LePage, Pamela Associate Professor Special Education	Office: Phone: Email: Homepage:	BH 202 415 -338-3428 plepage@sfsu.edu N/A

Educational Background

Ph.D. Special Education University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University

MA. Educational Technology San Diego State University

BA. Liberal Studies San Diego State University

Pamela LePage is an Associate Professor of Special Education. She has worked as the Mild to Moderate Coordinator in SPED and the Director of the Combined Credential Program. Before coming to San Francisco State, Dr. LePage worked at Stanford University as the Director for the Committee on Teacher Education. In collaboration with the Committee Chairs Linda Darling-Hammond and John Bransford, she worked with experts from across the country to understand what teachers need to know to be able to teach effectively. Before working at Stanford, Dr. LePage taught at George Mason University in Virginia where she helped to develop an innovative, interdisciplinary master’s program for practicing teachers, founded by Hugh Sockett, called the Initiatives in Educational Transformation (IET). This program recruits students in general and special education in teams from schools and has as a goal to reform/transform schools and districts.

Recent Grants

Recently Dr. LePage was awarded a grant from the Department of Education (OSEP) to improve the Mild to Moderate Special Education Program (with Sue Courey and Kaz Okada). Earlier she was awarded a grant to develop the combined program between ELED and SPED (with Ali Borjian). She is also the Co-PI on an OSEP grant to develop the Autism Specialization Program in the Mild to Moderate Program area.

Research Interests

Dr. LePage’s research interests focus on teacher’s learning and development and the development of moral communities in teacher education. She is especially interested in habits of mind and how teachers develop the ability to make moral decisions based on evidence. She is interested in teacher quality. She is also interested in older children with high functioning autism and Aspergers, especially on how identity development affects their social development. She is interested in how children with disabilities are included in general education and how children from disadvantaged backgrounds succeed. She is interested in social justice and how people put social justice into practice in their own lives on a daily basis.

Community Projects

Pamela LePage has been working with Sue Courey and other staff, students and faculty from SFSU as well as other parents and professionals in the community, to develop a new community-based center that serves children with autism and their friends and families. The program is called Autism Social Connection and provides social programs for children with autism. The Center brings children with autism and their typically developing peers to work and play together in social groups/classes (video, theater, and art) where they socialize, have fun, and learn new skills. The goal is to promote inclusion, not only by helping teach children on the autism spectrum how to interact with others, but to also teach children without disabilities to appreciate and accept difference. At this time, Dr. LePage is serving as Executive Director of the Center.

Books Published

Darling-Hammond, L., Bransford, J., with LePage, P., Hammerness, K. & Duffy, H., (Eds.) (2005). Preparing Teachers for A Changing World: What teachers should learn and be able to do. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

LePage, P. & Sockett, H. (2002). Educational Controversies: Towards a discourse of reconciliation. London: Routledge. Review available from Marianne Nikolov -- Pedagogy, Culture and Society, (v11) 2003.

Sockett, H., DeMulder, E., LePage, P., & Wood, D. (Eds.). (2001). Transforming Teacher Education: Lessons in Professional Development. Westport CT: Bergin and Garvey. (Review available from– Michael Kompf -- Teaching Education Journal, 14(2) August 2003)

LePage, P. (1997). From Disadvantaged Girls to Successful Women: Education and Women's Resiliency. Westport CT: Praeger Press. (Won the AERA Women Educators Research award). Reviews available from Lena Ampadu --National Women Studies Association Journal v11 i2, and Laurel Parrot -- AERA-Educational Review EDREV.