Research and Outreach

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Faculty and students within the UAB School of Education conduct research to understand and seek solutions to current and emerging educational, health, and mental health challenges. This research contributes to the knowledge base and advances our understanding of effective practices. Faculty and staff within the School of Education provide outreach to professionals across a variety of fields, community members, and policymakers to support efforts to improve the quality of and access to services. Some of this outreach is provided by individual faculty and staff members, and some of this outreach is provided by programs and centers within the School of Education.

Research

Faculty and students within the UAB School of Education conduct research to understand and seek solutions to current and emerging educational, health, and mental health challenges.

Areas of research include:

  • Improving the training and performance of the workforce in education (teachers, school leaders, higher education administrators) and certain health-related fields (counseling, exercise science, community health, human services) where needs are the greatest.
  • Documenting historical and emerging disparities in access to, and quality of, education and health care and finding solutions to such disparities.
  • Promoting health, physical fitness, and functional performance through exercise and biomechanics.
  • Investigating social determinants of health and mental health across the lifespan and the practices that promote wellness and prevent or address health and mental health problems with at-risk populations
  • Providing an international perspective on education, health, and wellness issues that have global importance.
  • Click here for a full list of SOE faculty and student research areas.

In addition to contributing to scientific knowledge, this research actively informs outreach efforts to address the targeted challenges. Outreach activities allow faculty and students within the School of Education to improve the quality of education, health, and mental health locally, across Alabama, and beyond. As part of its outreach initiatives, the School of Education is fortunate to engage in a number of mutually beneficial partnerships within the communities it serves.

Office of Research, Grants, and Faculty Development

The Office of Research, Grants, and Faculty Development supports faculty with grant training, grant pre-award management, and professional development in scholarship, teaching, and service.


Outreach

Faculty, staff, and students within the UAB School of Education invest their time, talents, and expertise to serve the community, state, and region.  Through volunteerism, providing professional development, working as board members, and serving as consultants, professionals within the School of Education provide support and guidance. Student organizations work to address challenges relating to education, health and fitness, and mental health. The Community Counseling Clinic provides low-cost mental health counseling to members of the community. Several university centers operate out of the School of Education to provide technical assistance and professional development for teachers and educational leaders.

Center for Urban Education

The mission of the Center for Urban Education (CUE) is to promote quality education for socially and economically disenfranchised groups residing in urban areas. Specifically, the CUE prepares high-quality teachers and administrators to work in urban school districts.

Maryann Manning Family Literacy Center

The Maryann Manning Family Literacy Center supports and disseminates research in literacy, provides professional development for teachers and students, and creates innovative literacy projects, both locally and globally.

Community Counseling Clinic

The UAB Community Counseling Clinic provides affordable mental health counseling services to residents of Jefferson County, while also providing an innovative training experience for graduate counseling students. The clinic strives to be an exemplar to the counseling profession through innovations in research, practice, teaching, and clinical training.

UAB Children's Creative Learning Center

Serving children from all over the Birmingham area, the enrichment program seeks to encourage children to select their daily plan of study, work at their own pace, and enhance their academic development. Whether it is a science experiment with everyday food items or writing and publishing a newspaper, children discover how exciting learning can be.

UAB Regional Inservice Center

The UAB Regional Inservice Center (UABRIC), operated through the UAB School of Education, provides free training, resources, and services for teachers and administrators in eight Jefferson County, Alabama school districts. The UABRIC is one of 11 regional in-service centers established by the Alabama Legislature in 1984 to enhance the training opportunities for public school personnel in critical need areas.