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Dr. Esther Prins

Professor of Education (LLAED)

305B Keller Building
University Park, PA 16802

Department(s)

  • Learning and Performance Systems

Program(s)

  • Lifelong Learning and Adult Education

Center(s)

  • Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy (ISAL)
  • Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy

Biography

Dr. Prins holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural, Extension, and Adult Education from Cornell. Her research employs critical and sociocultural theories to examine literacies (adult, family, digital, health), adult basic education, rural adult education, and participatory approaches to education, community development, and research. In particular, her scholarship explores the "wider benefits" of adult education and how adult education reproduces and/or mitigates inequities rooted in race/ethnicity, class, gender, and immigration status. Her primary areas of focus are community-based programs in adult and family literacy, including adult English as a Second Language (ESOL).

 

Dr. Prins is the co-author of Teaching and Learning about Family Literacy and Family Literacy Programs (Routledge, 2022). She is currently co-editing a book on family literacy in non-Anglophone, low- or middle-income countries: Family and Intergenerational Literacy and Learning: International Perspectives (UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, in press).

 

Drawing on her religious upbringing and commitment to education for democracy, Dr. Prins has recently collaborated with other scholars to explore the influence of White Christian nationalism in public education, local school board races, adult education, and literacy studies. This work has been published in Educational Researcher, Reading Research Quarterly (in press), and Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies (in press). Dr. Prins and Dr. Davin Carr-Chellman are co-editing a special issue of New Directions in Adult and Continuing Education on White Christian nationalism and adult education (expected publication in 2025). She has made numerous presentations on White Christian nationalism to churches and other community groups.

 

Her research has been published in numerous journals across disciplines, including:

  • Education (e.g., American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, Teachers College Record),
  • Adult education and literacy studies (e.g., Adult Education Quarterly, International Journal of Lifelong Education, Studies in the Education of Adults, Reading Research Quarterly),
  • Comparative and International Education (e.g., Comparative Education Review, International Journal of Educational Development),
  • Distance Education (American Journal of Distance Education),
  • Prison Education (Journal of Prison Education and Reentry),
  • Other education fields (e.g., Learning, Media, and Technology; Journal of Moral Education)
  • Sociology, Community Development, and Planning (e.g., Rural Sociology, Journal of the Community Development Society, Journal of Planning Education and Research),
  • Ethnic Studies (Journal of Latinos and Education),
  • Health (PLOS One), and
  • Methodology (Action Research, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education)

 

Dr. Prins has led or participated in research and evaluation projects funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Institution, Spencer Foundation, Center for Rural Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, and William Penn Foundation, among others.

 

In addition to her role as a professor, Dr. Prins is Co-Director of the Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy and the Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy.

 

Selected honors and awards:

  • Graduate Faculty Teaching Award, Pennsylvania State University (2019)
  • Mildred B. and Charles A. Wedemeyer Award for Outstanding Scholar in Distance Education (with C. Kassab, B. Drayton, and R. Gungor; 2013)
  • Outstanding Researcher Award, College of Education, Pennsylvania State University (2011)
  • Imogene Okes Award for Outstanding Research, American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (with K. Schafft; 2010)
  • Outstanding Paper by an Early Career Scholar Award, Adult Literacy and Adult Education SIG, American Educational Research Association (2007)

Areas of Expertise

Age Levels

Adult

Learning

Equity and Diversity

Education Levels

Adult Education
Post-Secondary

Education Types

Continuing Ed
Family Literacy
Immigrant Ed
Minority Ed
Rural Education

Educational Studies

Critical & Feminist Theory
Policy

Higher Education

Community Engagement

Individual Difference

Gender
Health Issues
Identity
Learning Processes

Methodological Research

Discourse Analysis
Interpretive Research
Multiple Methods
Qualitative Research

Social Issues

Civic Engagement
Comparative and International Education
Race and Ethnicity