Faculty

Patricia (Patsy) M. Cooper

Assistant Professor

Patricia (Patsy) M. Cooper

Phone: 212 992 9481
Email:

The social contexts of education—or the ‘stories children bring to school’ (Cooper, 1993)—serve as the starting point for Cooper’s teaching and research in curriculum and pedagogy.  She endeavors to uncover or explain classroom practices that do not divorce young children from their families or their culture, but integrate what young children know (and love) with what they might know, and need to know in the first years of schooling.  Her professional goal is to help classroom teachers marry the best education with the most equitable one.  Three major themes are represented in Cooper’s published works and works in progress: effective teachers of children of color, early childhood education, and early literacy (birth through grade 2, including children’s literature).  She has recently completed a book on Vivian Paley’s philosophy of early childhood education.  Cooper is a former classroom teacher, founding director of the Trinity School for Young Children, and founding director of the School Literacy and Culture Project in the Center for Education at Rice University.  She received her Ph.D. from Emory University.


Research Interests

  • Language and literacy development and education
  • Storytelling
  • Early childhood educator Vivian Paley
  • Cross-cultural teacher/student relationships
  • Teacher education
  • ChildrenÆs literature
  • Multicultural education, Literacy education, Early literacy development, Early childhood, Children's literature, Education of black children, Teacher education

Degrees Held

  • B.A. Purchase College 1976
    Literature
  • M.A. University of Chicago 1978
    English
  • M.S. Erikson Institute 1980
    Child Development
  • Ph.D. Emory University 2001
    Educational Studies: Literacy and Culture

Courses

Undergraduate

  • Language and Reading Instruction for Childhood
  • New Student Seminar

Masters and Doctoral

  • Culminating Seminar in Early Childhood Education
  • Integrating Seminar in Early Childhood Education
  • Foundations of Reading and Writing Education
  • Language and Literacy in the Primary Grades
  • Language and Literacy in the Upper Grades
  • Literacy Education I: Reading
  • Literacy Education II: Writing
  • Text, Tools, and Culture

Publications

  • Cooper, P. M., Capo, K., Mathes, B., & Grey, L. (2007). One Authentic Early Literacy Practice and Three Standardized Tests: Can a Storytelling Curriculum Measure Up?" Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education v28 (3) (5), 251-275.
  • Cooper, P. M. (2007). Racism explained to my White daughter: Necessary lessons of an education professor and former teacher. In Deily, M. E. (Ed.) Best of Commentary: Education Week. New York: Jossey-Bass, 40-44. Education Journal, v4 (4).
  • Cooper, P. M. (2006). Teaching young children self-regulation through children’s books. Early Childhood Education Journal, v4 (4).
  • Cooper, P. M. (2005). Literacy learning and pedagogical purpose in Vivian Paley’s ‘storytelling curriculum’. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, v5 (3), 229-251. Cooper, P. M. (2003). Effective White teachers of Black children: Teaching within a community. Journal of Teacher Education, v54 (5), 413-427.
  • Cooper, P. M. (2005). Racism explained to my White daughter: Necessary lessons of an education professor and former teacher. Education Week, v24 (20). 39-40.
  • Cooper, P. M. (2003). Effective White teachers of Black children: Teaching within a community. Journal of Teacher Education, v54 (5), 413-427.
  • Cooper, P. M. (2003). Effective White teachers of Black children: Teaching within a community. Journal of Teacher Education, v54 (5), 413-427.
  • Cooper, P. M. (1993). When stories come to school: Telling, writing & performing stories in the early childhood classroom. New York: Teachers and Writers Collaborative.
  • McNamee, G. D., McLane, J., Cooper, P., and Kerwin, S. (1985). Cognition and affect in early literacy development. Early Child Development and Care, v20, 229-244.

Presentations

  • Cooper, P. M. (2007, November). Stories from Houston: The uses of imagination in early literacy instruction. National Association for Education of Young Children, Chicago.
  • Cooper, P. M. (2007, May). Young children as storyteller and play maker: Vivian Paley’s ‘storytelling curriculum’. Invited address. University of North Carolina, Wilmingotn.
  • Cooper, P. M. (2007, March). The child as storyteller. Invited address. Conference on Childhood Regained. Pratt Institute, Brooklyn.
  • Cooper, P. M. & Tompkins, R. (2005, April). Teaching black children to read and write: Historical practices from the segregated south meet instructional preferences of Black teachers in present day New York City. Presentation. American Education Research
  • Cooper, P. M. (2005, April). Channeling idealism and challenging assumptions of student teachers in New York City. Presentation. American Education Research Association, Montreal.
  • Cooper, P. M. (2005, January). What’s wrong with institutionalizing fairness: Revisiting Vivian Paley’s ‘You Can’t Say You Can’t Play. Keynote. Annual Early Literacy Conference. Rice University, Houston.
  • Cooper, P. M. (2004, October). What do you expect? It’s the Bronx: Supervision, student teachers, and the habits of equitable practice. Presentation. Institute for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture, Boston.