Teacher Education
Education and Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Davidson started her career in education as a Special Education teacher, with 8 years of experience teaching students and an additional 11 years of experience providing coaching, and training to teachers and other providers in school settings. She has experience supporting a variety of approaches to instruction delivery including full inclusion programs, center-based programs, and self-contained programs, across rural and urban school districts in Colorado. She draws on her experience delivering instruction in grade-level classrooms, as well as multi-grade classrooms, supporting students throughout their progress in education from kindergarten, through post-secondary transitions at 18-21 years old. While Dr. Davidson started in Special Education, the disproportionate representation of diverse learners identified and labeled with "disabilities" led her to pursue her doctoral studies in educational equity and cultural diversity. In her Undergraduate and Graduate teaching at UNC, she focuses on instruction through a lens of equity and inclusion, with attention to supporting learners' diverse needs beyond labels of disAbility. To support connections between pedagogy and practice in her classes, she draws on her experience supporting students with a wide range of diverse identities, needs and backgrounds, including:
As an assistant professor of Teacher Education, she is a member of the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education department, within the School of Teacher Education. She continues to support both special education and culturally and linguistically diverse education, with emphasis on equitable inclusion in general education, as the coordinator of the Master of Arts program in Teaching Diverse Learners supporting current teachers to earn dual-endorsements as special education generalists and in culturally and linguistically diverse education. She also serves as the Editor of the Journal of Educational Research & Innovation.
Dr. Davidson's research interests focus on Inclusive Equity in Education for all students with diverse identities, backgrounds, languages, experiences, and needs. Equity and inclusion are essential in the general education setting, where most students access their right to education. Yet for a diverse range of students, the opportunity to access equitable and inclusive education remains elusive. Specially trained educators are essential providers in the current structural model of education.
Separately both language development services and special education services have been shown to support learning while also sustaining segregation and exclusion for many students. The current structure of the educational system struggles to enable equitable access to the general education community.
General education teachers are the primary source of instruction for most students, who need equitable opportunities to be included in the general education community. It is general education teachers who most need the capacity to build equitable and inclusive communities within their classrooms, and to support all students' right to access education. This intersection of instructional needs, within the general education classroom, is a specific area of interest for Dr. Davidson. Her scholarly works in this area take up varied foci and lenses including, implementing effective pedagogical practices and educational technology, teacher development and coaching, organizational change and avenues that lead toward increasing equity for all learners.
PUBLICATIONS
Davidson, A. O. (In Process), Learning at the Boundaries: Community Education in the Jewish Food Movement
Davidson, A. O. (2017). Transforming Everyday Teaching: Pedagogy and Collaboration Supporting Equity, Inclusion and Effective Instruction; CU Scholar. https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/8g84mm44h
Viesca, K., Davidson, A. & Hamilton, B. (2016). Preparing Content Teachers to Work with Emergent Bilinguals: A Case Study and the Project it Inspired; DDS – Die Deutsche Schule Beiheft 13, S. 100-112 Waxmann
Viesca, K., Hamilton, B., Davidson, A. & The eCALLMS Team (2016). Supporting linguistically responsive teaching: e-Learning communities for academic language learning in mathematics and science (eCALLMS). In Teaching Emergent Bilingual Students: Flexible Approaches in an Era of New Standards. Guilford Publications, Inc.
Klingner, J., Moore, B., Davidson, A., Boelé, A., Boardman, A., Figueroa, R., Annamma, S. & Sager (2015). Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Special Education. In Enduring Issues in Special Education. Taylor and Francis
BOOK REVIEW
Mahovsky, K. A., Davidson, A. O. (2023). In Madeline Milian (Ed.), Alex Shevrin Venet’s Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education–A Book Review (Issue 1/ Article 6 ed., vol. 11, pp. 5). Greeley, CO: Journal of Educational Research and Innovation. https://digscholarship.unco.edu/jeri/vol11/iss1/6
BOOK CHAPTER
Viesca, K., Hamilton, B., Davidson, A. (2016). Supporting linguistically responsive teaching: e-Learning communities for academic language learning in mathematics and science (eCALLMS).
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