Faculty

Teaching/professional interests

Associate Professor Michele Acker-Hocevar is the co-lead for the WSU Tri-Cities education unit overseeing graduate programs in the departments of Educational Leadership, Sports Studies, and Educational/Counseling Psychology and Teaching and Learning. She teaches courses in leadership, organizational theory, and behavior such as Leadership Studies for Social Justice, Instructional and Curricular Leadership, Values and Ethics in Educational Leadership, School Organization and Administration, and Human Behavior. She also teaches research courses in Qualitative Research Methods and chairs a number of dissertations. In the past she was an elementary school administrator in a large urban school district.

Research interests

Organizational culture, organizational power, and organizational structure in relation to systemic change, social justice, decision making, and leadership behavior and organization theory comprise the corpus of her research interests and work. She has been particularly interested in high poverty and English Language Learner demographics in studying schools. An in-progress project with colleagues includes two co-edited companion books on Quandaries of School Leadership Based on Voices from the Field: Superintendents; Quandaries of  School Leadership Based on Voices from the Field: Principals.

Recent accomplishments

Books:

• Acker-Hocevar, M., Ballenger, J., Place, W., & Ivory, G. (Eds.) (2012). Snapshots of school leadership in the 21^st century:  Perils and promises of leading for social justice, school improvement, and democratic community (The UCEA Voices from the Field Project). UCEA sponsored publication. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishers.
• Snyder, K. J., Acker-Hocevar, M. & Snyder, K. M. (2012). Living on the edge of chaos: Leading schools into the global age. Ximnin Sang and Shuhua Sang (Trans.) Beijing, China: Educational Science Publishing House.
• Acker-Hocevar, M., Cruz-Janzen, M.I., & Wilson, C.L. (2012). Leadership from the ground up: Sustainable school improvement in traditionally low performing schools. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishers.

Chapter:

• Acker-Hocevar, M., & Touchton, D.  (2011). A model of power as social relationships: Teacher leaders describe the phenomena of effective agency in practice. In Eleanor Blair Hilty (Ed.), Teacher leadership: The “new” foundations of education (pp. 239-264). New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishers.

Co-Editor:

• Co-Editor of the Journal of Research on Leadership Education with Gail Furman, one of three of the premier journals sponsored by UCEA and published by Sage Publishers, 2011-2015.

Educational background

• Ph.D. Interdisciplinary, Organizational Studies Emphasis, Specialization in Educational Leadership, University of South Florida, 1994
• M.Ed. Admin., University of Idaho, 1982
• B.A. Psychology, University of North Carolina-Asheville, NC, 1974