Sarah Capello

Radford University, School of Teacher Education and Leadership: Curriculum and instruction, Secondary English Education, Faculty Member

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Dr. Sarah Capello is currently an Assistant Professor at Radford University where she teaches education research methodology courses in the doctoral program in education.

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Papers by Sarah Capello

Using Telepresence Robots for Doctoral Education: Student and Faculty Experiences

American Journal of Distance Education, 2023

Advancements in educational technology have increased opportunity and access for students who wis... more Advancements in educational technology have increased opportunity and access for students who wish to pursue doctoral education through a variety of delivery options and have resulted in increased enrollments in doctoral programs over the past decade. However, doctoral retention and graduation rates remain dismal. Online and

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Linking assessments to program outcomes in practitioner-oriented EdD programs: An alternative to comprehensive examinations

Journal of Adult and Continuing Education

For decades, the field of education has been criticized for failing to distinguish between the Ph... more For decades, the field of education has been criticized for failing to distinguish between the PhD and EdD degrees. However, the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate has recently redefined the EdD as a professional practice doctorate and offered a framework for program (re)design that includes the generation and application of practitioner knowledge to identify, investigate, and solve problems of practice. This renewed focus on (re)designing EdD programs provides a timely segue into rethinking doctoral assessments in EdD programs. This document analysis demonstrates how one near-ubiquitous assessment, the comprehensive examination, can be reimagined to serve as a site for reinforcing practitioner-oriented program outcomes. This manuscript reports how an EdD program implemented alternative comprehensive examinations to support student growth toward a variety of practitioner-oriented program outcomes. The findings indicate that the alternative assessments fostered student growt...

A community of practice shares perspectives on utilizing telepresence in doctoral education

Teaching in Higher Education, 2022

In this paper, we (a) share perspectives from stakeholders who learn and teach in an EdD program ... more In this paper, we (a) share perspectives from stakeholders who learn and teach in an EdD program located in the United States that utilizes telepresence for distance learning (TDL) in a synchronous, hybrid environment, (b) frame our learning as a community of practice, and (c) report affordances and challenges of this model. TDL students asserted that the telepresence option gave them choice in selecting their doctoral program and increased their social presence and ability to be perceived as real people, and all students recognized the importance of a cohesive community to offer support through technological challenges. Faculty were largely unfamiliar with utilizing telepresence in the classroom initially and acknowledged that revised pedagogies and instructional methods were essential to supporting all students in this model. TDL affords opportunities to increase equity and access in doctoral education; however, technological and logistical challenges must be remediated to ensure a successful learning environment.

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Toward the automated analysis of teacher talk in secondary ELA classrooms

Teaching and Teacher Education

"I Wanted to Give Back to the Profession:" Preservice Teacher Supervision as Service Work

For decades, university supervisors of preservice teachers (PSTs) have been undervalued and ignor... more For decades, university supervisors of preservice teachers (PSTs) have been undervalued and ignored. Following neoliberal reforms, post-secondary institutions have outsourced PST supervision to contingent faculty, failed to provide professional development for supervisors, offered poor employment conditions, and overlooked PST supervision in tenure and promotion decisions. These actions, combined with the service orientation of teacher education, have framed PST supervision as service work. This case study sought to understand how supervisors and administrators in one teacher education department positioned supervisors' work as service and the influence of the institution and department on that positioning. Using a survey, interviews, and document analysis, this study found that supervisors positioned their work as professional, financial, and emotional service. In turn, the institution and teacher education department positioned supervisors' work as service by providing minimal compensation and no institutional rewards and expecting supervisors to enact roles that were not officially required of them. The study's implications are that teacher educators and higher education administrators should strive to recruit and retain a professional corps of supervisors, provide ongoing professional development to supervisors to assist in the professionalization of the role, and resist notions of supervision as service.

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The Unexpected Affordance of Program Design for Dissertation Writing During COVID-19: The Embedded Dissertation

by Mellissa Gyimah-Concepcion, Sarah Capello, and Vicki Billimack

Impacting Education: Journal on Transforming Professional Practice, 2021

Purpose: This paper describes how an embedded dissertation program design feature supported two c... more Purpose: This paper describes how an embedded dissertation program design feature supported two cohorts of EdD dissertators and helped them make consistent progress toward and eventually complete their dissertation milestones during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we detail the work, challenges, and results of EdD students’ efforts toward their milestones and offer perspectives on the same topics for EdD faculty who are teaching dissertation writing courses or supporting dissertators during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conceptual Argument: This paper argues that an existing program design feature, the embedded dissertation, provided unexpected affordances for EdD dissertators during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, it acted as a scaffold for dissertators to make small but consistent steps forward on their dissertation milestones despite the significant challenges they faced both as practitioners and as students during the pandemic.
Implications for Research: In sharing these experiences, we hope to: (a) offer a contribution to the literature on the intersection of program design and dissertation writing, (b) proffer a program design structure that was successful in moving dissertators forward during COVID-19, and (c) document the lived experiences of EdD dissertators and faculty in this unprecedented, historical moment.

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Tensions in the Preparation of University Supervisors: Dual Perspectives from Supervisors and Administrators

Journal of Educational Supervision

Prior research shows that supervisors of teacher candidates are typically underprepared for their... more Prior research shows that supervisors of teacher candidates are typically underprepared for their work and receive little oversight of it. However, there has been less research into these causes and the effects of minimal preparation on supervisors. This case study of a teacher education department uses survey, interviews, and document analysis to examine the tensions that occur when supervisors are underprepared for their roles. The results indicate three tensions that undermine supervisors' practice: unclear expectations, perfunctory evaluations, and the failure to develop teacher educator identities. In the absence of organizational supports for supervisor preparation and development, supervisors relied on peer networks and their PK-12 experience to inform their practice. Program administrators lamented the lack of training for supervisors but did not have the time or resources to support it. Intentional preparation could help supervisors navigate these tensions and should aim to align supervisors' training to the roles they embody.

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Junior Faculty Telling Stories: Using Storytelling as a Tool for Co-Teaching across Research and Epistemological Difference

by Mellissa Gyimah-Concepcion and Sarah Capello

College Teaching, 2021

This paper explores how two assistant professors who come from diverse paradigmatic, theoretical,... more This paper explores how two assistant professors who come from diverse paradigmatic, theoretical, and methodological perspectives collaborated for impact to co-teach in a literacy doctoral program. Initially, we grappled with naming and negotiating our differences individually and professionally across race, culture, theory, and methodology. Storytelling and positioning theory afforded us opportunities to humanize one another and bridge differences by sharing our stories and critically examining ourselves and our training in relation to literacy research.

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Leveraging PhD Students to Support EdD Dissertation Writing

Impacting Education: Journal on Transforming Professional Practice, 2020

Doctoral faculty have long advocated for writing support for doctoral candidates during the disse... more Doctoral faculty have long advocated for writing support for doctoral candidates during the dissertation stage. However, schools of education are often challenged to provide organizational supports to assist struggling dissertators. EdD students in CPED institutions may need additional supports due to shorter time-to-degree programs and full-time work commitments. This paper reports how one PhD student in a CPED institution acted as a dissertation consultant for 35 EdD dissertators and successfully guided them through their dissertations. The author examines how her background in composition, experiences in educational research, and willingness to address socio-emotional needs contributed to this success and argues that PhD students in schools of education with similar backgrounds can take up dissertation consulting work as organizational supports for EdD dissertators. The mutual benefits of engaging in this work are discussed as is the potential for school-university partnerships stemming from PhD-EdD student collaboration during doctoral study.

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Tensions in the preparation of university supervisors: Dual perspectives from supervisors and administrators

Journal of Educational Supervision, 2020

Prior research shows that supervisors of teacher candidates are typically underprepared for their... more Prior research shows that supervisors of teacher candidates are typically underprepared for their work and receive little oversight of it. However, there has been less research into these causes and the effects of minimal preparation on supervisors. This case study of a teacher education department uses survey, interviews, and document analysis to examine the tensions that occur when supervisors are underprepared for their roles. The results indicate three tensions that undermine supervisors’ practice: unclear expectations, perfunctory evaluations, and the failure to develop teacher educator identities. In the absence of organizational supports for supervisor preparation and development, supervisors relied on peer networks and their PK-12 experience to inform their practice. Program administrators lamented the lack of training for supervisors but did not have the time or resources to support it. Intentional preparation could help supervisors navigate these tensions and should aim to align supervisors’ training to the roles they embody.

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Reexamining faculty roles in the supervision of pre-service teachers: Responding to the call for clinically-based teacher education

Journal of Educational Supervision, 2020

In an effort to integrate university coursework with field-site experiences and bolster pre-servi... more In an effort to integrate university coursework with field-site experiences and bolster pre-service teacher learning, national teacher education organizations have charged teacher education programs with embedding teacher preparation within clinically-rich experiences. These reforms have resulted in expanded and increasingly complex conceptions of pre-service teacher supervision and the university supervisor, which have affected not only traditional supervisors but all university-based teacher educators. This paper presents a framework that maps the shifting roles of four university-based teacher educators: program administrators, research faculty, teaching faculty, and adjunct faculty due to changing notions of clinically-rich preservice teacher supervision. This framework demonstrates how faculty roles have become more inclusive of supervisory tasks, more integrated with school-site learning, and faculty are in closer communication with each other regarding pre-service teacher growth. Supporting new faculty roles within clinically-rich supervision requires adequate training for all faculty, appropriate institutional recognition for supervision, and rethinking departmental organization and culture.

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Sarah Capello

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