Description of Research Expertise

Areas of Expertise
Secondary education
English education
Ethnographic research
Film and video ethnography and production
Global health education
International education

Professional Biography
Originally from the deep South, Dr. Smith came to Philadelphia in 1996 and never left. In addition to two years’ full-time high school teaching experiences, he has taught courses at Penn GSE (and several other local universities) for 15 years. Along the way he has published pieces regarding curriculum, race, diversity, and nationalism in public schools.

After completing his doctorate and teaching tenth- and twelfth-grade English, Dr. Smith served as the Dean of Ware College House on Penn’s campus for six and a half years. He has also worked intensively with Mayan populations in Guatemala, one of several faculty who coordinate Penn’s Guatemala Health Initiative. He has also been instructing teacher education courses for over ten years at GSE.

Research Interests and Current Projects
Dr. Smith is currently investigating teacher education and teacher growth—in particular the question of how accreditation and teacher education programs enhance teacher performance and, ultimately, student learning. A second major field of interest is global health   with specific attention to the ways in which community-produced multimedia materials aid health education efforts. Lastly, Dr. Smith is focused on understanding the integration of video into ethnographic research, data collection, and analysis.