UNL researcher discusses invitation to National Academy of Education

A University of Nebraska-Lincoln researcher was the first Husker invited to join the National Academy of Education, which is an organization that supports research in education. Susan Sheridan, the director of the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools, has decades of research leading to her invitation to the academy. Nebraska Public Media’s Jolie Peal spoke with her about her research.

JOLIE PEAL: For our listeners, can you give an overview of what the National Academy of Education is?

SUSAN SHERIDAN: I'm happy to do so. The National Academy of Education is an honorific society that recognizes advances and allows for the interactions of leading education researchers around the country. It's a society that’s been in existence for many, many years, and they sponsor a number of important education initiatives, including things like funding for graduate students, particularly funding related to conducting dissertation research, fellowships for early career scholars. We do, we will do, I will be part of activities associated with research programs, doing thorough reviews of literature and putting out comments and recommendations to the field for really hot topics, contemporary topics and issues in the field of education. So it's a very active society. It's a very active academy. And it is comprised, as I said, of pioneers in various education fields, from people who are doing theoretical work to people like myself who are very applied and doing work in schools and communities.

PEAL: Why is membership in this organization important?

SHERIDAN: Membership in any academy is probably the pinnacle of one's career. It recognizes and celebrates contributions that individuals have made across their entire careers. So it's recognition of 30 plus years of work that I've been privileged to do, and positions researchers and scholars in ways that gives voice to the things that we believe are so important. I'll be surrounded by the best thinkers and leaders in education research, certainly in the country, if not the world. But I'll also have the opportunity to work shoulder to shoulder with people advancing some of the issues that we all are very passionate about.

PEAL: What does it mean to you to be invited into this organization?

SHERIDAN: Oh, goodness, it's such an honor. It is surreal in a lot of ways. I'm humbled by the invitation and the, I mean, I was elected into this academy, so I guess that means that people view my work with a certain level of positive esteem. But really, fundamentally and at the heart of it all, I am very touched to know that people feel as though my work is important. And that because my work is so collaborative and because my work is grounded in relationships and working in partnership with others, I feel like I can share that award, this, this recognition. I'm sharing it with so many people that I have the opportunity to work with every single day. I mean it is truly an honor, but it's not an honor that I deserve in isolation. It's one that I share with the people who have been such a meaningful part of the program of work that we've together advanced over the years.

PEAL: How does this membership in the National Academy of Education impact your research here at the center?

SHERIDAN: Well, membership in the academy does provide a certain recognition that the work is of national, if not international, caliber. So it’s validating for sure. It provides a little bit of, I guess, positionality, if you will, and that I know that it is a privilege to do this kind of work, and being recognized like that adds even more responsibility to use this platform as a way to do good to make sure that people who we engage with in our work have voice and have the ability to help us direct where we go together in this work. I do feel, as I said, both a sense of honor, but also a sense of responsibility now, more so than ever, because there's a spotlight on this work. And I just want to ensure that the work we do has integrity, that we're honest in our interactions with folks. You know, we work with people, and we learn from the people that we work with in our research about the realities of different perspectives and lives and life courses. And I want to make sure that now that we have the spotlight on this type of work, that we elevate it in ways that are respectful, and that really enable people to, children to achieve to the best of their ability and families to do the work that they are so committed to when it comes to raising their children. I just feel a sense of opportunity as well as responsibility.

PEAL: Diving more into your research, what are some of the current projects and research you're conducting now?

SHERIDAN: We have quite a bit of research. I direct the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools, and in our center, we are doing a host of work. So much of the work that's happening here in the center is work that's not my own research, but that's happening across the College of Education and Human Sciences in areas like early childhood education and development, academic intervention and learning, psychosocial development, and social emotional development. We're doing work in rural education, as well as research methods. So all of these areas comprise our center. My work is sort of cross cutting across so many of those areas. For example, we do a significant amount of work with families. And so the various research programs that I have, whether it's in early childhood working with children in preschools through grade three, or some of the work that I'm doing in elementary schools and working as late as, you know, into adolescence. A common denominator is always engaging with families because you can't think about supporting children and their healthy development without thinking about ways to really embrace the importance of parenting and helping families really achieve, help them achieve the goals and dreams that they have for their children. So a lot of the work that we do is bringing educators and families together to form a partnership because they share the responsibility for helping educate and socialize children. We work a lot with children who enter schools in all walks, in all ways. Some are struggling socially, some are dealing with difficult behaviors. Other kids have, children have academic delays or concerns. We start where kids are at. We start with where families are at, and we identify ways that educators and families can work together to help them achieve the goals that they have for children, whether it be around social skills or behavioral challenges or academic growth, kinds of goals. The work that we do is very much about connecting people with one another. It's about forming relationships. At the end of the day, you know, children can be in classrooms. They can go home. They can be surrounded by adults and others who are working to support them. But without strong relationships, children won't achieve to their best potential. So a lot of what we do is really support healthy relationships when it comes to children's development. We help engage parents with their young children to really, you know, really sort of form that important early bond between young children and their parents. We help support teacher-student relationships because we know that in those conditions, children are going to achieve a lot more. And we work very hard at connecting parents and educators and forming relationships between the adults and children's lives. Because paradoxically even though I'm a school psychologist and I got into this field to help kids, we're never going to achieve what we can achieve unless we really focus on the adults in their lives.

PEAL: Has that, like, been a philosophy since you've been here or is that something that's evolved over time?

SHERIDAN: That is why I got into this field. I, more than 30 years ago, 35 years ago, I worked in the schools as a school psychologist. It was very early in my career, and I remember very clearly sitting down with a teacher, and we asked some parents to come in. It was a very standard and routine meeting that we have with parents when we're assessing the eligibility, children's eligibility for special education. So I had done an assessment, I'd done an evaluation, I tested this particular child, and there's something that I wasn't quite getting. I wasn't sure what it was, but aspects of his development I didn't quite grasp. The parents came in and started telling us stories about some traumatic experiences this little guy had had at home through some extended family members. And at that moment, a light bulb went off in my head, and I realized if we don't embrace families, bring them in and help them help us support their children, we're never going to really have the kind of impact that we want for our future. So at that moment, I realized we have to really be about centering families, ensuring that they have voice. Parents want the best for their children. They don't always know how to ask the questions, they don't always know how to do what really want to do and supporting their role as parents. So by making it possible, by making it comfortable, by making it safe for families to come into a school and work together when a child is struggling, I'm 100% certain that is the best recipe for ensuring a positive trajectory for children.

PEAL: When you're looking at the future of your research and the center, what's kind of your hopes and goals as you continue forward in this field?

SHERIDAN: Oh, we have lots of hopes and dreams. I, we continue to, our research is funded federally by many different agencies. We're very fortunate in that regard. And we continue to push the envelope to ask bigger questions and look at ways that we can spread the reach of our work. So we are continuing to think about new and creative and innovative ways of taking interventions that we've developed over the years to support this homeschool connection and support programs for children who are struggling. And we are looking at ways to deliver it via technology, for example. It is the case that not all families have easy access to their children's school. For example, in some rural communities, whether it's rural Nebraska or rural Appalachia or rural Alaska, in some situations, it's more challenging for families to get into school physically. And so we really want to think about ways that we can reduce the barriers for families. So using technology, innovative ways of bridging that gap between home and school is something we're doing a lot of work and right now. We are looking out at providing professional development in a very broad scale. We have a couple of research grants right now where we are delivering professional development through technology, through online modules and distance coaching to school psychologists and specialists all over the country. So we've got quite a broad reach right now in our, in our work, where we're giving away these programs that we know work. We've done 25, 30 years of research on these programs, and we know there's really great benefit from connecting families and schools. We're trying to give it away, so we're making the programs accessible. We're providing hands on, one-on-one coaching, as educators in schools are delivering these programs and connecting with families, and we're looking at ways of doing a lot of outreach via telecommunication modalities. Right now, I'd say we have almost all four corners of the country covered and a lot of places in between. Frankly, you know, we've got people all around the world reaching out to us and talking about ways that they can bring some of this work into their communities as well from a real sort of global, culturally respectful way.

PEAL: Do you have, like, an example of one of those programs that you can share with listeners, a tangible thought?

SHERIDAN: For example, one of the one of our programs is called Teachers and Parents as Partners, it's very much what I've been talking about. And in the simplest sense, we bring parents and teachers together, again, whether it's sitting together at a table in a classroom after school or through Zoom technology, if folks can't be in the same place at that same moment. We start by identifying the strengths that a student brings to the table. Everyone has strengths, and I'll tell you parents love talking about their child's strengths, because so often, all they hear from the school is about the problems the child is having. So we start by talking about the strengths in the child, the strengths of the family, the strengths of the educator, and how we can work together elevating those strengths to support for future growth. We then identify some of the things that are getting in the way of that child's ability to perform to the best of their capacity. So for example, if they've got some difficulty staying on task or completing their work or they're easily distracted or they like to distract others, all these things interfere with their ability to learn, so we identify what those things are. And then together, we co-create meaningful plans that a parent can use at home and a teacher can use in the classroom to support goals that they set around those challenges. And they implement those plans. They communicate with one another. They identify what can work in their setting, but what won't work. It's most important that we let them share with us because they're the experts on their child and teachers are experts in their classrooms. We let them tell us what will and won't work. And then we craft a meaningful plan, they implement it, they practice it, they come back and talk about it. We monitor how the child is doing. We're very data-based in our approach, so we help them identify simple ways to keep track of how the child is progressing, and we don't stop until the goals are met. So it might mean three meetings, it might mean four meetings, but they’re meetings where parents and teachers and specialists who help facilitate that process come out with real tangible tools and strategies that they can use to support the child. And I'll tell you, the kids love it because now the most important adults in their lives, the parents and the teachers, are focused in on their strengths. They're focused in on helping them. It's very positive. Kids feel empowered, they feel validated when they know that parents and teachers care enough about them to come together and spend some time helping them achieve and succeed. So parents love it. We've had parents tell us that they never had this kind of experience with their child's education and their schooling before. They feel like they've been affirmed. They feel like they've been given some new tools, and they can use it with all of their children. Same with teachers. We have data to show and we have teachers telling us it's made me a better teacher. So that support is not only good for kids, it's good for all of us.

PEAL: I feel like this is something you've kind of answered throughout the whole interview, but just to kind of ask it, what can parents and teachers be doing to help support their kids and their student’s education?

SHERIDAN: First and foremost, talk to one another. It's so important that we open the communication channels. I said earlier, it's really about relationships. Well, at the heart of relationships is communication. And sometimes communication can be difficult. But having a perspective that it's worthy, it's worthwhile, and that it's necessary to really come together and be on the same page, that's the first step is open the channels of communication. Parents can tell teachers that they really do care, and they want to be engaged, and teachers can invite parents. Sometimes, parents need that invitation to have permission, so to speak, to be a player, to be a part of their child's schooling. And sometimes, if a teacher can just ask a parent, you know what, tell me about your child, you're the expert, what, you know, what are their strengths, what, what can we do together to help them continue to progress. So certainly work on that relationship, communicate with one another, set goals together. All schools have parent-teacher conferences, right? Some are more routine than others, but some can really be structured in ways where instead of just kind of going over the gradebook, you can hone in on a specific thing that you can work on together. And little by little those baby steps make a huge difference. You know, I really believe very much in parents engaging in their child's schooling in ways that bring their own strengths to the table. So it's lots and lots of ways that parents can be engaged, but certainly spending time at home in ways that a child learns, in very natural ways. For example, sitting down and going through a recipe together and preparing a meal is a great way to focus in on math skills and all kinds of opportunities for learning in very natural kinds of situations. But then bringing some of that into the classroom, a parent that, you know, brings their own beliefs and values and culture into the classroom is such a rewarding opportunity. It helps create that bridge between home and school. That connection for kids, they have to see it as something that is very easy to navigate, and the more parents and teachers are together, and we can sort of share back and forth what's important to each of them, it just makes it easier for a child to just sort of go back and forth to be both a student and a child at the same time.

PEAL: I feel like we've covered a lot of my questions. Was there anything else you wanted to say that we didn't cover?

SHERIDAN: I guess I would like to say thank you to all of the parents and the teachers and the school administrators and specialists with whom we've had the opportunity to work over the years. We could not have done this work without people believing in us and trusting us enough to come into their lives. I would like to really, now that as I start to mention a few, I know I will be missing some, but we've had wonderful experiences with Lincoln Public Schools. We've had wonderful experiences with rural educators across the state of Nebraska as well as in the region. The Nebraska Department of Education has been a tremendous partner over the years, great leadership in the state at all levels, from the commissioner of education to school principals to teachers to every single individual in a school building who is a critical part of that whole enterprise. And of course the families and the students. I just have, I've learned so much from the folks that we've worked with, and I've been rewarded 100 times over by those relationships and interactions. I think it's important that we all acknowledge that we're in this together. I mean, as far as educating and preparing children for the future. It's an old cliche, it takes a village and it certainly does, and we live in probably one of the best villages I can think of.