Assistant Professor, English Education

Undergraduate Advisor, Single Subject Preparation for Teaching, English

Office Location: Faculty Offices Room 216
Twitter: @vashonjj

Email

Preferred: jennifer.k.johnson@sjsu.edu

Telephone

Preferred: (408) 924-4473

Office Hours

M/T 11am-12pm; M 1-3:30; T 1-3pm; & Wednesday Drop-In Hours: 1pm-3:00pm

Courses Taught

ENGL 109: Writing and the Young Writer (Fall Only)

ENED 353: Methods of Teaching English

 

Education

PhD, Columbia University

MPhil, Columbia University

MA, Media Culture Communication, New York University

BA, Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley

 

Bio

Jen Johnson is an assistant professor of English Education at San José State University where she prepares students to become teachers of powerful Englishes in secondary schools.

Her research and teaching experience is rooted in a desire to contribute to a more just and equitable global society through humanizing and innovative pedagogies that foster literacies of access and liberation in culturally and linguistically diverse settings by leveraging digital literacies, critical theory, debate, Hip-Hop culture, and participatory action research in teaching and teacher education.

Beginning her work with brilliant young scholars, leaders, and MCs at Kennedy High School in Richmond, California, she coached competitive academic high school policy debate for over 16 years during which time she also ran two Urban Debate Leagues.

She earned her PhD in English Education from Teachers College, Columbia University where she was a graduate research fellow with the Institute for Urban and Minority Education (IUME) and the founding director of the Teachers College Debate Institute at IUME, a fully subsidized academic Hip-Hop debate apprenticeship serving New York City public high school students.

While at Columbia, she was also an instructor at Teachers College where she created and taught a course on oral language and debate for MA students in the Department of Arts and Humanities. Additionally, while earning her PhD, Dr. J designed syllabi and taught literacy courses across the humanities in the School of Education at Manhattanville College in order to support preservice teachers in developing the knowledge and tools to support powerful readers, writers, speakers, thinkers, and critically engaged civic actors.