COE Faculty Profile

Alina Slapac, Ed.D.

Assistant Professor

Division of Teaching and learning

Email: slapaca@umsl.edu
Office: 367 Marrillac Hall
Phone: 314-516-7358

Education and Experience
Dr. Alina Slapac received her Bachelor of Arts in Romanian and English as a Second Language from Ovidius University, Constanta, Romania, in 1997. She taught English as a Second Language, American and British Literature and Language, English methods courses at all P-12 grade levels between 1993- 2001. She also prepared high school students for Cambridge exams. She earned her MA degree in British Cultural Studies from the University of Foreign Languages, Bucharest, Romania, in 1998 and her doctorate from the University of Northern Iowa (UNI), Cedar Falls, IA, in 2006 with a major in Curriculum and Instruction. She is a member of American Research Association (AERA), the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) and the Literacy for Social Justice Teacher Research Group (LSJTRG).

Teaching and Research
As an Assistant Professor in Romania, Dr. Slapac also taught English as a Second Language at Andrei Saguna University, in Constanta (Romania). Before joining UMSL, she taught Educational Foundations in Multicultural Society and Educational Psychology at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville (SIUE). Dr. Slapac is currently part of the team for Internship course, and also part of the S.T.E.P Teacher Inservice Program. She also enjoys teaching Classroom Management with a focus on culturally and linguistically responsive classrooms, and on creating instructional adaptations to meet the individual needs of all learners. Her teaching philosophy is of reflective development towards professionalism through student-centered, constructivist learning with emphasis on social justice, multicultural education, community, and excellence in teaching and learning. Her scholarship has focused on ways to address diversity in teacher education programs through differentiated instruction, and English language learners.

• Action Research
• Active Learning
• Classroom Management
• Constructivism
• Critical Theory
• Critical Thinking
• Cross-Cultural Studies
• Differentiated Instruction
• Discourse Analysis
• Educational Reform
• English Language Learners
• International Education/Studies
• Literacy
• Literature
• Multicultural Education
• Qualitative Research
• Social Context
• Social Justice
• Teacher Education/Development
• Urban Education