Terry Smith, Ph.D.
Title:
Professor
Teaching and Learning & Special Education
National College of Education
Director, Disability and Equity in Education Doctoral Program
Programs/Classes Taught:
Master’s Level
SPE500 Introduction to Exceptional Children
SPE501 Educational Assessment of Children and Adolescents with Special Needs
SPE506 Frameworks and Perspectives in Special Education
SPE507 Social and Emotional Support, Teaching, and Development
SPE508 Critical Literacy for Students with Disabilities
SPE592 Seminar in Special Education
Doctoral Level
CCD620 Epistemology of Learning, Teaching and Inquiry
CSI693 Curriculum and Social Inquiry Doctoral Seminar
CAP601 Culture of School and Communities
DEE601 Politics of Assessment
DEE603 Activism, Disability and Education
DEE604 History of Disability and Education
DEE690 Politics of Madness
ESR604 Dissertation Proposal Seminar
ESR610 Paradigms of Research
ESR614 Interpretive and Critical Research I
ESR618 Interpretive and Critical Research II
Areas of Expertise:
Interpretive Research Methods
Social, Emotional and Political Dimensions of Pedagogy and Schooling
Social Models of Disability
Special Education (Social and Emotional Disability)
Biography:
Dr. Smith has been a professor at National Louis University since 1997. She taught middle school and high school students labeled with emotional and behavioral disorders for ten years in Miami and Tampa before completing her doctorate. While working as a professor at National Louis, she has continued to work in schools with teachers and children in a variety of capacities over the past 20 years. She has worked as a consultant in Chicago Public Schools and directed grants, literacy programs and teacher education in a juvenile detention center where she worked directly with students and their teachers on curriculum development and assessment. Much of her experience has involved working with students who have lived harsh realities and her passion involves trying to understand how education can respond in thoughtful and effective ways to children in turmoil. She has also volunteered for many years consulting and tutoring students with disabilities in a small, private parochial school.
Dr. Smith holds her primary appointment in Special Education, but she has also worked extensively in several of the National College of Education’s Doctoral Programs where she has designed and taught courses, helped create programs, and supervised research. This includes teaching ten years in the Educational Leadership Program where she learned about systems, policy and leadership from the primary research of doctoral students. She is currently the Director of the Disability and Equity in Education Doctoral Program and is credited with founding the Second City Disability Studies and Education Conference now in its 15th year.
Education:
PhD University of South Florida, Special Education 1996
MS University of Miami, Special Education 1988
BA University of Miami, Psychology 1987
Research and Interests:
Social, emotional and political aspects of school culture and curricula
Intersection of disability and “delinquency”
Social models of disability
Social Research methodologies
Books
Smith, T.J.(2007). Teaching the children we fear: Lessons from the front. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Danforth, S. & Smith, T.J. (2005). Engaging troubled students: A constructivist approach. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Corwin.
Paul, J. & Smith, T.J.(Eds.). 2000. Stories out of school: Memories and reflections of care and cruelty in the classroom. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Contact Information:
TJSmith@nl.edu
(224) 233-2315
National Louis University
