Amy Hutchison

Dr. Hutchison is an associate professor and the Director of the Division of Elementary, Literacy, and Secondary Education at George Mason University. Currently, she is the Primiary Investigator or Co-Primary Investigator on three funded projects. The first is a project funded by the National Science Foundation titled Preparing K-5 Teachers to Integrate the Computer Science Standards of Learning in Inclusive Classrooms to Support Students with High Incidence Disabilities. The second project, funded by the Native-speaking English Teacher Section of the Education Bureau in Hong Kong, is focused on implementation and evaluation of the Coding To Learn Project fo enabling primary students to experience a new approach to English learning. The third project, WEGO-RIITE: Writing Efficiently With Graphic Organizers- Responsive Instruction While Implementing Technology Effectively, is funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

Dr. Hutchison's scholarship centers around three primary areas of inquiry: (1) Understanding how digital technology can be used equitably and to support diverse learners; (2) Understanding and Supporting the Development of STEM literacy among underrepresented students; and (3) Understanding how digital technology can support the development of literacy skills and how to support and prepare preservice and inservice teachers to effectively integrate digital technology into literacy and language arts instruction. Focused on these areas of interest, she conducts research across the PK-20 spectrum, across disciplines, in formal and informal learning environments, and with pre-service and practicing teachers using a variety of inquiry tools and methodologies. In her work, she has constructed and examined innovative instructional approaches and practices that are facilitated by the integration of digital technology, which most recently include the use of coding apps and augmented reality for literacy instruction. Insights from her work in the field, and research from the field more broadly, are brought together in her recently published book entitled Bridging Technology and Literacy: Developing Digital Reading and Writing Practices in Grades K-6 (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers), in which she and her coauthor explore the complexities of digital literacies and invite teachers and schools to reconsider the role of digital technology in today’s literacy instruction and how literacy education is undertaken in schools. Through her work, Dr. Hutchison encourages teachers to examine their instructional practice, to understand the ways that digital technology transforms what it means to be literate, to understand the importance of providing equitable access to high-quality instruction with digital technology, and to understand the interconnected nature of reading, writing and digital technology.

For her collective work in the field, Dr. Hutchison was recently awarded the 2014 Early Career Achievement Award from the Literacy Research Association, the 2014 Early Career Scholar Award by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Technology As An Agent of Change Special Interest Group, and the 2014 Early Career Achievement in Research Award at Iowa State University. She also received the 2012 Thomas N. Urban Award for outstanding scholarly contributions to Iowa education and was awarded the distinction of Fellow with the Center for Educational Transformation from 2014-2016.