Biography

Dr. Beth Wassell is a Professor in the Department of Content Area Teacher Education. She teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses related to language teaching and culturally and linguistically responsive education.

Her research emphasizes the voices of students, teachers, and families and draws on critical and sociocultural frameworks to examine individuals’ agency in reshaping the structures of teaching and teacher education in P-12 settings. Her recent projects have focused on the classroom and schooling experiences of students in urban schools, particularly emergent bilingual students, and on world language education for social justice. She uses a range of qualitative methods that privilege the voices of youth, families, and educators, and views data collection and analysis as an iterative process whereby participants can collectively generate solutions to significant issues in classrooms and schools. She is a 2019 Fulbright Core Scholar to Spain.

Dr. Wassell has published articles in journals such as Teaching and Teacher Education, Urban Education, TESOL Journal, Education and Urban Society, the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, and Teacher Education and Practice. She is co-author of Words & Actions: Teaching World Languages through the Lens of Social Justice.  She also regularly provides consulting and professional development to public school districts.

Dr. Wassell received an Ed.D. in Teaching, Learning and Curriculum from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Spanish from the University of Central Florida, a graduate certificate in TESOL from the Pennsylvania State University, and a B.A. from Rowan University in Spanish and Secondary Education. Prior to coming to Rowan, Dr. Wassell taught Spanish as a world language at the high school level in Florida and New Jersey and English as an Additional Language to adults in Philadelphia, PA.