Associate Professor, Education
Dr. O’Brien’s research examines ways to reduce the opportunity gaps underlying educational inequities and fostering teachers’ racial literacy (i.e., how teachers make sense of race in teaching) to support social justice. She leverages her research to help teachers support greater equity through teacher education coursework and school-based professional development. She frequently presents at research and practitioner conferences. Finally, her work is published in research and practitioner outlets.
O’Brien, L.M., Ford-Connors, E., Gatling, A., Boyle*, E., Kopelas*, K., & Lagenfeld*, M. (2023). Who is doing science? Using science text to open space for diverse voices in elementary classrooms, The Reading Teacher.
O’Brien, L.M., Paratore, J.R., Salinas, A., & Blodgett, S. (2023), Using Connected Teaching and Learning to Deepen Children’s Interdisciplinary Learning, Journal of Early Childhood Research.
Seltzer**, M. C. & O’Brien, L.M. (2022). Fostering racial literacy in early childhood contexts. Early Childhood Education Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-022-01417-z
O’Brien, L.M., Carocca*, F. A., Enos*, B., Leighton, C.M., Caffey*, E. (2021). Empowering teachers to reimagine instruction that builds students’ literacies. MRA Primer. Available at: https://issuu.com/vshinas/docs/2021_primer_journal
Leighton, C. M. & O’Brien, L. M. (2017). Advancing English learners’ disciplinary knowledge and academic language using complex expository text. New England Reading Association Journal, 52(1), 7-19.
Paratore, J. R., O’Brien, L. M., Jiménez L., Salinas, A., & Ly, C. (2016). Engaging preservice teachers in integrated study and use of educational media and technology in teaching of reading. Teaching and Teacher Education, 59, 247-260.
*Merrimack graduate student; **Merrimack undergraduate student
Book Chapters
Giunco, K., Leighton, C.M., & O’Brien, L.M. (2024). Designing literacy instruction to support reading identity negotiations: The case of one fifth-grade classroom. In C. Wagner, K. Frankel, C. Leighton (Eds.) Becoming Readers and Writers: Literate Identities Across Childhood and Adolescence.
Britain, L. Crawford, J. B., Schapiro, S., Paratore, J. R., Salinas, A., O’Brien, L., & Blodget, S. D. (2019). Building learning pathways and community for early childhood educators. In S. Pasnik (Ed.). Getting ready to learn: Creating effective educational children’s media, pp. 45-61. New York: Routledge.
Salinas, A. O’Brien, L., & Fromenta, A. (2019). Extending opportunities for learning with and through online games. Learning, Education & Games, Book 3. In Schrier, K. (Ed.). Learning, education & games vol. 3: 100 games to use in the classroom and beyond. Pittsburgh, PA: ETC Press.
Paratore, J. R., Edwards, P. A., & O’Brien, L. M. (2018). Building strong home, school, and community partnerships through culturally relevant teaching. In L. M. Morrow & L. B. Gambrell (Eds.) Best practices in literacy instruction, 6th edition, pp. 408-428. New York: Guildford Press.
O’Brien, L. M., Salinas, A., Reinhart, K. & Paratore. J. R., (2018). Preservice Teachers’ Use of Technology and Multimodal Text Sets in Teaching Reading: Lessons Learned from a Design-Based Study. In E. Ortlieb, E. H. Cheek, & P. Semingson (Eds.) Best Practices in Teaching Digital Literacies, pp. 123-136. United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing.
More than 200 students representing all five schools proudly presented at locations across campus research work and projects across various disciplines.
