Arnetha F. Ball, language, literacy, and teacher education researcher, voted president-elect of the American Educational Research Association

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 1, 2010--Arnetha F. Ball, a Stanford University education professor and language, literacy, teacher education, and urban studies expert, has been voted president-elect of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Her term as president starts at the conclusion of the 2011 Annual Meeting, after one year of service as president-elect.

Professor Ball will succeed Kris D. Gutierrez, Professor and Provost’s Chair at the School of Education within the University of Colorado-Boulder. Professor Gutierrez will assume the AERA presidency May 4, 2010 at the close of the Association's 91st Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado.

Professor Ball joined Stanford’s School of Education faculty in 1999 and now is Professor of Education. She also is the Visiting Barbara A. Sizemore Distinguished Professor of Urban Education at Duquesne University. Her research centers on the writing and writing instruction of culturally and linguistically diverse students, the preparation of teachers to teach diverse student populations, and the linking sociocultural and linguistic theory with educational practice. She also focuses on using the linguistic resources present among culturally diverse populations to enhance curriculum and instruction.

Specifically, her current research focuses on an interdisciplinary program that aims to improve education for urban populations in three intersecting contexts: U.S. schools in which predominantly poor African American, Latino/a, and Pacific Islander students are underachieving; community-based alternative education programs that offer "second chance" or "last chance" opportunities for individuals in search of personal, academic, and economic success; and teacher education programs in the United States and South Africa. She has emphasized the preparation of teachers to work with students who are poor members of racially/ethnically marginalized groups and non-native or non-standard English speakers. Ball has conducted groundbreaking work in literacy studies and urban teacher education involving use of the Internet to teach children in inner-city schools.

She has authored or co-authored and edited or co-edited six books and numerous articles, including the forthcoming AERA volume Studying Diversity in Teacher Education. Ball presently is associate editor of Urban Education, and has served on the editorial board or reviewed for American Educational Research Journal, Written Communication, Teachers College Press, and College Composition and Communication.

Ball has served AERA in many leadership roles; currently as vice president of Division K, Teaching and Teacher Education and previously as the divisional secretary and SIG secretary and vice president. As vice president, she serves on the AERA Council and Executive Committee, the Association’s legislative and policy-determining body. Recently elected a Fellow of the organization, Ball has been an active member since 1990. She also has served on the Publications, Telecommunications, and Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award committees, on the editorials boards, and as a mentor.

Among her professional accomplishments, Ball has been a Spencer Foundation Residential Fellow, past president of the National Conference of Research on Language and Literacy, former Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences Summer Fellow, and has held leadership roles in National Council of Teachers of English, National Society for the Study of Education, and the Conference on College Composition and Communication.

Ball has served as an academic specialist for the United States Information Services Program in South Africa. She has co-taught courses on multilingualism, multiliteracies, and English methodologies in the teacher education program at Johannesburg College of Education, taught at the University of Cape Town in the PRAESA Further Diploma in Education Program, and lectured at numerous universities, including Northwest University, UNISA, University of Zululand, and University of Botswana.

Ball was awarded a Ph.D. degree in language, literacy and culture from Stanford University in 1991, and received a M.S. degree in speech pathology and a B.A. degree in education from the University of Michigan in 1972 and 1971, respectively. Before entering the professorate, Ball was a speech/language pathologist, taught in pre-school, elementary and secondary classrooms for more than 25 years, and was the founder and executive director of an early education center for students of diverse backgrounds for 11 years. From 1992 to 1999, she served on the University of Michigan's School of Education faculty, where she coordinated the Literacy, Language, and Culture Program.