Dr. May George
FDI Scholar in Professional Studies in Education
Dr. May George is currently a post-doctoral Andrew Mellon Fellow at Davidson College in North Carolina. She holds a doctoral degree in Teaching and Teacher Education from the College of Education at the University of Arizona, and two master's degrees, one in English Linguistics and the other in Teaching and Teacher Education. She has more than 20 years of teaching experience in higher education nationally and internationally.
George's research interests center on curriculum theory design, classroom pedagogy, classroom management, and the predictability and unpredictability of tasks during the learning process. Her research in bilingual education is related to the pedagogy of acquiring a second language focusing on intentions, culture, and profession. She also examine s how the process of teaching happens in an actual classroom setting and explores the role of inference in students learning and the cognitive processes involved. She has also conducted research related to classroom tension and student behavior in relation to the novelty of task during the teaching process.
George has presented in many conferences all over the U.S. and in Paris and has published several papers related to classroom instruction, outside classroom practices, teacher scaffolding, teacher interactions and classroom interruptions, and research ethics. She is committed to working with current and prospective teachers to improve classroom practices through investigating classroom cases, and in assisting students to be inventors and to use their inference to advance their learning.
In addition to the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship, George is also the recipient of a number of grants and scholarships, including Qatar Foundation grants for K-16 workshops in Minneapolis, Smith and Mary F. and Maude Miller scholarships through the College of Education at University of Arizona, Middlebury School scholarship to study French, and a Fulbright scholarship from the U.S. States Department of Education.
She also worked at the Arizona Historical Society Museum in Tucson, where she helped to develop school curriculum.