COE Faculty Profile

Lisa M. Dorner, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Division of Educational Psychology, Research and Evaluation

Email: dornerl@umsl.edu Office: 467 Marillac Hall Phone: 314.516.6437

Education

Lisa Dorner received her Ph.D. in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University in 2006. She also has an M.A. in Human Development and Social Policy, M.A. in English, and B.A. in English, with a Spanish minor.

Research

Broadly, Lisa's work explores the intersections between educational policy and human lives. She has a special interest in immigrant families, language development, and the processes and effects of educational policy implementation. Currently, she is analyzing citizenship development, education, and opportunities in two different projects.

Purposeful Work: Civic Development from the Perspective of Adolescent Language Brokers

Many young children of immigrants act as culture and language brokers, as they help their parents translate and interpret information. Throughout adolescence, brokers may extend this work into their communities. This project examines such processes, especially how elder adolescent brokers perceive the development of "civic purpose" (helping actions that have consequences for oneself and one's community). Data includes follow-up interviews with 12 adolescent children of Latino/a immigrants in the Chicago area, and a year-long project with a sub-set of participants, who will analyze their experiences in blogs and video. This work is supported by an award from the Stanford Center on Adolescence.

Making -- and Making Sense of -- a Parent Involvement Policy

Recognizing that parents play a critical role in the academic achievement of their children, federal legislation requires that all schools receiving funds under the No Child Left Behind act must implement parent involvement (PI) policies. PI policies are designed to encourage family involvement with children's schooling, from how to help with homework to making policy decisions at school. The objectives of this project are to examine (1) the design of a parent involvement policy and (2) how families make sense of it and its implementation over time. The project will use a case study approach and analyze the development of a new language immersion school in a Midwestern city. A key question in this project will be whether and how school policies facilitate families' civic engagement and political advocacy, especially for low-income and new immigrant groups. This work is supported in part by the University of Missouri Research Board.

In her work, Lisa uses both qualitative and quantitative methods. Theoretically, she draws from a range of disciplines that attend to issues of human development across the life-span, especially perspectives that consider how social interaction and cultural practices shape learning. As a former English-as-a-Second-Language teacher, she strives to consider how her research findings can improve educational opportunities, the implementation of policies, and the integration of new immigrants into U.S. society.

Teaching

At UMSL, Lisa teaches courses in child and adolescent development, life-span theories of development, and qualitative research methods. She also offers a graduate-level seminar focused on immigrants, language education, and the cultural nature of human development.

Service

Among other committees at UMSL, Lisa is currently an Editorial Associate for the journal Theory and Society. She also helps to plan and execute two UM conferences: Cambio de Colores and Qualitative Research Conference.

Representative Publications

• Lisa Dorner. (Forthcoming.) Contested communities in a debate over dual language education: The import of 'public' values on public policies. Educational Policy.
• Lisa Dorner. (Forthcoming.) English and Spanish "para un futuro" or just English? Immigrant family perspectives on two-way immersion. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.
• Lisa Dorner. (Forthcoming.) Immigrants families learn about two-way immersion. In T. Fortune, D. Christian, and D. Tedick (eds.). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
• Lisa Dorner, Emily Hager, & Maria Meza Peate. (Nov/Dec 2009.) Citizenship education in elementary schools serving new immigrants: The power of diversity, community, and students. Social Studies and the Young Learner.
• Lisa Dorner, Marjorie Faulstich Orellana, & Rosa Jimenez. (2008.) "It's one of those things that you do to help the family:" Language brokering and the development of immigrant adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research, 23(5), 515-543.
• Lisa Dorner, Marjorie Faulstich Orellana, & Christine P. Li-Grining. (2007). "I helped my mom" and it helped me: Translating the skills of language brokers into improved standardized test scores. American Journal of Education, 113 (3), 451-478.
• Marjorie Faulstich Orellana, Lisa Dorner, & Lucila Pulido. (2003). Accessing assets: Immigrant youth's work as family translators or "para-phrasers." Social Problems, 50(4), 505-524.

Selected Presentations

• Lisa Dorner, June Reineke, & Anne Karch. PreK-3rd education and family 'capital:' A comprehensive approach to evaluating parent engagement programs. Paper presented at the Mid-western Educational Research Association, St. Louis, MO (October 15, 2009).
• Lisa Dorner. Purposeful work? Language brokering and the development of immigrant adolescents. Invited presentation at the Annual Meetings of the Social Science Education Consortium, Boulder, CO (June 28, 2009).
• Lisa Dorner, et al. Teaching about current immigration issues: Information and insights to focus and enrich instruction. Invited Vital Issues Session presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Council for the Social Studies, Houston, TX (November 15, 2008).
• Lisa Dorner, James P. Spillane, Amber Pareja, & Jason Huff. Using mixed methods to study change in principals' expertise. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association, New York, NY (March 27, 2008).

• English Language Learners
• Life-Span Development
• Moral and Character Education
• Politics
• Social Context