The College of Education is creating two tenure-track faculty positions to make progress toward interdisciplinary education practices.

The new faculty positions in bilingual education and prevention science will be hired from within the college and allow professors with these expertise to work in multiple departments, according to the colleges website.

Were really excited about these new job hires because they will provide us the opportunity to increase research activity across the disciplines in our departments in unique ways that are not typical in a university setting, Alexandra Loukas, the colleges interim associate dean for research and graduate studies, said in a statement.

According to the colleges website, the two positions will work toward the colleges three signature impact areas: eliminating educational and health disparities, addressing the effects of home and community on well-being and supporting student adaptability through lifes transitions.

Nataly Lim, a special education graduate student, said faculty with knowledge in multiple disciplines can address cross sections between majors.

Working with kids with autism, often times they also need speech, language or occupational services that arent just specific to special education, Lim said. To have faculty that are engaged in this kind of interdisciplinary research is really important.

According to UTs 2017-2018 impact report, English was the second language for 679 UT students. Ramiro De Los Santos, a journalism and European studies freshman, grew up with Spanish as his first language and said people who learn English as a second language are at a disadvantage in higher education or employment.

Effective bilingual education allows people to be more competitive academically, De Los Santos said. Im in Moody and Liberal Arts Honors and all I do is write. That wouldnt have been possible without bilingual education.

Lim said those with more severe disabilities are often not supported in their heritage language.

Special education policies stipulate that individuals with disabilities should be provided with equal opportunities, Lim said. But a lot of the time what we see reflected in practice is not aligned with this policy.

In addition to bilingual education, Lim said the prevention science faculty members expertise will be important when helping identify and treat individuals who are at risk for poor health or education outcomes.

Prevention is key, Lim said. We learn so much about early identification and how that really impacts child outcomes.

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College of Education seeks two faculty members to advance goals interdisciplinary scholarship goals - UT The Daily Texan