Annela Teemant

Professor Annela Teemant is a distinguished faculty member at Indiana University School of Education in Indianapolis, specializing in Language Education. With over two decades of experience, she has established herself as a leading researcher in teacher preparation for English language learners, who constitute 10.4% of the U.S. student population. Her work bridges the gap between university research and practical classroom application through extensive collaboration with public school educators, recognizing that 64% of teachers already have at least one English learner in their classroom.

Dr. Teemant's research centers on critical sociocultural perspectives on teaching and learning, with particular focus on how teacher pedagogy, job-embedded coaching, and in-service teacher credentialing impact student language learning outcomes. She has developed innovative approaches to differentiating instruction for multilingual students across subject areas, including mathematics, and has extensively studied the relationship between teacher practices and student achievement among English language learners. Her work emphasizes that educational equity for multilingual learners is a 'wicked problem'—complex with evolving solutions rather than final resolutions.

Her publication record demonstrates consistent focus on instructional coaching models and their effectiveness in urban educational settings. Teemant's research shows how structured coaching interventions lead to statistically significant improvements in teacher practices, with particular attention to the varying impacts across STEM and non-STEM disciplines. She developed the 'Critical Stance' measurement scale, which has proven to be a stronger predictor of English Language Learners' gains in English proficiency than teacher use of higher order thinking.

Among her notable achievements:

• Secured six US Department of Education Federal grants totaling approximately $14,000,000
• Developed the 'Critical Stance' measurement scale for assessing teacher fidelity to critical sociocultural practices
• Created evidence-based instructional coaching models for mainstream teachers working with English learners
• Demonstrated statistically significant correlations between teacher practices and student achievement outcomes

As Director of the Center for Translating Research Into Practice (TRIP) at IU Indianapolis, Professor Teemant leads initiatives that effectively bridge the research-practice gap in education. She maintains strong collaborative relationships with public school teachers who serve as capacity builders in designing, implementing, and evaluating professional development initiatives. Her philosophy, informed by Paul Ferri's concept that we are 'Unfinished,' recognizes educational equity as an ongoing process where researchers and teachers collaboratively become 'more equitable and more aware of how to better serve multilingual learners in our public schools.'