Research
Research changes the way we see and teach the world.
The College of Education & Human Development is mindfully positioned for research growth. We've challenged ourselves to:
- Increase extramural funding
- Increase research visibility nationally
- Extend scholarly activities in ways that demonstrate collaborative work across departments, colleges and disciplines
Real Research. Real Results.
We are dedicated to making a difference. Since 2011, our faculty generated more than $9 million dollars in extramural research grants from funding organizations including The Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Science Foundation.
CEHD Research News
Leading Through Scholarship
Dr. Hyonsuk Cho’s research centers on the intersection of language, culture, identity & education of minoritized students, especially emergent bilinguals.
Dr. Cho is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching, Leadership & Professional Practice at UND. She is the Program Director of the TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Master’s and Certification Programs as well as the Undergraduate English Language Learner Education Minor. Dr. Cho earned her Ph.D. in Foreign and Second Language Education at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Dr. Cho’s research centers on the intersection of language, culture, identity, and education of minoritized students, especially emergent bilinguals. Emergent bilingual students (who are typically called English Learners in U.S. schools) develop a second language in addition to their home language.
Recently, Dr. Cho has explored the use of culturally relevant books with emergent bilingual students and examined the connections among students’ backgrounds, the dimensions of cultural relevance, reading comprehension, and class engagement (Christ & Cho, 2021). This line of research has extended to emergent bilingual student families by partnering with Global Friends Coalition, a local non-profit organization. Culturally Relevant Texts for English Learners with Refugee Backgrounds was supported by a grant from the Education Research Service Projects Program of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). While addressing the organization’s need for an adult English language learning curriculum, this project aimed to support bilingual family literacy practices and help them express and sustain their funds of identity and funds of knowledge through discussing culturally relevant books (See UND Today’s article: Helping New American Families Learn English via Picture Books).
Dr. Cho’s investigation of how teachers and parents perceive educating emergent bilingual students found that teachers’ views and pedagogies were largely deficit-oriented and their unidirectional approaches to the teacher and parent relationship perpetuated the power inequities between teachers and parents (Cho et al., 2019). Also, through the in-depth interviews with parents of emergent bilingual students from refugee backgrounds, Dr. Cho explored the extent of equitable collaboration between teachers and parents. The study found that the monolingual school environment limited the promotion of inclusiveness and equitable collaboration and parents’ advocacy (Cho & Votava, 2021).
Dr. Christopher Clark is studying social studies teachers’ perceptions and use of news media in the classroom, particularly when teaching controversial current events.
Dr. Clark is an Assistant Professor of Secondary Education in the Department of Teaching, Leadership, & Professional Practice at the UND. He earned his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota. His research blends theories and approaches from political science, psychology, and communications to focus on how students and teachers think about politics, news media, and civic life. Currently, Dr. Clark is studying social studies teachers’ perceptions and use of news media in the classroom, as well as teachers’ thinking about teaching controversial current events. His work has appeared in venues such as Educational Researcher, Harvard Educational Review, and Theory & Research in Social Education. He is also part of an ongoing collaboration with the Indigenous History and Literacy Project at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma to design lessons that incorporate Indigenous-authored primary sources into secondary U.S. history courses.
Three recently published articles highlight Dr. Clark’s research on the impacts of politics and news media in social studies classrooms. In the first two articles, he and his colleagues focused on social studies teacher’s selection and use of news media in their classrooms to discover how teachers and students engage in current events by examining news choices by teachers. Their findings suggest teachers are bringing more bias into the classroom than they might realize (Clark, Schmeichel, & Garrett, 2021).
In another study, Dr. Clark examined students’ social identification with political parties and its influence during an online discussion. Findings suggest that partisianship does “impact student behavior and learning in an online discussion” and that teachers should consider multiple approaches for a more balanced learning experience (Clark, 2018, p.12).
In addition to these articles, check out Dr. Clark’s Podcast On Civic Education and Bridging the Partisan Divide. The conversation incudes a discussion of building an open classroom environment.
Dr. Keri Frantell holds in her heart those friends & clients lost to suicide as the greatest motivator for reducing mental health stigma and improving culturally adapted interventions.
Dr. Frantell is an Assistant Professor in Education, Health & Behavior Sciences at UND. She earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Tennessee. As a researcher, Dr. Frantell incorporates the other core aspects of her profession (therapist, educator, advocate) while focusing on issues of multiculturalism and social justice. She amplifies the voices of people who are often marginalized by systems of oppression, and uses research as a tool for promoting equity for all. Dr Frantell is especially interested in multicultural education and how to engage others in conversations around emotionally - charged topics. She uses her research to share resources and skills for navigating such conversations and working toward social transformation. Dr. Frantell is also passionate about suicide prevention and intervention, particularly for LGBTQ+ people. She holds in her heart those friends and clients lost to suicide as the greatest motivator for reducing mental health stigma and improving culturally-adapted interventions.
In two recent publications, Dr. Frantell illustration her commitment to social transformation. In a systematic review of the correlates of suicide ideation, attempts, and deaths among transgender people, she and her colleagues concluded that "ideation-to-action frameworks would be worth investigation within this population, with attention to sources of psychological pain, social connectedness, and capacity/capability for suicide unique to this population" (Clevenger et al., 2019, p. 93).
A second study focuses on the use of intergroup dialgoues (IGD) as a justice-centered strategy for eliminating gender inequities in STEM fields. Dr. Frantell and her colleagues explored undergraduate and graduate STEM students’ experiences related to participating in IGDs focused on gender and sexism. Findings suggest that “professional socialization is a unique barrier to engaging in IGD for STEM students; however, the provision of specific structured activites within IGDs can bolster students’ perspective-taking abilities across genders. Overall, it was clear that IGD on gender, sexism, and intersecting forms of privilege and oppression in STEM has potential to challenge inequitable cultures” (White, Miles & Frantell, 2021, p. 232-233).
Dr. Yujin Lee’s research aims to improve affective, cognitive and behavioral engagement in mathematics teaching and learning in both Math and STEM education fields.
Dr. Lee is an Assistant Professor of Math Education in the Department of Teaching, Leadership, & Professional Practice at UND. After earning her Ph.D. at Texas A&M University, Dr. Lee was in the postdoctoral fellowship at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. Dr. Lee’s research focuses on how innovative instructional practices influence students’ affective mathematic engagement and STEM pathways, as well as math teachers’ professional preparation and development through STEM integration. Her research projects consider the simultaneous impacts on students, teachers, and schools. Dr. Lee’s research significantly impacts both Math and STEM education fields by offering meaningful implications for educational support and resources to improve affective, cognitive and behavioral engagement in mathematics teaching and learning.
Two recently published articles by Dr. Lee highlight the impact of Math and STEM engagement. In the first study, she and her colleagues compared the impact of STEM project-based learning (PBL) to non-STEM PBL on 9th grade students’ affective mathematics engagement. Students engaged in STEM PBL endorsed higher levels of mathematics affective engagement than their peers in non-STEM PBL suggesting that “highly situated and integrated instruction has a positive impact on students’ perceptions of their affective mathematics engagement” (Lee, Y., Capraro, R.M., & Bicer, A. 2019, p. 270).
In another study, Dr. Lee and her colleagues focused on first examining mathematical creativity to determine its components and then examined a problem-posing intervention that could potentially bolster elementary school students’ mathematical creativity. Findings suggested that mathematical creativity consists of mathematical creative ability and mathematical creative self-efficacy. Dr. Lee and colleagues then demonstrated that elementary students’ mathematical creativity could be increased when engaged in a problem-posing intervention. These findings provide support for the integration of problemposing activities in mathematics education at the elementary level (Bicer, A., Lee, Y., Perihan, C., Capraro, M. M., & Capraro, R. M. 2020).
Informing policy nationally and internationally, Dr. Grant Tomkinson’s research helps kids to develop the physical fitness and activity habits that will improve their long-term health.
Dr. Tomkinson is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Public Health Education at UND. He earned his Ph.D. in Human Movement from the University of South Australia.
Fueled by giving kids a healthy start to life, Dr. Tomkinson’s main research focuses on tracking trends in kids’ physical fitness levels. Using historical data on over 25 million kids from 50 countries, his research was the first to conclusively show that kids’ aerobic fitness has declined world-wide since about 1975 and has plateaued in high income countries since 2000. This research is helping kids to develop the physical fitness and activity habits that will improve their long-term health.
Dr. Tomkinson’s research has informed policy nationally and internationally, including the International Olympic Committee’s consensus statement on Fitness and Health of Young People through Sport and Physical Activity. In 2013, his research presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions (Dallas, TX) generated more than 760 international media stories and 400 million media impressions. Dr. Tomkinson is the Associate Editor for the Journal of Exercise Science and Fitness.
Read more about Dr. Tomkinson’s research as highlighted in UND Today’s articles: