Professor, Middle, Secondary & Mathematics Education

Office: Memorial Hall 3265A
Email: shoffnme@jmu.edu
Phone: (540) 568-4314

About

Dr. Melanie Shoffner specializes in English language arts education. Her education courses include ELA methods, curriculum theory, and the student teaching internship; she also teaches an English course on resistance and power. Dr. Shoffner is the editor of English Education, a member of the International Federation for the Teaching of English (IFTE) Advisory Board, and a former Fulbright Scholar (Romania). Her research addresses the dispositional and reflective development of preservice teachers.

Research Areas

• English teacher education
• reflective practice
• preservice teacher dispositions
• international study

Education

• PhD    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – Education: Culture, Curriculum & Change
• MAT    Duke University – English Education
• AB      Duke University – English and History

Fun Fact

Dr. Shoffner is a vocabulary researcher for The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation with Mo Rocca.

Selected Publications

Edited books

• Shoffner, M. & Webb, A.W. (Eds.) (2022). Reconstructing care in teacher education after COVID-19: Caring enough to change. Routledge.
• Shoffner, M., & St. Peter, R. (eds.) (2020). Teacher representations in dramatic text and performance: Portraying the teacher on stage. New York: Routledge. 
• Shoffner, M. (ed). (2016).  Exploring teachers in fiction and film: Saviors, scapegoats and schoolmarms.  New York:   Routledge.

Book chapters

• George, M., Shoffner, M., Scherff, L. (2022). The complex enterprise of US secondary English teacher education. In A. Goodwyn, J. Manuel, R. Roberts, L. Scherff, W. Sawyer, C. Durrant, & D. Zancanella (Eds.). International Perspectives on English Teacher Development: From Initial Teacher Education to Highly Accomplished Professional (Vol. 4) (pp. 134-145). IFTE.
• Sogar, C. & Shoffner, M. (2020). Arguing for empathy: Subverting the teaching of argumentation. In J. Dyches, B. Sams, & A.S. Boyd (Eds.), Acts of resistance: Subversive teaching in the English Language Arts classroom (pp. 22-35). Myers Press.
• Shoffner, M. (2019). The potential of problematic practice: Preparing teachers for the secondary ELA classroom. In H. L. Hallman, K. Pastore-Capuana, & D. L. Pasternak (Eds.), Possibilities, challenges, and changes in English teacher education today: Exploring identity and professionalization (pp. 39-50). Rowman & Littlefield.

Essays

• Shoffner, M. (2022). The education of loss. English Education, 54(4), 268-272.
• Shoffner, M. (2020). Where we are is who we are. English Education, 53(1), 116-122.
• Shoffner, M., & Webb, A. W. (2020, Nov. 19). Questioning care in the academic world. Teachers College Record.