Stephanie Casey, an accomplished professor of mathematics education at Eastern Michigan University, has received the Fulbright Scholarship to further her research and studies.
The Fulbright Program’s site refers to the Fulbright Scholarship program as the "United States government flagship program of international educational and cultural exchange, offering passionate and accomplished students and scholars in more than 160 countries the opportunity to study, teach, conduct research, exchange ideas, and contribute to mutual understanding.”
The Fulbright Program for academics and professionals enables US scholars to go abroad, as well as visiting scholars to come to the United States. Providing the opportunity for faculty members and professors to conduct research, lecture, and consult and collaborate with other scholars and institutions abroad allows scholars of all backgrounds to inspire, innovate, and contribute to finding solutions to challenges facing our communities and world.
Casey will be conducting a research project, “Secondary Students’ Interpretations of Modern Big Data Visualizations,” in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Canberra.
“I plan to utilize the results of the study to improve data literacy education worldwide, particularly through translating the findings into teacher education curriculum materials,” Casey said.
Discussing the focus in her research on preparing secondary teachers to teach data literacy and statistics, “I have worked to improve data literacy my entire career.”
Casey’s passion for education was sparked during her time as an undergrad at the University of Kansas during her work on a math teacher professional development project focused on data analysis and statistics. From there, she explained her interest in data literacy began to grow.
“I’m one of those people that always loved math," Casey said. “I’ve always known I wanted to be a mathematics education professor.”
As the prevalence and importance of data increased across numerous sectors of modern society, during her initial career, her passion to improve data literacy intensified.
To gain valuable teaching experience and hone her skills as an educator, Casey taught high school mathematics for 14 years in the midst of earning her doctorate in mathematics education at Illinois State University. Taking notice of math teachers’ hesitance and lack of confidence regarding teaching data literacy over the years, she decided to focus her doctorate studies on teacher preparation for teaching statistics.
Since then, she says, “My career as a professor has centered on researching how students think about data visualizations and translating these findings into math teacher education curriculum materials.”
Casey began her career as a professor in 2011, teaching a variety of courses in the Department of Mathematics here at Eastern Michigan University. She will carry out her research at the University of Canberra from February through May 2025 in collaboration with colleagues from the STEM education center in Canberra, Australia.
“This propose award will follow in this trajectory,” Casey explains, emphasizing the focus of her research studies to learn about how students think of modern data visualizations. “I plan to utilize the products of this study to improve data literacy education worldwide and create teacher education materials that develop STEM teachers’ abilities to teach data literacy.”
