Rate My Professor Kitty Crawford

Kathleen “Kitty” Crawford, Ed.D., serves as Associate Professor of Elementary Literacy in the Department of Elementary and Special Education within Georgia Southern University’s College of Education. A Triple Eagle alumna, she earned a B.S.Ed. in Elementary Education in 1997, an M.Ed. in Elementary Education in 1998, and an Ed.D. in Curriculum Studies with a concentration in Teaching and Learning in 2016, all from Georgia Southern University. Crawford began her career teaching fourth and fifth grade English language arts for five years and serving as a K-5 literacy coach for two years in Jacksonville, Florida. In 2005, she joined Georgia Southern as a Clinical Instructor in Elementary Education, advancing to her current faculty role. She supervises student teachers in K-5 settings and teaches elementary literacy courses at undergraduate and graduate levels.

Her academic interests center on elementary literacy and emotions in teaching and learning. Crawford’s Ed.D. dissertation, "Developing the Whole Teacher: A Phenomenological Case Study of Student Teachers' Emotional Experiences in One Teacher Education Program" (2016), examined how one early childhood education program prepares pre-service teachers for emotional challenges, recommending emotionally anticipatory and responsive pedagogy to develop the whole teacher. Key publications include "Emotional Dimensions of Teaching in Elementary Education Preparation" (2021, The Qualitative Report), "School Leadership Support: Understanding the Experiences of Elementary-Level Teachers during a Global Health Pandemic" (2022, School Leadership Review), "Shifting Beliefs About the Teaching of Reading: Teacher Candidates’ Responses to The Book Whisperer" (2022, Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts), "Peer Coaching in Preservice Teacher Education: Different Approaches and Different Effects" (2016, Teacher Education and Practice), "Out with the Old, In with the New: Digital Interactive Journals in an Elementary Language Arts Methods Course" (2023, Georgia Journal of Literacy), and "Building Classroom Community in Elementary Literacy Methods Courses" (2023, Georgia Journal of Literacy). She is an elected Voting Member on the Faculty Senate Academic Standards Committee, term ending 2026.