Noreen Garman
Senior Research Associate
School of Education
University of Pittsburgh
5712 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Pittsburgh, PA 15260 USA
Email: ngarman@pitt.edu
Education


Areas of Expertise

  • Curriculum Studies
  • Interpretive Research
  • Clinical Supervision
  • Social Justice/Dialogic Pedagogy
  • Adult Learning in the Curriculum

Professional Biography

Dr. Garman began her teaching career as an English teacher who also directed the dramatic activities. In 1968 she began to supervise teaching both in the public schools and the University. Her dissertation focused on an instructional supervision program for teaching assistants in the English Department at the University of Pittsburgh. Since then she has been teaching courses in instructional supervision, curriculum studies and adult learning. She also teaches qualitative research and ways of knowing. Dr. Garman brings an interpretivist orientation from her roots in arts to her research and practice in education. Because of her writings, she worked extensively in Australia, lectured in Korea, and took a senior Fulbright position in Philippines. In the mid 1990s, Dr. Garman directed two educational programs in Bosnia during and after the war. As a result of her international focus, she has taken on administrative positions. She is the founder of the Dissertation Study Group since 1980. Over the years, the Study Group, a community of learners, has been the center of intellectual nourishment for her which helped her to name her deepest insights.

Research Interests & Current Projects

Dr. Garman is interested in the praxis related to dialogic pedagogy in a social justice curriculum. Further research includes the political and cultural implications of state and national reform efforts. Dr. Garman is currently working on an National Science Foundation sponsored project with the School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh on nanotechnology curriculum and school outreach. She is also working on a project that looks at why the curriculum for radical transition in doctoral study is difficult to enact. She will be looking at lessons and theoretics from a year long doctoral core course. Dr.Garman is also working with four teaching fellows on crating spaces of contestation in four undergraduate classes through pedagogical tropes and rhetorical reflection.

Courses Taught

  • ADMPS 1001 – Social Foundations of Education
  • ADMPS 3135 – Seminar in College Teaching
  • ADMPS 3003 – APS Doctoral Core I
  • ADMPS 3004 – APS Doctoral Core II
  • ADMPS 3127 – Curriculum: Perspectives and Issues
  • ADMPS 3016 – Introduction to Qualitative Research
  • ADMPS 3311 – Ways of Knowing
  • IPRE 9625 – Fundamentals of Supervision
  • Dissertation Study Group since 1980

Selected Publications

Garman, Noreen; & Piantanida, Maria (1999). The Authority to Imagine: Struggling Toward Representation in Dissertation Writing. New York: Peter Lang, Publishers.

Piantanida, Maria; & Garman, Noreen (1999). The Qualitative Dissertation: A Guide for Faculty and Students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Piantanida, Maria; Garman, Noreen; & McMahon, Patricia. (2000). Crafting an Arts-Based Educational Research Thesis: Issues of Tradition and Solipsism. In P.Willis; et.al. (Eds.) Being, Seeking, Telling: Expressive Approaches to Qualitative Adult Education Research. Flaxton, Australia: Post Pressed.

Piantanida, Maria; McMahon, Patricia; & Garman, Noreen. (April, 2003). Shaping the Conversational Contours of Arts-Based Research in Education. Qualitative Inquiry, 9(2): 182–191.

Garman, Noreen; & Holland, Patricia. (1995). The Rhetoric of School Reform Reports: Sacred, Skeptical and Cynical Interpretations. In Rick Ginsburg & David N. Plank (Eds.), Commissioners, Reports Reforms and Educational Policy. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

Neville, Richard; & Garman, Noreen. (1998). Philosophic Approaches to School Supervision. In Firth, J; & Pajak, E. (eds), The Handbook on Research in School Supervision. New York: Macmillan Library Reference.

Garman, Noreen. (1998). Journey from Exotic Horror to Bitter Wisdom: Research and Development in Bosnia & Herzegovina. In Smyth, J.; & Schacklock,G. (eds.) Being Reflexive in Critical, Social and Educational Research. New York: Falmer Press.

Garman, Noreen. (1996). Qualitative Inquiry: Meaning and Menace for Educational Researchers. In Willis, P.; & Neville, B. (eds.), Qualitative Research Practice in Adult Education. Ringwood, Victoria: David Lovell Publishing.

Garman, Noreen. (1995). Beyond the Reflective Practitioner and Toward Discursive Practice. Teaching and Teachers Work, 3(1).

Garman, Noreen. (1990). Values Education in the Philippines and the Living Curriculum. Educational Quarterly,37(1).