Tabitha Kidwell Professorial Lecturer World Languages and Cultures
- Degrees
- Ph.D., Applied Linguistics and Language Education, University of Maryland
M.A., Foreign and Second Language Education, The Ohio State University
B.S., French and Spanish Education; B.A., French, Miami University - Bio
- Tabitha Kidwell is a language teacher and teacher educator interested in the role of culture in language teaching, how students develop intercultural competence, and the ways teachers are prepared to teach about culture. She has taught French, Spanish, and English to students ranging from pre-schoolers to adults, and has conducted professional development for language teachers in Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and the United States. Dr. Kidwell is a member of the Standards Professional Council for TESOL international, and a frequent presenter at regional and international TESOL conferences. She began her career in language education as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Madagascar, from 2004 to 2006.
- For the Media
- To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Professional Presentations
[Recent and Selected]
Kidwell, T. (2019, October) Formative assessment strategies for the student-centered classroom. American English Live 6.5 (Funded by the U.S. Department of State, presented to EFL teachers worldwide)
Kidwell, T. (2019, May). “The ensemble of stories we tell ourselves about ourselves”: Culture and language teacher education in Indonesia.Presentation at the 11th International Language Teacher Education Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Kidwell, T. (2019, April). A cultural balancing act: The learning, practices, and beliefs of novice Indonesian teachers of English. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Toronto, Canada.
Kidwell, T. (2019, March). Beyond intercultural communication: Culture in the Indonesian TESOL Context. Presentation at the TESOLInternational Convention. Atlanta, GA.
Kidwell, T. & Pentón Herrera, L. J. (2019, March). Literature circles 2.0: Building literacy in the 21st-Century TESOL classroom. Presentation at the TESOL International Convention. Atlanta, GA.
Kidwell, T. (2019, March). “I couldn’t teach culture to my students”: Indonesian English teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding the teaching of culture. Paper presented at the American Association for Applied Linguistics Annual Conference. Atlanta, GA.
Peercy, M. M., Kidwell, T., Lawyer, M., Tigert, J., Feagin, K., & Fredricks, D. (2018, April). Using a dialogic approach to develop core practices for teaching English language learners. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. New York, NY.
Kidwell, T., Abubakr, A., Charway, O., Manguday Siyoum, T., Niyongabo, A., Tcheuntche, J.C. (2018, March). Project based instruction in East Africa: Challenges and lessons learned. Presentation at the TESOL International Convention, Chicago, IL.
Kidwell, T. (2018, March). Building global citizenship through intercultural language teaching.Workshop at the TESOL International Convention, Chicago, IL.
Kidwell, T. (2018, March). Navigating cultural divides: English teacher learning in Indonesia. Paper presented at the American Association for Applied Linguistics Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
Kidwell, T. (2017, November). Understanding culture: A literature review comparing three cultural pedagogies.Paper presented at the International Conference on Indonesian Islam, Education, and Science, Salatiga, Indonesia.
Kidwell, T. (2017, September). The global and local value of international literature.Paper presented at the First International Conference on Nusantara Literature, Salatiga, Indonesia.
Kidwell, T. (2017, June) Building global citizenship through intercultural language teaching. American English Webinar 6.5 (Funded by the U.S. Department of State, presented to 1600 EFL teachers worldwide)
Kidwell, T. (2017, May). Building students’ 21stcentury skills through project-based instruction. Presentation at the Africa TESOL conference, Kigali, Rwanda.
Kidwell, T., Stump, M., Budde, C. & Draganescu, M. (2017, March). Say more: Strategies to support sustained student interaction. Presentation at the TESOL International Convention, Seattle, WA.
Peercy, M.M., Kidwell, T.,DeStefano, M., Tigert, J., Fredricks, D. (2016, April). “It just won’t stick”: Enacting core practices in ESOL teacher education. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Washington, DC.
Budde, C., DeStefano, M., Guzman, N., Kidwell, T.,Tigert, J., & Peercy, M. M. (2016, April). edTPA and its Implications for TESOL. Presentation at the TESOL International Convention, Baltimore, MD.
Kidwell, T. (2015, November) Make it meaningful: Bringing learning to life with culturally relevant teaching. American English Webinar 1.6 (Funded by the U.S. Department of State, presented to 1600 EFL teachers worldwide)
Honors, Awards, and Fellowships
AIFIS-Luce Fellowship, American Institute for Indonesian Studies, 2018
TESOL Research Mini-Grant, TESOL International Association, 2017
Doctoral Dissertation Grant, The International Research Foundation for English Language Education (TIRF), 2017
Selected Publications
Kidwell, T. (in press). “What should I do?”: Three part role plays. English Teaching Forum.
Kidwell, T. (2019). Teaching about teaching about culture: The role of culture in second language teacher education programs. Teaching English as a Second Language Electronic Journal, 22(4), 1-16. Available at http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume22/ej88/ej88a8/
Kidwell, T. & Pentón Herrera, L. (2019). Culturally sustaining pedagogy in action: Views from Indonesia and the United States. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 55(2), 60-65.
Kidwell, T., Budde, C., Guzman, N., DeStefano, M., Tigert, J., Peercy, M. M. (2018). ESOL teacher candidate evaluation through edTPA. In P. Swanson & S. Hildebrandt (Eds.), Researching edTPA problems and promises: Perspectives from ESOL, English, and WL teacher education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
Pentón Herrera, L. & Kidwell, T.(2018). Literature circles 2.0: Updating a classic strategy for the 21stcentury. Multicultural Education, 25(2), pp. 17-21.
Tigert, J., Kidwell, T., Budde, C., Guzman, N., DeStefano, M., Peercy, M. M. (2018). “It took my knowledge to the limits”: Implementing a new teacher performance assessment in TESOL. Teacher Learning and Professional Development 3(1), 19-38.
Kidwell, T. (2018). Try this: Thousand Word Pictures. English Teaching Forum, 56(3), pp. 41-47.
Kidwell, T. (2017). Understanding culture: A literature review comparing three cultural pedagogies. Language Teaching Register, 10(2), 221-233.
Peercy, M. M. DeStefano, M., Kidwell, T., Ramirez, R. (2016). Co-constructing practice in an online ESOL literacy methods course. Professional Development in Education, 42(5), 752-766.
Kidwell, T. & Triyoko, H. (2012). Implementing a student-centered pedagogy, Language Teaching Register, 5(2), 153-184.