Dr. Nancy Fichtman Dana

Nancy Fichtman Dana’s research focuses on practitioner research as a professional development strategy.  She examines the ways this form of professional development impacts individual educators, as well as the schools in which they enact their practice.

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Dr. Dana’s research encompasses three subthemes.  The first is teacher leadership as experienced and new practitioners engage in inquiry and take evidence-based actions to promote student learning and school improvement.  The second centers on the contexts in which teachers learn to teach and expand their knowledge of effective practice.  The third is related to the study of specific groups of educators.  In particular, Dr. Dana has studied the ways practitioner research plays out in the professional development of principals, as well as the professional development of K-12 virtual school educators.