Lauren Marfo

adg2zp@r.postjobfree.com

***-** ********* * ********, NY 11236· 646-***-**** · 11/20/1988

Highlights of Qualifications

Over 9 years of teaching experience in the area of English Language Arts

Teach NYC Select Recruits – New York City Department of Education

Competitively selected from over 10,000 prospective teachers to join Teach NYC Select Recruits, a program representing the top 4% of prospective teachers for the 2013-2014 school year.

EDUCATION & TRAINING

Northcentral University, PhD in Education, 54 out of 57 Credits, In Progress

Syracuse University, School of Education. Masters of Arts in Literacy Education 5-12, August 2012

Syracuse University, School of Arts and Sciences and School of Education, Bachelor of Arts in English/Textual Studies & English Education. May 2011

New York State (NYS) Teacher Certification, English Education (7-12) and Literacy Education (5-12)

oTenured by the NYS Department of Education November 2016

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

BROOKLYN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING ACADEMY, Brooklyn, NY 09/15-07/19

Full time English Language Arts Teacher

Created and delivered differentiated instruction to three sections of 7th grade English each year, in which I prepared students for NYS exams using the Expeditionary Learning curriculum as a reference. As a result of my facilitation in the classroom, my students exceeded the district and state projections.

Created and revised the 7th Grade ELA curriculum in horizontal team meetings as well as interdisciplinary units in grade team meetings

MURRY BERGTRAUM HIGH SCHOOL, New York, NY 09/13-6/15

Full time English Teacher

Facilitated learning in two sections of 11th grade English classes and one section of 9th grade English for two consecutive years.

Prepared students for the NYS regents using regents- based questions, and adapted questions to reflect the content of literary works from many different genres including short stories, as well as classic literary works such as Antigone, Romeo and Juliet, A Raisin in the Sun, and many more.

Achieve Now Credit Recovery Program May 2015, May 2016, May 2017, May 2018

Designed a credit recovery curriculum at Murry Bergtraum High school for high school juniors and seniors who lacked credits for graduation.

Modified and implemented an intensive course, which allowed students to earn English credits to satisfy graduation requirements.

FOWLER HIGH SCHOOL, Syracuse, NY 01/11- 05/12

Substitute Teacher

Facilitated learning in a 10th and 11th grade English class.

Created supplemental material to guide their understanding of the plays A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, with the use of graphic organizers, music, class discussions, visuals, and various grouping strategies.

FOWLER HIGH SCHOOL, Syracuse, NY 09/12-02/13

Full time English Teacher

Delivered instruction to 9th graders in the Ramp Up To Literacy Program (remedial English class program for students reading below grade level). This class was very structured and included independent reading, whole class reading, modeling and group reading, which resulted in significant gains in schoolwide assessments.

Taught two sections of 10th grade English and prepared students for the regents using regents based questions, critical thinking and content clues strategies using (The Lord of the Flies by William Golding and A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, as base literary works).

Designed instruction for a SAT prep class in which students were taught Vocabulary Learning Techniques as well as SAT test taking strategies.

SPECTOR/WARREN FELLOWSHIP, Syracuse, NY and Houston, TX 1/12-5/12

Fellow

Participated in an internship to learn best practices in Holocaust Education in various content area classes

Interacted with Holocaust survivors in the Houston area and participated in enrichment, seminars, and classes on effective ways to teach the Holocaust within the classroom setting.

ASSESSMENT TOOLS

Graduate work in literacy education at Syracuse University has exposed me to the Road to Reading program for ages grades K-6 and the Wilson Reading Program for grades 7-12. I am experienced in teaching Ramp-Up to Literacy and the BrightFish Reading Program for students reading below grade level. I am very knowledgeable in running records.

Exploring the professional, educational, and personal identity development of K-12 public school teachers of African descent

Dissertation

Submitted to Northcentral University

School of Education

in Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Degree of

DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

by

LAUREN BRAKO MARFO

Immigrants, an exceptional population often studied in research literature, are a rapidly growing group in the 21st century (Knight & Watson, 2014; Larotta, 2017). Their experiences are both complex and unique, filled with many triumphs as well as challenges (Okeke-Ihejirika & Salami, 2018). More specifically, African immigrants are a group whose population skyrocketed from nearly 35,000 to 1.5 million between 1960 and 2010 (Ukpokodu, 2018). Over 140 million Africans live outside of Africa and large African immigrant populations reside outside of Africa (Joseph, 2016). Subsequently, African immigrants are one of the most educated minorities, ranking at 41% of bachelor’s degree holders compared to 28% of the total foreign-born citizens with a bachelor’s degree or further (Ndemanu & Jordan, 2018). A portion of those African immigrants earned degrees to become educators.

When teachers of African descent become educators in the K-12 public school system, they undergo unique challenges concerning their bicultural or multicultural identities (Cohen & Kassan, 2018). Part of establishing bicultural or multicultural identities include academic, professional, and personal identity formation within the K-12 public school system (Sugimura et al., 2018). For teachers of African descent, identity is a constant interplay between one’s past and present contexts (Sugimura, 2015). Yet, there are obstacles for teachers of African descent forming their bicultural and multicultural identities such as lack of representation and alienation within their profession, white supremacy, and perceived inferiority by white counterparts (Brown, 2018; Kholi, 2018; Mosely, 2018).

In addition to these obstacles, teachers of African descent must overcome hurdles such as cross-cultural challenges that may prevent them from excelling within a school system (Ndemanu & Jordan, 2018). Cross-cultural challenges include confronting realities about being Black and of African descent in America, and challenges related to culture, language, and academics within a K-12 public school system that ignores these experiences (Ndemanu & Jordan, 2018; Kumi-Yeboah, 2018). Additional hurdles teachers of African descent must overcome include meager teacher salaries, lack of autonomy within the classroom, as well as unjust working environments (Zengele, 2017). These hurdles have led to the shortage of teachers of African descent within the school system, which also leads to limited scholarship of African teachers (Campoli, 2017; Ndemanu & Jordan, 2018). Teachers of African descent must successfully address these cross-cultural challenges to facilitate their integration into mainstream school system (Kumi-Yeboah, 2018).

Teachers of African descent are a minority group within K-12 public school systems with very sparse research available on how they overcome professional, academic, and professional hurdles (Park et al., 2016; Ukpokodu, 2018). Despite the lack of research on how these teachers overcome these hurdles, the research available showed that teachers of African descent were a group regarded as one of the most highly educated immigrant population (Knight & Watson, 2014). With high levels of education, teachers of African descent brought cultural perspectives and identities that were a valuable asset to any classroom community (Ndemanu & Jordan, 2018).

Statement of the Problem

The general problem is the poor working conditions and underrepresentation of teachers of African descent in K-12 public school settings (White, 2016). These issues have led to shortages of African American teachers in K-12 public schools (Simon & Johnson, 2015). Consequences of shortages, poor working conditions, and underrepresentation have caused misunderstandings about these teachers, their experiences, and personal, professional, and educational identity formation (Campoli, 2017; Farinde-Wu, 2018;). Absence of teachers of African descent contribute to students of color not benefiting from K-12 public school teachers who relate to their racialized experiences (Kohli, 2018).

What is unknown is the experience of teachers of African descent within the K-12 public schools and their identity development (Trautwein, 2018) academically, professionally, and personally. Teacher identities are constantly developing through experiences in the profession (Shepard & Williams, 2018) as well as interactions with students, teachers, parents, and administrators (Gilmore & Kramer, 2019). Gilmore and Kramer (2019) emphasized the importance of shared group identities among teachers and indicated that peers are the most influential in helping teachers with identity formation. The specific problem to be addressed is that teachers of African descent have multifaceted experiences in a K-12 public school setting that hinder or advance their identity development professionally, academically, emotionally, and personally, in K-12 settings (Mosely, 2018) and it is unknown how these evolve.

Negative consequences of not researching the diverse cultural perspectives and identities of teachers of African descent will result in challenges for multicultural students they serve within K-12 public school settings and retention issues among teachers of African descent (Massing, 2018; Mosely, 2018). If this problem is not adressed, little will be known about teachers of African descent and their experiences (Park et al., 2016), and the achievement of students of color benefiting from teachers of African descent is at stake (Farinde-Wu & Fitchett, 2018).

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to explore and describe the lived experiences of teachers of African descent within the K-12 public school system and how they develop their professional, academic, and personal identities before, during, and after becoming teachers. A group of 10 teachers of African descent from the five boroughs of New York City who teach in K-12 public school settings will be interviewed using Seidman’s three-step interview phase process (Seidman, 2013). Interview guides will be the instruments developed for each of the three phases. Following Seidman’s (2013) blueprint, Step 1 of this process will be used to establish the context of the participants’ experiences. Step 2 will be used to reconstruct the details of their experiences within the contexts of which the experiences occur. Step 3 will encourage the interviewees to reflect on the meaning of their experiences and what they mean for them (Seidman, 2013). To conduct the three-interview series, three interview guides will be created using Flanagan’s (1954) critical incident technique (CIT). Because identity formation is at the crux of teacher efficacy (Lu & Curwood, 2015), the professional, academic, and personal experiences of teachers of African descent will be generally defined as identity formation (Trautwein, 2018).

Professional identity is defined as how teachers engage in their professional surroundings with colleagues and other members of the teaching profession (Karousiou et al, 2018). This interaction shapes how teachers perceive their own roles within the teaching profession (Karousiou et al., 2018). Other factors that influence teacher professional identity include building rapport with colleagues and students, juggling many roles, and overcoming cultural differences with their students (Gilmore & Kramer, 2018). Raymond (2016) defined personal identity as the individuals’ uniqueness developed through new and old personal group experiences. For teachers, personal and professional identity is intertwined with experiences in and out of teaching and institutional culture, norms, and values and the teaching fraternity in which they work (Raymond, 2016). It may include different factors such as political affiliations and emotional and personal aspects of teaching (Saradabi et al., 2018) Academic identity is defined as how teachers make sense of their past and present as students and teachers (Rodrigues et al., 2018). When teachers conceptualize their academic identity, they draw upon their own experiences as students to reflect on their current student-teacher-colleague relationships (Rodrigues et al., 2018).

Conceptual Framework

A conceptual framework is an explanation of a phenomenon using observations to represent a concept (Imelda, 2014). For a conceptual framework to ground a research study, it must be rooted in theory, principles, and concepts of research (Imelda, 2014). The conceptual framework guiding this study will integrate Critical Race Theory (CRT) with theories of professional identify, academic identity, and personal identity.

Critical race theory. CRT is a theoretical perspective from the 1980s that dismantles the white perspective as being the only lens to view one’s experiences (Harrison et al., 2017). Critical Race Theory illuminates the class discrepancies between white students and students of color automatically setting students of color at a position of academic failure (Zorn, 2018). CRT theory exposes teachers’ enduring hostile racial climates, enduring environments rife with racial inequity, and enduring racism on both institutional and interpersonal levels (Kohli, 2018). CRT, when used effectively, can also be applied to the development of teachers of African descent, regarding identity development (Brown, 2018).

Professional identity. Professional identity is a dynamic process determined by members of the teaching profession and members outside of the teaching profession (Raymond, 2016; Sardabi et al., 2018). The dynamic process of teacher professional identity includes job satisfaction, professional commitment, and teacher pedagogy that is continually being developed and re-developed over time (Karousiou et al., 2018; Raymond, 2016). Teacher professional identity depends on assumptions teachers make about the profession, their experience as teachers-in-training, and their own experience as students in the school system (Sardabi et al., 2018). Teachers’ professional identity is also drawn from their experiences within school (Rodrigues et al., 2018). Teacher professional identity is the driving force behind educational policy, which informs and impacts students (Karousiou et al., 2018).

Academic identity. Academic identity is a combination of one’s personal and professional life narratives and is strongly influenced by institutional culture, vision, mission, and values and is a lifelong change process (McNaughton & Billot, 2016). Factors that shape a teacher’s academic identity typically draw on past and present educational experiences as students (Murry-Orr & Munroe, 2018; Rodrigues et al., 2018). Academic teacher identity is a sub-identity of professional identity and includes research skills, teaching pedagogies, and administrative competencies (Trautwein, 2018). Construction of an academic identity is a process that requires constant reflection and reassessment of teachers’ pedagogical practices and roles, as well as their pedagogical training (Trautwein, 2018). Lastly, academic identity is formed through the lens of how teachers view themselves currently as teachers (Trautwein, 2018).

Personal identity. Teacher personal identity is constructed through social interactions with other teachers through collaborative learning that are shaped and reshaped over time (Raymond, 2016). Teachers personal identity is also shaped by a teacher’s core personal values, philosophies, and beliefs (Karousiou et al.,2018). Teachers’ personal identities are formed not just from their own views and perspectives, but by the views and perspectives of others (Raymond, 2016).

All theories integrated. When teachers of African descent conceptualize their academic, personal, and professional identity, it requires them to reflect on their knowledge of self, pedagogy, roles within the profession, and ultimately, education at large (Rodrigues et al., 2018). Teacher identity formation allows teachers to merge various identities from their past and present (Raymond, 2016). To understand teacher’s experiences, it is important to understand their personal, academic, and professional identities and how each was formed.

Lauren Marfo

105-22 Flatlands 4 Brooklyn, NY 11236 646-***-**** adg2zp@r.postjobfree.com

Ever since I started teaching at the high school level in 2011, I have been fervent in my pledge to three things: make the most of student performance, inspiring students’ interest in learning and imparting a sense of self-esteem among all students. I have dedicated my career thus far to pursuing this, as my resume will confirm.

My qualifications include over 9 years of teaching experience in both middle and high school settings, a Bachelors in English Education and English, as well as a Masters in Literacy Education, and currently I am in completion for a PhD in English as a Second Language, with a focus in research on teachers of African descent and their identity development as teachers.

My PhD will contribute to scholarly research because it will provide scholarly perspectives on how to better support teachers of African decent in their journey to becoming teachers.

Please feel free to contact me 646-***-**** or email adg2zp@r.postjobfree.com to set up a meeting.

Thank you for your interest and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Lauren Marfo

PhD candidate Northcentral University ‘20

References:

Jeremy Daniels (Former Assistant Principal for English at Murry Bergtraum High school) 267-***-**** adg2zp@r.postjobfree.com

Karstina Wong (Former Colleague at Murry Bergtraum High school) 917-***-**** adg2zp@r.postjobfree.com

Jean Woods-Powell (Former Assistant Principal for English at Murry Bergtraum High school) 718-***-**** adg2zp@r.postjobfree.com

Donna Rice (Dissertation Committee Member) 757-***-**** adg2zp@r.postjobfree.com

Contact this candidate