David Owens
Owens selected as Governor’s Teaching Fellow, Summer 2022
Georgia Southern University Assistant Professor of Science Education, David Owens, Ph.D., has been selected to the Governor’s Teaching Fellows (GTF) Program for summer 2022.
The Governor’s Teaching Fellows Program was established by Zell Miller, governor of Georgia, 1991-1999, to provide Georgia’s higher education faculty with expanded opportunities for developing important teaching skills. Each eligible university may submit two nominees for the fellowship, and participants are selected based on their teaching experience, interest in continuing instructional and professional development, and ability to make a positive impact on their campus.
Owens, who joined the College of Education in 2018, serves as a middle grades and secondary education science faculty member on the Armstrong Campus in Savannah.
“The idea of faculty coming together from universities from across Georgia, all of whom were interested in sharing ideas to enhance the quality of instruction they are able to provide, was certainly intriguing to me,” said Owens of applying to the program.
The fellowship also includes the articulation of a special project, one in which Owens has already begun testing in his classroom.
“I’ve been working on a new means for engendering pre-service teachers’ taking of diverse perspectives through the use of qualitative analysis and the experiences of a marginalized middle school student who is the protagonist of a graphic novel called New Kid,” he explained. “I hope to get informative, developmental feedback for the project from other participants in the program who may be interested in or have experience with trying to achieve similar outcomes.”
The Governor’s Teaching Fellows Program summer symposium is a two-week intensive professional development that includes a combination of structured faculty development and instructional activities as well as independent study on the part of each participant.
“It feels great to be selected,” said Owens. “I’ve got a lot of room to grow as a teacher and researcher, and I plan to make the most of this opportunity as well as contribute to the development of others who are participating in the fellowship and back here at Georgia Southern, through my participation in the program.”