Biography
Mark Dressman is a former secondary teacher of English and social studies in urban, international, and rural (Navajo Nation) contexts. His research, teaching, and service are focused on the improvement of educational theory, research, and practice across a wide range of settings.
Research Interests
My research focuses on the improvement of educational research and practice, with a focus on language and literacy education, both domestically and internationally.
Currently, I am a Fulbright Senior Scholar working in Morocco over the next three years to improve the teaching of English in universities there and to study the informal English learning practices of university students. This project is part of a larger project to compare English language policy, practice, and outcomes in Morocco and South Korea.
I am also engaged in a project to theorize relations across print, images, and sound in multimodal texts, with the goal of improving educational websites and multimedia.
Past projects have included studies of poetry education, the use of social theory in educational research, literacy policy, and literacy in school libraries.
Courses Taught
I teach a wide variety of courses at the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels. At the undergraduate level, I teach courses in the secondary English education program, a course in content area literacy across many content areas, and a course on social media. At the masters level, I teach courses in curriculum development, social media, and literacy, and at the doctoral level I teach courses in qualitative analysis and writing.
I am equally proud of my work in program development at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and particularly of the study abroad and service learning trips I organize and lead to Spain, Morocco, and the Navajo Nation.
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor Emeritus, Curriculum and Instruction
Recent Publications
Dressman, M. (2020). Informal English Learning Among Moroccan Youth. In M. Dressman, & R. W. Sadler (Eds.), The Handbook of Informal Language Learning (pp. 303-318). Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119472384.ch20
Dressman, M. (2020). Introduction. In M. Dressman, & R. W. Sadler (Eds.), The Handbook of Informal Language Learning (pp. 1-12). Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119472384.ch0
Dressman, M. (2020). Multimodality and Language Learning. In M. Dressman, & R. W. Sadler (Eds.), The Handbook of Informal Language Learning (pp. 39-55). Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119472384.ch3
Dressman, M., & Rao, D. (2020). On savvy reading. English in Education, 54(2), 161-173. https://doi.org/10.1080/04250494.2019.1626712
Dressman, M., & Sadler, R. W. (Eds.) (2020). The Handbook of Informal Language Learning. Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119472384