Bethany studies the lived experiences of pre-kindergarten teachers as they enact early childhood education policies, with an emphasis on understanding how policy affects teachers’ work lives and job satisfaction. Her current work in Michigan, funded by the Spencer Foundation, examines how public school public pre-K teachers navigate the pre-K borderland, a context marked by competing notion of best practice. Her 2017 book, When Pre-K Comes to School: Policy, Partnerships, and the Early Childhood Education Workforce, is based on previous research that examined the complexity of implementing pre-K through school-community partnerships. Bethany also does research with pre- and in-service pre-primary teachers in Tanzania, where she has over a decade of experience teaching, developing curricula, and working with teachers. Her current work uses video-cued ethnographic methods to examine diverse stakeholders’ notions of “good quality” teaching in pre-primary classrooms. Bethany is the recipient of a 2019 NAEd/Spencer Research Development Award. Her research has been published in journals such as Teaching and Teacher Education, Educational Policy, and Teachers College Record.

Current Projects

Grants and Awards

Research Presentations