Colleen A. Capper

Education

Ed.D. (General Administrative Leadership) Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.

M.Ed. (Special Education: Students with Visual impairments and Severe Disabilities) Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.

B.S. (Special Education, with Distinction) Indiana University, Bloomington

Research and Scholarly Interests

After completing my undergraduate work in special education at Indiana University, Bloomington, I spent five years as a United Methodist missionary in the Appalachian Mountain region of southeastern, Kentucky where I served as a teacher and administrator of special programs.

My research and publishing over nearly fifteen years here at UW-Madison have focused on the intersection of school leadership and issues of equity and diversity. I am currently involved in three related lines of inquiry. One, I am researching leadership for social justice, the results of which will be published in a forthcoming book with Michelle Young. Two, I am examining how gay/lesbian school leaders manage their identities and the ways they maintain and disrupt heteronormativity in their schools. In addition, I continue to explore the role that spirituality plays in the lives of leaders who lead for justice.

Though all three lines of inquiry are guided by critically oriented and postmodern conceptual frameworks and methodologies (e.g., critical race theories, feminist poststructural theories, queer theories, and Foucault's ideas of disciplinary and reproductive power), I continue to be curious about how individuals with differing epistemological orientations can live and work together. Hence, I am finishing an article that explores multiple epistemologies, particularly how Laible's epistemology of love can inform my work.

I teach the following courses: Student Services and Diversity in Elementary/Secondary Education, Leadership for Inclusive Schooling, Organizational Theory, and Spirituality in Leadership.

Selected Publications

DRAFT: "Epistemological Pluralism and Laible's Epistemology of Love: What is the Connection?" by Colleen A. Capper. (71 k) [Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association; April, 2001; Seattle, Washington]

Capper, Colleen, Frattura, Elise, and Keyes, Maureen W. (2000). Meeting the Needs of Students of All Abilities: How Leaders Go Beyond Inclusion. Newbury Park, CA: Corwin Press. www.corwinpress.com

Capper, Colleen A. (2000). Life lessons and a loving epistemology: A response to Julie Laible's loving epistemology. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 13 (6), 693-698. http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

Capper, C. A., Keyes, M. W., & Hafner, M. M. (in press). The role of community in spiritually centered leadership for justice. In Gail Furman (Ed.). School as community: From promise to practice. NY: State University of New York Press. (I will have this document placed on the web site if people want to click on it and read it, so contact me.)

Capper, C. A., Keyes, M. W., & Theoharis, G. T. (2000). Spirituality in leadership: Implications for inclusive schooling. In J. Thousand and R. Villa (Eds.). Restructuring for caring and effective education: Piecing the puzzle together (513-530). Baltimore: Brookes.

Capper, C. A., Hafner, M. M., & Keyes, M. W. (in press). Multiple perspectives of accountability. Journal of School Leadership.

Capper, C. A. (1999). (Homo)sexualities, organizations, and administration: Possibilities for In(queer)y. Educational Researcher, 28(5), 4-11.

Personal Interests

I am an avid runner (completed 24 marathons), and in the past year (2002-2003) have overcome a major swim phobia and competed in 6 triathlons at the sprint, Olympic, and half Ironman distances. I am a lover of nature and all creatures great and small, and enjoy backyard native plant restoration, kayaking, hiking, biking, camping, cross-country skiing, and backpacking. Spiritually, I have practiced Vipassana (mindfulness) meditation and am an Oblate of the Sisters of St. Benedict Monastery, Middleton, Wisconsin. Many kinds of music speak to me and one of my dreams is to learn to play the hammer dulcimer.

 

Courses

305-735 Student Services and Diversity in Elementary/Secondary Education
305-800 Organizational Theory and Behavior in Education
305-835 Leadership for Inclusive Schooling
305-940 Seminar: Spirituality in Leadership

Link to syllabi of these courses

Other Links

Permission Form
Preparing for the Qualifying Exam
Some Expectations for Dissertation Proposal Writing

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