co-developer of the AVE: ASL software and AVE: Progress Monitoring software.
|
 Vision 2020
Ed Bosso is the dean of the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center at Gallaudet University. Prior to this position, he served as the assistant superintendent of Human Resources in the Christina School District where he previously was the director of Delaware Programs for Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Deafblind Children and the principal of the Delaware School for the Deaf. Bosso has worked at other schools and programs for deaf and hard of hearing students, and he also served as an adjunct faculty member at McDaniel College in Maryland. Bosso is currently the president of the Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf.
Bosso earned his master’s degree in educational administration at the California State University-Northridge as part of the National Leadership Training Program and is currently completing his doctoral work in educational leadership at the University of Delaware. |
