Doctoral student named an emerging leader in special education

College of Education doctoral student and adjunct instructor Jenny Root has been recognized as an emerging researcher and leader in teaching students with disabilities. She was named the 2015 Alice Hayden Emerging Leader by TASH, an international group that advocates for people with disabilities. Each year, TASH presents the award to a doctoral student who demonstrates potential for leadership in teaching, scholarship and service on behalf of people with significant disabilities.

Root, a special education Ph.D. student and Snyder Distinguished Fellow, previously worked as a special ed teacher and autism specialist at a Brunswick County middle school, where she also chaired the Exceptional Children’s Department. In these roles, she said she tried to implement systems and training that helped her students learn, become more independent and be included in their communities. The decision to pursue a doctoral degree was motivated by a desire to touch more people through her work.

“I knew that if I truly became a ‘teacher of teachers’ I could cast a much wider net of change,” Root said.

At UNC Charlotte, her research has focused on providing general curriculum access to students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and moderate or severe intellectual disabilities using technology and systematic instruction.

In collaboration with special education professor Diane Browder, Root investigated teaching students with ASD to better understand what they read using visual aids on a digital tablet. The results of this study will be published in the journal Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities. Building on the themes explored in that study, in her second year Root led a team developing a tablet app to help children with development disabilities solve math problems. She has presented her research at multiple national and international conferences.

The research has shown that students with ASD and moderate intellectual disabilities can master complex academic skills when provided the right resources, Root contended, adding, “I have been privileged to work with a research team who feel as passionately as I do that the goal of teaching is to move students toward independence and fluency within authentic applications.”

The Alice Hayden Emerging Leader Award, established in 1978, honors its namesake, one of the founding members of TASH. Hayden was the founder and director of the Model Pre-School Center for Handicapped Children of the University of Washington Child Development and Mental Retardation, Center Experimental Education Unit.