Ashlee Anderson, PhD

Clinical Associate Professor, Cultural Studies

Biography

Ashlee Anderson is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies in Education (CSE) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She earned a BA in Classics and Anthropology from the University of Tennessee and an MA in Classical Languages from the University of Georgia, after which she served as a High School Latin teacher in South Carolina and an Educational Specialist with UTK’s Pre-College Enrichment Programs. She went on to complete her PhD in Education with a primary specialization in CSE and a secondary specialization in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Tennessee, where she now teaches graduate courses in the CSE doctoral concentration and master’s degree program, as well as CSE undergraduate courses in international education. Her primary research interests include foundations of education/sociology of education, teacher education/teacher development, qualitative research methodologies, education policy and reform, international education, equity and social justice, and cultural studies in education.

 

Professional Background

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Research

As a former high school educator and current faculty member who works with both undergraduate and graduate students, Professor Anderson is primarily interested in the (in)equity effects of education policy as it manifests both locally and globally.  Teacher education and development, especially in urban contexts, has provided a productive outlet for these areas of interest.  Her work has included systematic inquiry related to both program-specific elements of teacher education, as well as the ways in which larger educational discourses inform and structure those elements.  As such, her research trajectory typically employs both macro and micro analyses of the ways in which schools have the potential to provide transformative interventions into the lives of students and communities, although they do not always do so.  These macro and micro analyses have manifested in the following research strands: 1) the ways in which domestic and international educational policy development and implementation structure the experiences of public school teachers; 2) how educators think about and respond to those often oppressive school structures; and 3) how teacher education functions as an intermediary between these two.

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Education

Doctor of Philosophy (Cultural Studies in Education), University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Master of Arts (Classical Languages), University of Georgia, Athens

Bachelor of Arts (Classics & Anthropology), University of Tennessee, Knoxville

 

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Professional Service

Institutional Service 

Co-chair, Diversity Collaborative in Education, 2017-present

Workshop Leader and Presenter, Teaching and Learning Innovation, Implicit Bias and Inclusive Teaching, 2018-present

Member, Urban-Multicultural Teacher Education Faculty, 2016-17

Participant, Rethinking General Education: A Roundtable, 2016-17

Recent Disciplinary service

Guest reviewer for Journal of Teacher Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, American Educational Research Journal, and International Education Journal

Proposal reviewer for Critical Race Studies In Education, American Educational Studies Association, and American Educational Research Association

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Awards and Recognitions

Award for Excellence in Inclusive Teaching, Teaching and Learning Innovation, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Nominated, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Reviewers’ Choice (with Andrea Arce-Trigatti), Practicing Diversity: Complexities, Contradictions, and Consequences for Education Policy. Paper presentation at the 2016 American Educational Studies Association, Seattle, WA.

Reviewers’ Choice (with Barbara Thayer-Bacon, Kristen Godfrey, Janine Al-Aseer, & Andrea Arce-Trigatti), The University of Tennessee’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion: Under the Gun. Panel presentation at the 2016 American Educational Studies Association, Seattle, WA.

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Publications

Selected articles, books, and book chapters 

Arce-Trigatti, A., & Anderson, A. (Accepted). Shortchanging diversity: Understanding diversity policy in the era of neoliberalism. Educational Policy Analysis Archives

Anderson, A. (2019). Assessing the “education debt”: Teach for America and the problem of attrition. Critical Education, 10(11), 1-19.

Anderson, A., & Aronson, B. (2019). Teacher education, diversity, & the interest convergence conundrum: How the demographic divide shapes teacher education. In Critical Race Theory in Teacher Education: Coalitions for the Future (Keonghee Tao Han & Judson Laughter, Eds.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Ellison, S., Anderson, A., Aronson, B., Clausen, C. (2018). From objects to subjects: Repositioning teachers as policy actors doing policy work. Teaching and Teacher Education, 74, 157-169.

Arce-Trigatti, A. & Anderson, A. (2018). Defining diversity: A critical discourse analysis of public educational texts. Discourse: Studies in the Social Politics of Education, DOI: 10.1080/01596306.2018.1462575.

Anderson, A., Aronson, B., Ellison, S., & Fairchild-Keyes, S. (2015). Pushing up against the limit-horizon of educational change: A critical discourse analysis of education reform. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 12(3), 338-370.

Anderson, A. (2013). Teach For America and symbolic violence: A Bourdieuian analysis of education’s next quick-fix. The Urban Review, 45(5), 684-700.

Anderson, A. (2013). Teach For America and the dangers of deficit thinking. Critical Education, 4(11), 28-46.

Selected presentations

Anderson, A. (2018, November 7-11). Teach For America Corps Maintenance Practices and Long-term Educational Change. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Studies Association, Greenville, SC.

Anderson, A. (2018, April 13-17). Teach For America and the problem with one-dimensional research. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Division K—Section 09, New York, NY.

Anderson, A. (2018, April 13-17). Assessing the “education debt”: Teach For America and the problem of attrition. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Division G—Section 4, New York, NY.

Ellison, S., Anderson, A., & Aronson, B. (2018, April 13-17). Educational policy from the ground up: Perspectives on problems and solutions in urban schools. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Sociology of Education SIG, New York, NY.

Arce-Trigatti, A. & Anderson, A. (2017, November 1-5). Shortchanging diversity: Understanding diversity policy in the era of neoliberalism. Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the American Educational Studies Association, Pittsburgh, PA.

Ellison, S., Anderson, A., & Aronson, B. (2017, November 1-5). From objects to subjects: Repositioning teachers as policy actors doing policy work. Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the American Educational Studies Association, San Antonio, TX.

Anderson, A. (2016, November 2-6). Teach For America, the Public-to-Charter Pipeline, and the Politics of Protection. Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the American Educational Studies Association, Seattle, WA.

Arce-Trigatti, A. & Anderson, A. (2016, November 2-6). Practicing Diversity: Complexities, Contradictions, and Consequences for Education Policy. Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the American Educational Studies Association, Seattle, WA.

Aronson, B. & Anderson, A. (2016, November 2-6). Preparing For Diversity: Teach For America, Traditional Teacher Education, and the Politics of Preparation. Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the American Educational Studies Association, Seattle, WA.

Thayer-Bacon, B., Godfrey, K., Al-Aseer, J., Anderson, A., Arce-Trigatti, A. (2016, November 2-6). The University of Tennessee’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion: Under the Gun. Panel presentation at the annual meeting of the American Educational Studies Association, Seattle, WA.