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 anastasia
p. samaras is Professor of Education in the College
of Education and Human Development at George Mason University, Virginia,
USA. She joined Mason in 2002. She is a pedagogical scholar in self-study research,
a prominent research methodology for teachers and other practitioners, and is
co-editor/author of seven books including Teaching, Learning, and
Enacting of Self-Study Methodology (2018), Polyvocal Professional
Learning through Self-Study Research (2015), Self-Study
Teacher Research (2011), and Learning
Communities In Practice (2008). Professor Samaras is recipient of the
Dissertation Research Award, University of Virginia and The Outstanding Scholar
Alumni Award, University of Maryland (2009). She was an invited Self-Study
Scholar in 2008 and 2009 in Europe and Australia. In 2011-2012 she was a
Fulbright Scholar. In 2013-2015, she served as chair of The Self-Study
of Teacher Education Practices. Her grant work has included serving as
Co-PI of two National Science Foundation (NSF) funded grants: Student-directed
Differentiated Learning in College-level Engineering Education and Designing
teaching: Scaling
up the SIMPLE Design Framework for Interactive Teaching Development and also
Co-PI on the U.S.-Pakistan collaboration
for faculty excellence in teaching and research. International
grant, U.S. Department of State, Academic Linkages and Education Programs, U.S.
Mission to Pakistan.
Anastasia’s research centers on designing and
studying neo-Vygotskian-based applications in curriculum design and transdisciplinary
self-study of professional practice, including her own. A
decade of research has included designing, co-facilitating, and researching
transdisciplinary polyvocal professional learning communities and with a focus
on collective creative activity. In
collaboration with Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan, they have conceptualized a
transdisciplinary, transnational, and transcultural network with reciprocal
learning as polyvocal professional learning and with design elements for facilitation. A frequent keynote speaker both in
the U.S. and globally and a collaborator on multiple faculty professional
development projects and grants, Anastasia seeks to make self-study accessible
to teachers and faculty inside and outside the teaching profession. Her
leadership has included co-facilitating five transdisciplinary faculty Self-Study of Professional Practice learning
communities including a virtual transdisciplinary learning community to
support adjunct faculty teaching. She also co-facilitates a new faculty group
annually in the College.
A former school teacher, Anastasia served as an academic program
coordinator, and director of teacher education programs at both The Catholic
University of America (1992-2002) and at George Mason University. Anastasia is
an academic who brings a repertoire of practical applications grounded in
sociocultural theory into her teaching and research experiences. In her
30 years in academia, 20 of those years have been in leadership positions
working to support faculty and programs to be vibrant and viable including Division
Director of the Elementary, Literacy, and Secondary Education Programs (2016-2018).
Her experiences as teacher and parent shaped her advanced studies at the
University of Maryland where she earned a Masters from the Institute of Child
Study and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with specializations in Early
Childhood and Teacher Education.
anastasia pantelides samaras,
ph.d.
Email: asamaras@gmu.edu
Web Page: http://mason.gmu.edu/~asamaras/
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