Amanda O. Maher
Education
Ph.D., Educational Studies-Urban Education, Eastern Michigan University, 2019
M.A., Social Studies Curriculum & Instruction, University of Michigan, 1999
B.A., History, Tulane University-Newcomb College, 1997
Interests and Expertise
Amanda O. Maher (Assistant Professor of History and Social Studies Methods) joined Eastern Michigan University’s history faculty in 2020 having previously taught courses for EMU’s Department of Teacher Education. Prior to her transition into higher education, Dr. Maher acquired years of experience teaching social studies and literacy support in K-12 classrooms both in Michigan and internationally, and she collaborated on several elementary and secondary curriculum development projects. Her pedagogical interests revolve around critical literacy, conceptualizations of democratic citizenship, and how methods of place-making cultivate experiences of informed civic action. She researches the history of educational policy and its impact on instruction, research, and teacher education, conceptualizations of literacy, and issues related to poverty. Her dissertation, Producing, Policing, and Punishing Literacy: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Language of Reading across Urban and Rural Elementary School Educators, chronicled the changing conditions of literacy learning and examined the competing ideological representations of literacy embedded in educational policy reading instruction across urban and rural schools. Dr. Maher teaches history and social studies methods courses and is well versed in a range of qualitative research methods and quantitative survey design.Courses
HIST 481: Teaching Social Studies
HIST 110: World History Since 1500
CURR 308: Integrated Elementary Social Studies Methods
Publications and Presentations
Publication
Grewal, I., Maher, A. O., Watters, H., Clemens, D., & Webb, K. (2019). "Rewriting teacher education: Food, love, and community." Journal of Culture and Values in Education, 2(3).
Presentations
Place-Based Education Conference, Flint, MI 2019 "A Change Within: Disrupting Traditional Spaces in Teacher Preparation," Co-presenter
Literacy Research Association (LRA) 67th Annual Meeting, Tampa, FL 2017 "Measuring High School Reading Motivation through both a Sociocultural and Cognitive Lens: A Sociocultural Survey Instrument for High School Students"
American Educational Studies Association Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA 2017 "Returning the 'Social' Back to Reading Motivation"
American Educational Studies Association Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA 2017 "Teaching to Transform: A Community Education Approach to Classroom Teaching"
American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX 2017 "Sociocultural & Cognitive Dimensions of Reading Attitudes & Behavior"
EcoJustice and Activism Annual Conference, Ypsilanti, MI 2017 "Reimagining Teacher Education: A Model of Critical Teaching Practice"
American Educational Studies Association Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA 2016 "Caught in the Crosshairs: Teaching Reading During Times of 'War'"
Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL 2016 "The Nanny State: To Smoke, Or to Nurture and to Fleece?," Co-Presenter
Victorian Association of the Teachers of English Annual Meeting, Melbourne, AU 2011 "What Does Your Teacher Do to Help You Read?," Co-presenter