Donna Breault | Ashland University (original) (raw)
Since 1988, I've had many opportunities to serve as an educator. I've taught second, third, fourth, and seventh grades in urban, rural, and suburban contexts. I've served as both a middle school and an elementary school administrator, and I've served in many teaching and leadership positions in five different universities. I've worked with more than 100 doctoral students at various stages of their programs, and I've taught more than 38 different courses, most of which were at the doctoral level.
Since 2013, I've shifted my focus to university administration. I've had the incredible honor of working with the amazing faculty in the Department of Childhood Education and Family Studies at Missouri State University. I then moved into a position to serve the teacher education unit at MSU as we prepared for our next accreditation visit. As Director of Program Review and Analytics, I work with faculty and administrators to embrace the new expectations of CAEP. Since August of 2016, I've had to honor of serving as the Dean of the Dwight Schar College of Education at Ashland University. It is a privilege to work with such earnest faculty and staff who are focused on creating transformative experiences for our students.
I think these are exciting times in higher education - times when we cannot be complacent. I believe we need to make program data as well as market trend data an essential part of our work. Having complicated conversations about programs, student needs, and market competition needs to be part of our everyday existence. In doing so, we maintain our active roles in charting our courses versus falling prey to the circumstances that would otherwise limit what we can do.
Throughout my work in higher education, I've tried to challenge myself in terms of research and scholarship. While the range of subjects is wide, most, if not all, connect through the influence of John Dewey's work.
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Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / French National Centre for Scientific Research
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Papers by Donna Breault
Argues for educators taking on the role of public intellectual; some analysis of the decline of t... more Argues for educators taking on the role of public intellectual; some analysis of the decline of this role
the Journal of Thought, Dec 22, 2005
Educators have long operated under the assumption that principals have a signifi cant effect on s... more Educators have long operated under the assumption that principals have a signifi cant effect on schools as well as the teachers who work there. These claims have been supported through a number of recent studies (Bottoms &
Consider two spatially separated agents, Alice and Bob, each of whom is able to make local quantu... more Consider two spatially separated agents, Alice and Bob, each of whom is able to make local quantum measurements, and who can communicate with each other over a purely classical channel. As has been pointed out by a number of authors, the set of mathematically consistent joint probability assignments ("states") for such a system is properly larger than the set of quantum-mechanical mixed states for the joint Alice-Bob system. Indeed, it is canonically isomorphic to the set of positive (but not necessarily completely positive) linear maps L(HA) → L(HB) from the bounded linear operators on Alice's Hilbert space to those on Bob's, satisfying Tr (φ(1)) = 1. The present paper explores the properties of these states. We review what is known, including the fact that allowing classical communication between parties is equivalent to enforcing "noinstantaneous-signalling" ("no-influence") in the direction opposite the communication. We establish that in the subclass of "decomposable" states, i.e. convex combinations of positive states with ones whose partial transpose is positive, the extremal (i.e. pure) states are just the extremal positive and extremal partial-transpose-positive states. And we show that two such states, shared by the same pair of parties, cannot necessarily be combined as independent states (their tensor product) if the full set of quantum operations is allowed locally to each party: this sort of coupling does not mix well with the standard quantum one. We use a framework of "test spaces" and states on these, well suited for exhibiting the analogies and deviations of empirical probabilistic theories (such as quantum mechanics) from classical probability theory. This leads to a deeper understanding of some analogies between quantum mechanics and Bayesian probability theory. For example, the existence of a "most Bayesian" quantum rule for updating states after measurement, and its association with the situation when information on one system is gained by measuring another, is a case of a general proposition holding for test spaces combined subject to the no-signalling requirement.
IntroductionThe Origin of the SectionTHE ARTICLE IN THIS SPECIAL SECTION are based on a symposium... more IntroductionThe Origin of the SectionTHE ARTICLE IN THIS SPECIAL SECTION are based on a symposium held at the Bergamo 2014 Conference. The origin of that symposium began at AERA 2014. Donald Blumenfeld-Jones (Donald) was telling Jim Henderson (Jim) of his experience working with a colleague over how to schedule a course. (I will proceed in a more informal, first person pronoun narrative. If what follows does not appear even-handed, it is not meant to be even-handed. This voice to which I refer has long been suppressed. Freud's father taught Sigmund to be evenhanded and quiet. I, while not Sigmund Freud, as with him, refuse to be silent any longer.)I intended to offer a professional development course in the teacher prep program I had created. I had already worked out with the school administrator the schedule for this course, a schedule which did not match the university's scheduling. I approached an administrator for help: schedule the course as if it fits the university bu...
Revista Contrapontos, 2018
Nos últimos dez anos, os professores da área de estudos do currículo assistiram ao encolhimento d... more Nos últimos dez anos, os professores da área de estudos do currículo assistiram ao encolhimento de seus programas. Em meio a estes desafios, muitos dos envolvidos no ensino do tema estão buscando um realinhamento para manter diálogos complicados, com risco de perderem seus programas. O presente trabalho explora os contextos histórico e organizacional para buscar trajetórias estratégicas para que os estudos do currículo se conectem em novas formas. Nosso artigo não pretende ser um tratado sobre a morte dos programas de doutorado na área de estudos do currículo, mas sim uma avaliação das mudanças drásticas que estão acontecendo na área. As preocupações em nosso trabalho estão contextualizadas na natureza mutante da educação e dos programas de doutorado. Argumentamos que os estudos do currículo não se encaixam nos novos modelos de trabalhos da pós-graduação, pois buscam sua identidade, se afastam das aplicações mais práticas da teoria para tentar reparar a lacuna que divide as várias p...
Intercultural Education, 2014
ABSTRACT Linking democracy to education is by no means new. The “infinity” of endeavours to synch... more ABSTRACT Linking democracy to education is by no means new. The “infinity” of endeavours to synchronise both notions and both forms of social practice is also obvious. The sentence “The focus of this book is on how to build a society through education” in the editors’ introduction (p. 5) is evocative and telling. Although the authors do not say so explicitly at this point in the book, which addresses many social consequences and problems brought on by neoliberalism, the need to “build a society” could be understood as imperative in view of the beginnings of the epoch in question. Probably no other description or representation of neoliberalism expressed its essence better than Margaret Thatcher’s famous claim that “there is no such thing as society”.Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, talking to Women's Own magazine, 31 October 1987. This is the documented form of her assertion, but Ms Thatcher reiterated the same claim in other contexts such as press conferences, party meetings and so ...
Encyclopedia of Educational Leadership and Administration
Higher Education and Human Capital, 2011
ABSTRACT According to the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF), university professors ... more ABSTRACT According to the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF), university professors work long hours. In their 1998 survey, the majority of faculty reported that they worked over fifty hours a week (54.8% for males, 52.8% for females). This average is more than ten hours greater than the non-academic workers in the United States at the time. Jacobs (2004) notes that professors began working longer hours in the 1990s with the rise in public criticism regarding the actual hours professors spent in classrooms. Further, many universities began to increase their level of expectations for faculty research. Technology has also drastically altered the nature and amount of work professors do on a weekly basis. E-mail has become such an integral part of a professor´s work that it has drastically increased the amount of time that professors work from home.
Teaching and Teacher Education, 2013
Page 1. Professional Development Schools Researching Less-ens frem the Field Rick Breuuli end Den... more Page 1. Professional Development Schools Researching Less-ens frem the Field Rick Breuuli end Denna Adair Breuult Page 2. Professional Development Schools Page 3. Page 4. Professional Development Schools Researching ...
International Journal of Leadership in Education, 2010
ABSTRACT Researchers have long lamented the lack of research regarding the preparation of school ... more ABSTRACT Researchers have long lamented the lack of research regarding the preparation of school leaders. In response, we offer lessons about school and university partnerships from exemplary professional development school (PDS) research to inform collaborative efforts for leadership preparation. We conducted an extensive literature review of 250 studies spanning a 15-year period. Based upon three levels of qualitative meta-synthesis, we identified 49 exemplary studies from the original 250. We then identified themes involving resources, change, and relationships. Based upon these themes, we concluded the following: In partnerships, resources become a far more significant element in terms of both use and flexibility than they do in more traditional preparation programmes. The nature of change in a partnership is more idiosyncratic because of the diverse stakeholders involved. Relationships are a vital element in the success or failure of a partnership. Therefore, time and energy are necessary to develop and sustain relationships among stakeholders. Partnerships should develop enabling bureaucracies in order to promote meaningful engagement among partners. Organizational theory offers valuable insights regarding partnerships, but it remains largely an untapped resource in current partnership efforts. We conclude with recommendations for stakeholders interested in developing partnerships between leadership preparation programmes in universities and K-12 schools.
Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies, 2010
Argues for educators taking on the role of public intellectual; some analysis of the decline of t... more Argues for educators taking on the role of public intellectual; some analysis of the decline of this role
the Journal of Thought, Dec 22, 2005
Educators have long operated under the assumption that principals have a signifi cant effect on s... more Educators have long operated under the assumption that principals have a signifi cant effect on schools as well as the teachers who work there. These claims have been supported through a number of recent studies (Bottoms &
Consider two spatially separated agents, Alice and Bob, each of whom is able to make local quantu... more Consider two spatially separated agents, Alice and Bob, each of whom is able to make local quantum measurements, and who can communicate with each other over a purely classical channel. As has been pointed out by a number of authors, the set of mathematically consistent joint probability assignments ("states") for such a system is properly larger than the set of quantum-mechanical mixed states for the joint Alice-Bob system. Indeed, it is canonically isomorphic to the set of positive (but not necessarily completely positive) linear maps L(HA) → L(HB) from the bounded linear operators on Alice's Hilbert space to those on Bob's, satisfying Tr (φ(1)) = 1. The present paper explores the properties of these states. We review what is known, including the fact that allowing classical communication between parties is equivalent to enforcing "noinstantaneous-signalling" ("no-influence") in the direction opposite the communication. We establish that in the subclass of "decomposable" states, i.e. convex combinations of positive states with ones whose partial transpose is positive, the extremal (i.e. pure) states are just the extremal positive and extremal partial-transpose-positive states. And we show that two such states, shared by the same pair of parties, cannot necessarily be combined as independent states (their tensor product) if the full set of quantum operations is allowed locally to each party: this sort of coupling does not mix well with the standard quantum one. We use a framework of "test spaces" and states on these, well suited for exhibiting the analogies and deviations of empirical probabilistic theories (such as quantum mechanics) from classical probability theory. This leads to a deeper understanding of some analogies between quantum mechanics and Bayesian probability theory. For example, the existence of a "most Bayesian" quantum rule for updating states after measurement, and its association with the situation when information on one system is gained by measuring another, is a case of a general proposition holding for test spaces combined subject to the no-signalling requirement.
IntroductionThe Origin of the SectionTHE ARTICLE IN THIS SPECIAL SECTION are based on a symposium... more IntroductionThe Origin of the SectionTHE ARTICLE IN THIS SPECIAL SECTION are based on a symposium held at the Bergamo 2014 Conference. The origin of that symposium began at AERA 2014. Donald Blumenfeld-Jones (Donald) was telling Jim Henderson (Jim) of his experience working with a colleague over how to schedule a course. (I will proceed in a more informal, first person pronoun narrative. If what follows does not appear even-handed, it is not meant to be even-handed. This voice to which I refer has long been suppressed. Freud's father taught Sigmund to be evenhanded and quiet. I, while not Sigmund Freud, as with him, refuse to be silent any longer.)I intended to offer a professional development course in the teacher prep program I had created. I had already worked out with the school administrator the schedule for this course, a schedule which did not match the university's scheduling. I approached an administrator for help: schedule the course as if it fits the university bu...
Revista Contrapontos, 2018
Nos últimos dez anos, os professores da área de estudos do currículo assistiram ao encolhimento d... more Nos últimos dez anos, os professores da área de estudos do currículo assistiram ao encolhimento de seus programas. Em meio a estes desafios, muitos dos envolvidos no ensino do tema estão buscando um realinhamento para manter diálogos complicados, com risco de perderem seus programas. O presente trabalho explora os contextos histórico e organizacional para buscar trajetórias estratégicas para que os estudos do currículo se conectem em novas formas. Nosso artigo não pretende ser um tratado sobre a morte dos programas de doutorado na área de estudos do currículo, mas sim uma avaliação das mudanças drásticas que estão acontecendo na área. As preocupações em nosso trabalho estão contextualizadas na natureza mutante da educação e dos programas de doutorado. Argumentamos que os estudos do currículo não se encaixam nos novos modelos de trabalhos da pós-graduação, pois buscam sua identidade, se afastam das aplicações mais práticas da teoria para tentar reparar a lacuna que divide as várias p...
Intercultural Education, 2014
ABSTRACT Linking democracy to education is by no means new. The “infinity” of endeavours to synch... more ABSTRACT Linking democracy to education is by no means new. The “infinity” of endeavours to synchronise both notions and both forms of social practice is also obvious. The sentence “The focus of this book is on how to build a society through education” in the editors’ introduction (p. 5) is evocative and telling. Although the authors do not say so explicitly at this point in the book, which addresses many social consequences and problems brought on by neoliberalism, the need to “build a society” could be understood as imperative in view of the beginnings of the epoch in question. Probably no other description or representation of neoliberalism expressed its essence better than Margaret Thatcher’s famous claim that “there is no such thing as society”.Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, talking to Women's Own magazine, 31 October 1987. This is the documented form of her assertion, but Ms Thatcher reiterated the same claim in other contexts such as press conferences, party meetings and so ...
Encyclopedia of Educational Leadership and Administration
Higher Education and Human Capital, 2011
ABSTRACT According to the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF), university professors ... more ABSTRACT According to the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF), university professors work long hours. In their 1998 survey, the majority of faculty reported that they worked over fifty hours a week (54.8% for males, 52.8% for females). This average is more than ten hours greater than the non-academic workers in the United States at the time. Jacobs (2004) notes that professors began working longer hours in the 1990s with the rise in public criticism regarding the actual hours professors spent in classrooms. Further, many universities began to increase their level of expectations for faculty research. Technology has also drastically altered the nature and amount of work professors do on a weekly basis. E-mail has become such an integral part of a professor´s work that it has drastically increased the amount of time that professors work from home.
Teaching and Teacher Education, 2013
Page 1. Professional Development Schools Researching Less-ens frem the Field Rick Breuuli end Den... more Page 1. Professional Development Schools Researching Less-ens frem the Field Rick Breuuli end Denna Adair Breuult Page 2. Professional Development Schools Page 3. Page 4. Professional Development Schools Researching ...
International Journal of Leadership in Education, 2010
ABSTRACT Researchers have long lamented the lack of research regarding the preparation of school ... more ABSTRACT Researchers have long lamented the lack of research regarding the preparation of school leaders. In response, we offer lessons about school and university partnerships from exemplary professional development school (PDS) research to inform collaborative efforts for leadership preparation. We conducted an extensive literature review of 250 studies spanning a 15-year period. Based upon three levels of qualitative meta-synthesis, we identified 49 exemplary studies from the original 250. We then identified themes involving resources, change, and relationships. Based upon these themes, we concluded the following: In partnerships, resources become a far more significant element in terms of both use and flexibility than they do in more traditional preparation programmes. The nature of change in a partnership is more idiosyncratic because of the diverse stakeholders involved. Relationships are a vital element in the success or failure of a partnership. Therefore, time and energy are necessary to develop and sustain relationships among stakeholders. Partnerships should develop enabling bureaucracies in order to promote meaningful engagement among partners. Organizational theory offers valuable insights regarding partnerships, but it remains largely an untapped resource in current partnership efforts. We conclude with recommendations for stakeholders interested in developing partnerships between leadership preparation programmes in universities and K-12 schools.
Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies, 2010
Paper presented at AERA in 2011
Schools and school systems are bureaucratic organizations. I doubt that many folks would argue ag... more Schools and school systems are bureaucratic organizations. I doubt that many folks would argue against this statement. Throughout history, particularly during what Kliebard refers to as the height of the social efficiency movement of early industrial America, we can see evidence of schooling as a bureaucratic machine. Even in more recent years when the corporation may be a more apt metaphor for schooling than a factory, the qualities that Weber (1946) associated with bureaucracy are clearly evident within schools – and none more so than large urban districts. For example, like Weber's bureaucracies, urban districts are governed by rules and regulations, and there is an hierarchy of power to oversee the compliance of subordinates. As we can see with the fallout of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the tight controls of prescribed curriculum and the culture of surveillance, control over and compliance among teachers is the order of the day. More specifically, while there has always been bureaucratic authority within schools, current efforts within NCLB make the authority far more explicit and give that authority far more power over the daily lives of teachers and students. The locus of control of that authority has moved from an operational to an institutional context wherein teachers who were once free to exercise judgment are now micromanaged to the point where in many urban schools we see what Haberman refers to as a " pedagogy of poverty. " When the operational center of bureaucratic practices shifts from a system level to a school level, distinctions in operations can and do emerge among schools within a district. Thus, as we see in Atlanta and elsewhere, schools within districts that
My first AERA paper in 1998(ish)