Research Spotlight: Dr. Veronica L. Estrada
Q & A with Dr. Veronica L. Estrada, Associate Dean for Assessment and Accreditation in the College of Education and P-16 Integration
What are your research interests and research achievements?
The overarching framework of my research concerns the impact of teacher quality on student success of Hispanic/Latino students. I have four strands of research in progress that include the following: 1) teacher development and preparation research, 2) teaching and leading in rural schools, 3) language and literacy research of post-secondary students, and 4) utilizing learning improvement sciences in educator preparation. These strands are explored within the contexts of the Texas-Mexico border and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). In my new role as Associate Dean for Assessment and Accreditation, I am also developing a new line of research in supporting program efforts in assessment, accreditation, and evaluation.
Research achievements include having an active research agenda that has resulted in important contributions to the research literature that have been shared through numerous professional outlets such as professional conferences and publications. Working with colleagues, we have also been successful in procuring internal and external grant funding that has supported our respective research agendas. A recent example is the following: Estrada, V., Pena, C., & Love, D. Learning to Teach with Mixed-Reality Simulated Virtual Environments at a Hispanic Serving Institution. Developing a Post-Pandemic Paradigm for Virtual Technologies in Higher Education. IGI Global.
How does your work align with UTRGV’s and CEP’s strategic plans?
My work is aligned to the university’s strategic plan in the areas of student success, community engagement, and research and more specifically through several identified priorities that are included in the college’s strategic plan. My research contributions in the college more specifically emphasize priority #2, educational opportunities; priority #5 evidence-based decision making; and priority #6, community engagement.
What are your current projects?
Presently, I have several research projects. I am Co-PI of an externally funded grant from Branch Alliance for Educator Diversity, with Dr. Sandra Musanti (PI) and Dr. Pauli Badenhorst (Co-PI). This project is titled: "A Community-Engaged Pedagogy in HSI Teacher Preparation: Leveraging Voices from the Field Amidst the Global Pandemic." We are conducting research that seeks to tap into the experiences and expertise of Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) community leaders, teacher educators, district and school administrators, experienced and novice teachers, and teacher candidates in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) to inform a community-engaged pedagogy framework that will bridge school and university cultures – an initiative critical to a sustainable and equitable approach to transforming teacher preparation. I am also working with Dr. Carmen Pena and Dr. Denise Love on another project examining the impact of practice-based instruction through mixed-reality simulations. Finally, I am participating in co-institutional research and writing funded by Raise Your Hand Foundation to UT-Austin and that included subawards to several other IHE’s including UTRGV, University of Houston, Our Lady of the Lake University, Texas A&M, Southern Methodist University, and UNT-Dallas. The title of this research grant is “Preparing Teaching Candidates to Enact Transformative Teaching Practices: A Program Level Design-Development Study.”