Deborah Bieler, Ph.D.
deb@udel.edu
Assistant Professor
Coordinator of the English Education program, Department of English, University of Delaware
Education
Ph.D., Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania (2004)
M.A., English Language and Literature, University of Delaware (1997)
B.A., English Education, University of Delaware, magna cum laude (1993)
Areas of Interest
- socially responsive, equity-oriented English education at the secondary and post-secondary levels
- new English teacher support and retention
- teacher agency
- educational activism and action research
- dialogue in new teacher groups, particularly in mentoring relationships
Professional Biography
Dr. Bieler began her career as a 10 th and 11 th grade English teacher at Emmaus High School in Emmaus, PA, became a National Writing Project fellow, and served as director of the writing center at Eastern University. As a doctoral student at Penn, she conducted a qualitative teacher research study about how dialogue functioned in her mentoring relationship with four secondary English student-teachers. After serving as a lecturer for one year at Penn, she joined the University of Delaware faculty in 2005. For her dissertation work on dialogic praxis, she was named a Promising Researcher by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in 2006.
At Delaware, Dr. Bieler founded and facilitates the NETS Project (New English Teachers for Social justice), an action research group that is working to equip new secondary English teachers and their students for successful retention in high schools. NETS is using quantitative and qualitative research methods in their current project, which is funded by the NCTE Research Foundation.
Recent publications include:
- Bieler, D. (2011). Lessons from NETS: New English teachers for social justice. English Leadership Quarterly, 33(4), 4-9.
- Bieler, D. (2011). Valuing inexperience: Using collegial language to support novices. English Journal, 100(4), 100-103.
- Bieler, D. (2010). Dialogic praxis in teacher education: A discourse analysis of mentoring talk. English Education, 42(4), 391-426.
- Bieler, D., & Burns Thomas, A. (2009). Finding freedom in dialectic inquiry: New teachers' responses to silencing. Teachers College Record, 111(4), 1030-1064. Available here .