Wendy Crocker

Part Time Lecturer

About

Dr. Wendy Crocker teaches primarily in the Dissertation in Practice (DIP), the award winning CPED doctoral program. She is the principal instructor for the required EDU 7218 Leadership for Social Justice course where she infuses her Canadian perspective into conversations of equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging. She is a member of the Innovative Teaching and Learning concentration and has recently designed and facilitated both the EDU 7315 Landscape of Teaching and Learning; and the EDU 7316 Designing Transformative Curriculum and Professional Development courses. Dr. Crocker also leads a Doctoral Seminar on Approaches to Curriculum in Early Childhood Education that was co-created with several Northeastern alumni.

As an Associate Teaching Professor in the Graduate School of Education, Dr. Crocker advises Dissertation in Practice (DIP) students whose problems of practice arise from PK-12 settings, early childhood, the military, and Higher Education - areas from which she can draw on her own experiences. 

In addition to advising students' DIP Action Research studies, Dr. Crocker supervised staged model dissertations. The work of these students draws on other methodologies including: narrative inquiry; case study; and  interpretive phenomenological methodologies. Recent successful defenses include:

Dr. Beth Adreon - I have something meaningful to say

Dr. Megan Corazza - The senior year high school experience and transition to college

Dr. Carol Hernandez - I'm not like you, I'm different

Dr. Jennifer Kusse -  Subgroups, conflict, and leadership in higher education information technology: an interpretative phenomenological analysis exploration

Dr. Parisa Mesiami - The impact of online learning on the success of nontraditional undergraduate students in low-level mathematics courses

Dr. Lesley Pratt -  Mindfulness meditation persistence motivation: a case study at a workplace program

Dr. Nancy Robbie -  A narrative inquiry study on how online adult learners experience teaching presence

Dr. Kareem Tatum - Lessons from an urban underperforming turnaround school

 

Education

PhD from University of Western Ontario (2013)

Professional Experience

Dr. Crocker's research interests stem from over 30 years in public education in Ontario, Canada where she was a teacher, a consultant, and an elementary principal. She also held system level responsibilities at the third largest school district in the province, and is a qualified Superintendent. Dr. Crocker continues to be involved with K-12 education as a consultant and advocate for non-English speaking Mennonite children in the public system. She is a member of the local and provincial Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite Community Services. Further, she serves on the Board of Directors for a non-profit childcare centre and is deeply connected to the early childhood sector.

Dr. Crocker, and her colleague Dr. Lori McKee (St Francis Xavier, Canada), collaborated on chapter entitled, "Fieldnotes as a square dance: What can be learned from a metaphor" published by Routledge text. Her articles, "Vikings, Mountaineering, and Tragedy" and "The Massacre, The Myth, and the Missing Monument: Lucan's Black Donnellys" were published by the Association of Gravestone Studies. Dr. Crocker has also contributed chapters to two additional edited books: "Professional Development in Higher Education" (Bloomsbury) and an examination of the "Schooling Contexts of Old Colony Mennonite Students" (Palgrave). Her research has also appeared in the Transnational Journal of Social Work, the Journal of Plain and Anabaptist Studies, The Ontario Principals’ Register, and the Journal of Curriculum Studies.

Last year, Dr. Crocker presented at Simmons University (Boston), Suffolk University (Boston), the New England Educational Assessment Network, and EDUCAUSE - all with Dr. Mamta Saxena, Director of Assessment at Northeastern. Additionally, she presented with Dr. Shannon Alpert at the CPS Staff Development Conference and was a 2021-2022 CATLR Teaching Fellow. 

As service, Dr. Crocker acts as a reviewer for several journals of early childhood education and literac(ies), in Canada and in the UK, and as an adjudicator for the Language and Literacy Researchers of Canada annual Master’s Thesis Award. She was appointed to the Ontario Council of Teachers to serve on the Accreditation Committee in 2022.

Professional Activities & Accomplishments

In 2019, Dr. Crocker received the Northeastern University, College of Professional Studies Excellence in Teaching Award. She was honoured with the 2016 Angela Armitt Award for Outstanding University Teaching at The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, where she was an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education.

In addition to receiving graduate teaching awards from the Faculty of Education, Dr. Crocker was named to the University Student Council Honour Roll for Teaching Excellence, and was nominated by her undergraduate students for the Teaching Award of Excellence at King’s University College, London, Ontario. In 2019, Dr. Wendy Crocker was named a Phi Delta Kappa Distinguished Educator.

Publications