Dana Mitra

Dana Mitra

Associate Professor of Education

Educational Theory & Policy
300 Rackley Building
University Park, PA 16802
Email: dmitra@psu.edu
Phone: 814-863-7020
Fax: 814-865-1480

Introduction

Dana Mitra is Associate Professor of Education in the Educational Theory and Policy program. Dana is Director of the Willower Center for Ethics and Leadership at Penn State and a Senior Associate Editor for the American Journal of Education. She served as a Fulbright-Nehru scholar to Bangalore India in 2012. Originally from Pittsburgh, she received her Ph.D. in Policy Analysis from Stanford University's School of Education. Prior to attending graduate school, she worked as an elementary school teacher in the Washington, DC area.

Areas of Expertise

• Educational Policy
• School Reform
• Student Voice
• Youth Development
• Civic Engagement
• High Schools
• School-Community Collaboration
• Qualitative Methods

Publications (Full CV available here)

• Mitra, D., Serriere, S., & Kirshner, B. (Forthcoming). Youth participation in U.S. contexts: Student voice without a national mandate. Childhood & Society.

• Serriere, S., McGarry, L., Fuentes, D., & Mitra, D.  (Forthcoming). The Thinking that Service-Learning Ignites. Social Studies and the Learner.
• Mitra, D. L. & Halabi, S. (Forthcoming, 2012). Paradoxes in policy practice: Signaling post-secondary pathways in the Rust Belt. Teachers College Record.
• Mitra, D.L. (Forthcoming). Increasing student voice in school reform: Building partnerships, improving outcomes. In Kelly, B. and Perkins, D. (Eds), Handbook of Implementation Science for Psychology in Education. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Mitra, D.L.  & Kirshner, B. (Forthcoming, 2012).  Insiders versus outsiders—Examining variability in student voice initiatives and their consequences for school change. In B. McMahon & J. Portelli (Ed.), Student engagement in urban schools: Beyond neoliberal discourses. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
• Mitra, D., & Serriere, S. (2012). Student voice in elementary-school reform: Examining youth development in fifth graders. American Educational Research Journal, 49, 743-774, doi:10.3102/0002831212443079
• Mitra, D., Serriere, S, & Stoicovy, D. (2012). The role of leaders in enabling student voice. Management in Education, 26, 3, 104-112.
• Serriere, S. & Mitra, D.  (2012). Student voice and youth development. In C. Day (Ed), Handbook on Teacher and School Development. New York: Sage.
• Serriere, S. C., Mitra, D. L., & Reed, K. (2011). Student Voice in the elementary years: Fostering youth-adult partnerships in elementary service-learning. Theory and Research in Social Education, 39, 4, 541-575.
• Mitra, D. L. & Frick, W.F. (2011).Civic capacity in educational reform efforts: Finding agency in a time of globalization. Educational Policy, 25, 5, 810-843.
• Mitra, D.L., Frick W. C., & Crawford, E. (2011). The ethical dimensions of student voice activities in the United States. In G. Czerniawski & W. Kidd (Eds.) The Student Voice Handbook: Bridging the Academic/Practitioner Divide (pp. 369- 380). London: Emerald.
• Serriere, S. & Mitra, D.  (2011). Student voice and youth development. In C. Day (Ed), Handbook on Teacher and School Development (pp. 223-232). New York: Sage.
• Eckert, S & Mitra, D.L. (2011). Policy. Oxford Biographies Online. New York: Oxford Press, http://aboutobo.com/education.
• Mitra, D.L. (2011). Student participation. Oxford Biographies Online. New York: Oxford Press, http://aboutobo.com/education.

• Serriere, S.C., Mitra, D. L. & Cody, J. (2010). Youth citizens taking action: Better school lunches, and more. Social Studies and the Learner, November.
• Mitra, D. L., Sanders, F. S., and Perkins, D. F. (2010) Providing spark and stability: The role of intermediary organizations in establishing school-based youth-adult partnerships. Applied Developmental Science.
• Mitra, D. L. and Gross, S. J. (2009). Increasing student voice in high school reform: Building partnerships, improving outcomes. Educational Management, Administration, and Leadership, 37 (4). 452-473.
• Mitra, D. L. (2009). Collaborating with students: Building youth-adult partnerships in schools. American Journal of Education, 15 (3), 407-436.
• Mitra, D. L. (2009). Student voice and student roles in education policy and policy reform. In D. N. Plank, G. Sykes & B. Schneider (Eds.), AERA Handbook on Education Policy Research (pp. 819-830). London: Routledge.
• Mitra, D. L. (2009). Strengthening student voice initiatives in high schools: An examination of the supports needed for school-based youth-adult partnerships. Youth and Society (40). 3, 311-335.
• Mitra, D. L. (2009). The role of intermediary organizations in sustaining student voice initiatives. Teachers College Record (111), 7, 1834-1868.
• Syvertsen, A. K., Stout, M. D., Flanagan, C. A. with Mitra, D. L., Oliver, M. B., Sundar, S. S. (2009). Using elections as teachable moments: A randomized evaluation of the Student Voices civic education program. American Journal of Education, 116 (1), 33-66.
• Mitra, D. L. (2008). Student voice in school reform: Building youth-adult partnerships that stengthen schools and empower youth. Albany, NY, State University of New York Press.
• Mitra, D. L., Frick, W. C., Movit, Marcela A. (2008). Brain Drain in the Rust Belt: Can educational reform help to build civic capacity in struggling communities? Educational Policy, 22 731-757.
• Mitra, D. L. (2008) Balancing power in communities of practice: An examination of increasing student voice through school-based youth-adult partnerships. Journal of Educational Change, 9, (3), 221-324.
• Sanders, F. Movit, M., Mitra, D., & Perkins, D. F. (2007). Examining ways in which youth conferences can spell out gains in positive youth development. LEARNing Landscapes, 1(1), 49-78.
• Mitra, D. L. (2007). The role of administrators in enabling youth-adult partnerships in schools. NASSP Bulletin, 91(3), 237-256.
• Mitra, D. L. (2007). Student voice in school reform: From listening to leadership. In D. Thiessen & A. Cook-Sather (Eds.), International Handbook of Student Experience in Elementary and Secondary School. (pp. 727-744). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
• Mitra, D. L. (2006). Student voice or empowerment? Examining the role of school-based youth-adult partnerships as an avenue toward focusing on social justice. International Electronic Journal for Leadership in Learning. 10(22), http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~iejll/.
• Mitra, D. L. (2006). Youth as a bridge between home and school: Comparing student voice and parent involvements as strategies for change. Education and Urban Society, 38(4), 455-480.
• Mitra, D. L. (2006). Educational change on the inside and outside: The positioning of challengers. International Journal of Leadership Education, 9(4), 315-328.
• Mitra, D. L. (2005). Adults advising youth: Leading while getting out of the way. Educational Administration Quarterly, 41(3), 520-553.
• Mitra, D. L. (2004). The significance of students: Can increasing "student voice" in schools lead to gains in youth development. Teachers College Record, 106(4), 651-688.
• Mitra, D. (2003). Student voice in school reform: Reframing student-teacher relationships. McGill Journal of Education, 38(2), 289-304.
• McLaughlin, M., & D. L. Mitra. (2001). Theory-based change and change-based theory: Going deeper, going broader. Journal of Educational Change, 3(1), 301-323.

Professional Experience & Activities

• Research Assistant for Center for Research on the Context of Teaching, Stanford, CA, 1997-2002; member of collaborative team that conducted a five-year evaluation of the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative, and member of Theory-based Reform and Problems of Change Project exploring teacher learning, scale and sustainability in four theory-based reforms.
• Elementary school teacher, St. Patrick's Episcopal Day School, Washington, DC, 1996-1997
• Assistant teacher, Norwood School, Bethesda, MD, 1995-1996
• Researcher for Amitai Etzioni, The George Washington University, 1994-1996, including two White House Conferences on Character Education and serving as Managing for the quarterly scholarly journal, The Responsive Community
• Director of "Her House" Project, DC Habitat for Humanity, Washington, DC, 1994-1996

Education

• Ph.D. in Administration and Policy Analysis from Stanford University.
• M.A. in Sociology from Stanford University.
• A.B. in Educational Studies/Public Policy and American Institutions from Brown University.