Anastasia P. Samaras George Mason University, USA

Anastasia P. Samaras, Ph.D. is Professor at the Graduate School of Education at George Mason University. She is a pedagogical scholar with an extensive repertoire of teaching, administrative, and research activity directly related to her signature work in the self-study research methodology which include books on Learning Communities in Practice (2008) and Self-Study Teacher Research (2011). A former school teacher and director of teacher education programs at The Catholic University of America and George Mason University, she brings a repertoire of practical applications grounded in sociocultural theory directly to her teaching. She is recipient of the Dissertation Research Award, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia, the Outstanding Scholar Award, University of Maryland, a Fulbright Scholar, and a visiting scholar at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, University of Iceland, Vrije University, and Victoria University. Her expertise in early childhood and teacher education has also led to appointments as a consultant for numerous program reviews with various Federal agencies, departments, Head Start, and universities. She currently serves as Chair-Elect of the Self-Study of Teacher Education Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association and project leader of two university cross-disciplinary faculty self-study groups. Her research centers on designing and studying Neo-Vygotskian-based curriculum applications in teachers’ professional practices, including her own.