March 2026: Faculty scholarship and recognitions

From groundbreaking research to professional honors, faculty representing Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation advance ideas that shape teaching and learning. The listings below, drawn from the college's regular scholarship survey, highlight recent contributions. 

Awards/recognitions

• Sarup Mathur, professor, has been recognized for her significant contributions to the field of special education with a focus on students with emotional and behavioral needs. The Outstanding Leadership Award comes from the Division for Emotional and Behavioral Health, which is one of the Council for Exceptional Children’s 18 special interest divisions. Mathur’s scholarship in the field spans more than 120 publications in areas such as professional development, violence prevention, mental health, juvenile justice, applied behavior analysis, and academic outcomes. The award also recognizes Mathur’s involvement in managing national professional organizations, educating and mentoring students and practitioners, and spearheading rigorous programs of research. 

Published research 

• Eugene Judson, professor, published an article that provides a historical analysis of six major federal STEM education policy recommendation documents. The study highlights evolving emphases on national competitiveness, access and the impact of socio-political contexts on federal STEM education goals and recommendations. 
  
  Listed as: Judson, E. (2025). A historical review of STEM education policy recommendations in the United States. Journal for STEM Education Research.
• Ishmael Miller, assistant professor, published a book chapter which weaves together real-world insights, research-based strategies, and practical tools for transforming education systems. In connection with this publication, he also participated in a community-based book talk in Phoenix.
  
  Listed as: Matschiner, A., & Miller, I. (2025). A national view of equity leadership activities. In A. M. Ishimaru & D. J. Irby (Eds.), Doing the work of equity leadership for justice and systems change (pp. 114–132). Teachers College Press.
• Matthew Odebiyi, assistant professor, has published two articles that focus on pre-service teachers. In one, he examines how pre-service teachers’ beliefs about knowledge and knowing shape their views of teaching and learning. Another article explores elementary pre-service teachers’ self-evaluated efficacy for designing inquiry-based lessons.
  
  Listed as: Odebiyi, O. M. (2025). Preservice teachers’ epistemic beliefs and their conceptions of teaching and learning. Journal of International Social Studies.
  
  Listed as: Odebiyi, O. M. (2026). Elementary Preservice Teachers’ Efficacies for Inquiry-based Lesson Design. The Elementary School Journal.
• Maria Teresa Tatto, professor, published an article that draws on comparative, futures-oriented research to examine how the professional status of teacher educators is conceptualized and shaped across European contexts. The study calls for renewed attention to professional recognition, conditions and roles within evolving teacher education systems.
  
  Listed as: Tatto, M. T. (2026). Re-imagining the professional status of teacher educators in Europe: Insights from futures-oriented comparative research. European Journal of Teacher Education. 
   
• Kathleen King Thorius, professor, published an article that analyzes how federal executive actions across United States administrations have shaped the elasticity of educational equity accountability in relation to federal civil rights law, particularly in special education. 
  
  Listed as:Thorius, K. (2025). Rights on a rubber band: Accountability elasticity, executive power, and disability civil rights. Multiple Voices: Disability, Race, and Language Intersections in Special Education, 1(1), 1–13.