Amy Guillotte has worked with students and teachers across a range of contexts. She began her teaching career as an elementary educator in Washington, D.C. She then worked with refugee newcomers at a school in Atlanta, Georgia, followed by a Fulbright fellowship teaching English and working with educators in refugee camp settings in Jordan and a summer supporting teacher professional learning communities in Uganda. Across these roles, she saw both the importance of engaging students in reading, discussion, and writing, and the need to support teachers in this complex work.
“I came to Penn GSE because I wanted to learn more about how to design and facilitate meaningful learning experiences for language and literacy educators, and how to study how teachers learn within these spaces,” said Guillotte, who is graduating with her Ph.D. in Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education on May 16. “Penn is home to a faculty of leading teacher education scholars, such as my advisor, Dr. Sarah Schneider Kavanagh, so I was thrilled to come to GSE for my doctoral work.”
Up next for the new graduate will be a return to the classroom—this time teaching university students who are pre-service teachers. In the fall, she begins her role as assistant professor in the Elementary Education program at Towson University.
Guillotte spoke to us about her new job, the Penn GSE resources that helped her prepare for it, and how she will continue to support teachers in their practice.
How did your time at Penn GSE prepare you for your new job?
I’ve had amazing teachers, mentors, and colleagues at Penn GSE who have supported me to develop as a researcher and a teacher educator. I got to take coursework with and learn from leaders in the field, be apprenticed into research projects and teams facilitating and studying professional learning across the U.S. in pre-service and in-service teacher education contexts, and have opportunities to teach and coach in the Urban Teaching Apprenticeship at Penn GSE.
Additional highlights include co-developing a research project with a fellow doctoral student on how new social studies teachers learn to teach writing—work that began in a course at GSE and has grown into an ongoing collaboration—having a wonderful mentor and team to meet with every week, and a teacher education Research Apprenticeship Course (RAC) community to share and workshop research with every two weeks across faculty, alums, and fellow doctoral students in the department.
What kind of impact are you hoping to make in your new role, and how does that connect to what you studied here?
In my new role, I hope to continue to design and study learning experiences for elementary literacy teachers that combine a focus on instructional practice with an emphasis on critical reflection. My dissertation explored how teachers make decisions about digital technologies—particularly video read-alouds—in elementary literacy instruction, and I’m interested in helping teachers and students develop more thoughtful and critical approaches to EdTech in today’s classrooms.
Looking back, what’s one thing you’re most proud of accomplishing during your time at Penn GSE?
When I think about the most meaningful work I’ve done while at GSE, I come back to opportunities to learn and work with teachers—especially early career teachers—as they’ve developed their instruction. Whether through coaching, teaching courses, leading professional learning, or longitudinal research, supporting teachers to reflect on and develop their instruction is one of my main goals. For example, this past fall, I was able to have a group of high school students come to my English language arts methods course at Penn GSE and give feedback to pre-service teachers as they facilitated classroom discussions. The teachers really loved that and took the students’ feedback into their own teaching, which is exciting.
What advice would you give to incoming or current students who want to follow a similar path?
I have been really grateful for the many opportunities I’ve had to write and publish with GSE faculty and my fellow doctoral students, and to teach courses, coach teachers, and lead professional development. Through these experiences, I’ve learned so much about scholarship and grown as a teacher educator. I would recommend that folks engage with different research teams, faculty, and fellow students to write and seek out opportunities to work with directly with teachers. Additionally, this year I’ve been so supported in the job search process by my advisor, my dissertation committee members, folks at GSE’s career services team, the University’s career services office, and CETLI, so I would recommend that folks use their Penn resources fully, especially during the job search.
Media Inquiries
Penn GSE Communications is here to help reporters connect with the education experts they need.
