Sarah Schneider Kavanagh

Biography

Sarah Schneider Kavanagh is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, where she also serves as Director of the Collaboratory for Teaching and Teacher Education. Her work focuses on understanding and improving how teachers learn to teach, with particular attention to the relationship between instructional practice, professional judgment, and educational equity.

Before joining Penn, Kavanagh was a research scientist at the University of Washington College of Education and a postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction from the University of Washington and holds a B.A. in American Studies from Wesleyan University.

Kavanagh’s scholarship has contributed to shaping the field of practice-based teacher education, particularly through her work on core practices, pedagogies of teacher education, and the development of teachers’ adaptive expertise. Her research appears in leading journals such as Journal of Teacher Education, Educational Researcher, American Educational Research Journal, Cognition & Instruction, and Teaching and Teacher Education. She is also co-author of Core Practices for Project-Based Learning: A Guide for Teachers and Leaders (Harvard Education Press, 2022).

Across her research, Kavanagh examines how teachers develop the capacity to respond to students’ thinking, facilitate classroom discussion, and enact ambitious and equitable forms of instruction. Her work bridges theory and practice, often through close study of classroom interaction, teacher learning environments, and the design of professional education.

Kavanagh’s research has been supported by major foundations including the Spencer Foundation, the James S. McDonnell Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. In addition to her research and teaching, she serves as executive editor of Teaching and Teacher Education and contributes extensively to the field through editorial and review work across leading journals.

Education

Ph.D. (Curriculum & Instruction) University of Washington, 2014
B.A. (American Studies) Wesleyan University, 2004

Areas of Expertise

Teacher education
Teacher professional development
Teacher mentoring & coaching
Teachers' learning & practice
Teacher agency in platformized education
Pedagogical reasoning
Classroom discussion
Project-based learning

Academic Programs

Learning Sciences and Technologies, M.S.Ed.
Learning Sciences and Technologies, Ph.D.
Teaching, Learning, and Leadership, M.S.Ed.
Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education, Ed.D.
Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education, Ph.D.
Urban Teaching Apprenticeship, M.S.Ed.

Research Interests and Current Projects

Kavanagh’s research centers on the improvement of teaching and teacher education, with a focus on how systems, tools, and organizational designs shape teachers’ work and learning. Her current projects span three interconnected areas.

First, she investigates how state-level policies shape the teaching profession, including the development of pipelines into teaching and the creation of meaningful career pathways for educators. This work examines how policy infrastructures can either strengthen or constrain the recruitment, development, and retention of teachers, with particular attention to equity and access.
Second, Kavanagh studies how educational technology is transforming the practice of teaching. Her research explores how platform-based instructional systems, digital curricula, and AI-enabled tools influence teachers’ decision-making, professional autonomy, and relationships with students. This work considers both the opportunities and risks associated with increasingly “platformized” instruction.
Third, her research examines how schools can be designed to support ongoing teacher learning and professional growth. In particular, she studies how strategic staffing models and organizational reforms can embed opportunities for collaboration, coaching, and advancement within the daily work of teaching. This includes designing systems that support robust professional learning while also creating sustainable career ladders for educators.

Across these areas, Kavanagh’s work is guided by a commitment to understanding teaching as a complex, adaptive practice and to designing systems that enable teachers to develop professional judgment, pursue equity, and respond meaningfully to students’ ideas.

Publications

Featured Publications

Core Practices for Project-Based Learning: A Guide for Teachers and Leaders

Christopher Pupik Dean
Sarah Schneider Kavanagh
Zachary Herrmann
Pam Grossman

Harvard Education Press

June, 2021

Gotwalt, E. S., Kavanagh, S. S., Danielson, K. A. (2026). Learning to let go: Transformations in teachers’ pedagogical reasoning about classroom discussion. Teaching & Teacher Education, 172, Article 105372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2025.105372

Kavanagh, S. S., Bernhard, T., & Guillotte, A. (2026). Is teaching practice an activity that individuals can enact? The case of project based learning. Cognition & Instruction, 44(2), 83–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2025.2576495

Kavanagh, S. S., Danielson, K. A., & Schiavone Gotwalt, E. (2026). Preparing in advance to respond in-the-moment: Investigating parallel changes in planning and enactment in teacher professional development. Journal of Teacher Education, 77(1), 24–40. https://doi.org/10.1177/00224871221121767

Kavanagh, S. S., Bernhard, T., & Gibbons, L. K. (2025). “Someone else in the universe is trying to teach you:” Teachers’ experiences with platformized instruction. Journal of Learning, Media, and Technology, 50(2), 112–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2024.2337396

Kavanagh, S. S., Gotwalt, E. S., Guillotte, A., & Bernhard, T. (2025). Differentiating between best practices and core practices: Diverging purposes for developing the field’s professional language. Teachers College Record, 126(11–12), 59–89. https://doi.org/10.1177/01614681251318871

Kavanagh, S. S., Prough, S., Guillotte, A, Wilhelm, A. G., Gibbons, L. K., & Manz, E. (2025). Elementary teachers’ conceptualizations of classroom discussion across content areas: An epistemic network analysis. Teaching & Teacher Education, 165, Article 105173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2025.105173

Farrow, J., Kavanagh, S. S., Samudra, P., & Pupik Dean, C. (2024). The promise of the project: Connections between elements, curricular design, and practices of project based learning. Teaching & Teacher Education, 152, Article 104776. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2024.104776

Kavanagh, S. S., Farrow, J., Bernhard, T., Guillotte, A., & Dean, C. P. (2024). Practicing inquiry: Investigating how coaches support teachers to lead inquiries in project-based learning classrooms. Teaching & Teacher Education, 144, Article 104575. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2024.104575

Matsko, K. K., Wallace, J., Feiman-Nemser, S., Hammerness, K., & Kavanagh, S. S. (2024). Host or teacher of teaching? Examining mentors’ tacit theories of student teacher learning. Teaching & Teacher Education, 138, Article 104410. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104410

Peck, L., & Kavanagh, S. S. (2024). Learning to give feedback to student writers: A systematic review of research on field-based experiences for pre-service writing teachers. Teaching & Teacher Education, 144, Article 104602. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2024.104602

Kavanagh, S. S., Feiman-Nemser, S., Hammerness, K., Matsko, K. K., & Wallace, J. (2023). Stepping in or stepping on: Mentor teachers’ preferences for mentoring inside and outside of interactive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 74(3), 274–287. https://doi.org/10.1177/00224871221142843

Kavanagh, S. S., Gotwalt, E. S., & Farrow, J. (2023). Practice-based coaching for project-based teaching: Understanding relationships between coaching practice and teaching practice. Teaching and Teacher Education, 132, Article 104255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104255

Pupik Dean, C. G., Grossman, P., Enumah, L., Herrmann, Z., & Kavanagh, S. S. (2023). Core practices for project-based learning: Learning from experienced practitioners in the United States. Teaching and Teacher Education, 133, Article 104275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104275

Farrow, J., Kavanagh, S. S., & Samudra, P., (2022) Exploring relationships between professional development and teachers’ enactments of project-based learning. Education Sciences, 12(4), 282. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12040282

Ghousseini, H., Kavanagh, S. S., Kazemi, E., & Dutro, E. (2022). The fourth wall of professional learning and cultures of collaboration. Educational Researcher, 51(3), 216–222. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X211058751

Kavanagh, S. S. (2022). Toward non-binary theories of practice in teacher education. Educational Researcher, 51(1), 66–71. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X211052058

Kavanagh, S. S., Resnick, A. F., Ghousseini, H., Gotwalt, E. S., Siy, E., Kazemi, E., & Dutro, E. (2022). Breaking the fourth wall in collaborative research: Beyond the observer/performer binary in research on teacher learning and practice. Cognition & Instruction, 40(1), 126–147. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2021.2010209

Potvin, A, Miller, E., Kuck, R., Berland, L, Boardman, A G., Kavanagh, S. S., Clark, T., & Cheng, B. (2022). Mapping enabling conditions for high-quality PBL: A collaboratory approach. Education Sciences, 12(3), 222. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12030222

Grossman P., Herrmann, Z., Kavanagh, S. S., & Pupik Dean, C. G. (2021). Core practices for project-based learning: A guide for teachers and leaders. Harvard Education Press.

Rangu, S., Danielson, K., Kavanagh, S. S., Catanoso, L., Magee, L., & Castelo-Soccio, L. (2021). Effects of a pilot educational intervention on perceptions of visible skin diseases in the pediatric population. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 85(5), 1329–1331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2020.10.068

Kavanagh, S. S., Conrad, J., & Dagogo-Jack, S. (2020). From rote to reasoned: Examining the role of pedagogical reasoning in practice-based teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 89, Article 102991. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.102991

Kavanagh, S. S. & Danielson, K. A. (2020). Practicing justice, justifying practice: Toward critical practice teacher education. American Educational Research Journal, 57(1), 69–105. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831219848691

Kavanagh, S. S., Metz, M., Hauser, M., Fogo, B., Carlson, J., & Taylor, M. (2020). Practicing responsiveness: Using approximations of teaching to build teachers’ instructional judgment. Journal of Teacher Education, 71(1), 94–107. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487119841884

Metz, M., Kavanagh, S. S., & Hauser, M. (2020). Developing adaptive expertise in facilitating text-based discussions: Attending to generalities and novelty. English Education, 52(4), 310–334.

Grossman, P., Kazemi, E., Kavanagh, S. S., Franke, M., & Dutro, E. (2019). Learning to facilitate discussions: Collaborations in practice-based teacher education. Teaching & Teacher Education, 81, 97–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.02.002

Kavanagh, S. S., Monte-Sano, C., Reisman, A., Fogo, B., McGrew, S., Cipparone, P., & Jay, L. (2019). Teaching content in practice: Investigating rehearsals of social studies discussions. Teaching and Teacher Education, 86, Article 102863. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.06.017

Reisman, A., Cipparone, P., Jay, L., Monte-Sano, C., Kavanagh, S. S., McGrew, S., & Fogo, B. (2019). Evidence of emergent practice: Teacher candidates facilitating historical discussions in their field placements. Teaching & Teacher Education, 80, 145–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.12.014

Kavanagh, S. S. (2018). Practicing resistance: Teacher responses to intergroup aggression in the classroom. Equity & Excellence in Education, 51(2), 146–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2018.1509748

Reisman, A., Kavanagh, S. S., Monte-Sano, C., Fogo, B., Simmons, E., & Cipparone, P. (2018). Facilitating whole-class discussions in history: A framework for preparing teacher candidates. Journal of Teacher Education, 69(3), 278–293. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487117707463

Von Esch, K. & Kavanagh, S. S. (2018). Preparing mainstream classroom teachers of English language learner (EL) students: Grounding practice-based designs for teacher learning in theories of expertise development. Journal of Teacher Education, 69(3), 239–251. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487117717467

Kavanagh, S. S., & Rainey, E. (2017). Learning to support adolescent literacy: Teacher educator pedagogy and novice teacher take up in secondary English language arts teacher preparation. American Educational Research Journal, 54(5), 904–937. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831217710423

McDonald, M., Kazemi, E., & Kavanagh, S. S. (2013). Core practices and pedagogies of teacher education: A call for a common language and collective activity. Journal of Teacher Education, 64, 378–386. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487113493807

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