The UW–Madison Graduate School has selected four project teams to receive funding through the Partnership Program in Graduate Excellence to bolster partnerships with Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). Among the funded initiatives is a School of Education partnership with Northeastern Illinois University.
The program, now in its second year, seeks to create long-term and mutually beneficial relationships between UW–Madison and MSIs in areas such as research collaboration, faculty professional development, and student and faculty exchange programs.
Faculty in the School of Education have existing research collaborations with professors at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU). In addition, NEIU undergraduates have studied in UW–Madison’s Summer Research Opportunities Programs and have gone on to study in UW–Madison PhD programs. This project team seeks to explore new potential research collaborations, create more opportunities for student exchanges, and submit joint grant applications to external funding agencies for undergraduate research opportunities that would prepare NEIU undergraduates to succeed in UW–Madison PhD programs for which NEIU does not offer doctorates.
The program’s initial focus will be in STEM education due to the expertise of program leaders Percival Matthews and Martha Alibali at UW–Madison, along with Andrew Young (a UW–Madison PhD graduate) and Lindsay Maldonado at NEIU. Matthews is the School of Education’s associate dean for equity, diversity, and inclusion and an associate professor in the School’s Department of Educational Psychology, while Alibali is a professor of psychology and a researcher with the School’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
Funding provided through the Partnership Program in Graduate Excellence will support a semi-annual research forum and regular online meetings to further cultivate research relationships. It will also support participants in the Summer Education Research Program (SERP) in the School of Education for NEIU students and research funding for NEIU undergraduates who are involved in School of Education research groups from their home institution.
In addition to Matthews and Alibali, the UW–Madison partners also include Maame Adomako, graduate program manager for the School of Education; Courtney Bell, professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research; Taylor Odle, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies; Brian Burt, associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis; Karla Ausderau, professor in the Department of Kinesiology; and Anthony Hernandez, teaching faculty in the Department of Educational Policy Studies.
Learn more about this and the other funded projects.