The Teacher Education Program (TEP) at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School has appointed Victoria “Tory” Harvey as its Director. The Director is responsible for overseeing all ongoing activity associated within TEP. These activities include curriculum planning, program operational and instructional budget oversight, accreditation and program evaluation activities, oversight of the Teacher Performance Assessment, and tasks related to the coordination of the credential programs (Special Education, Elementary, and Secondary) such as faculty hiring and student affairs. The Director supervises and works directly with the TEP Associate Director and program staff and coordinates with TEP faculty and students as necessary. The Director leads biweekly TEP leadership meetings and quarterly TEP faculty retreats. The Director is part of the Gevirtz School’s leadership team and attends bi-weekly meetings along with monthly meetings with the Dean and Assistant Dean.
Harvey’s research centers on training teacher candidates’ attention to re-vision the problems of teaching and learning. She also has conducted research into inclusion practices for special populations in preservice teachers’ planning. In addition to her role as Director, Harvey teaches several courses in Teacher Education Program, coordinates the edTPA, and participates in various capacities in the larger teacher education community, including service on the Board of Institutional Review for CTC.
Prior to coming to UCSB, Harvey spent over a decade in K-12 classrooms, teaching secondary English and Social Studies and working as an instructional coach and induction mentor for a group of charter schools. Though she loved working with energetic middle schoolers and curious high schoolers, her work as a cooperating teacher for Pepperdine University led her to research and work with preservice teachers. Through watching preservice teachers, she became curious about how the inherited problems of teaching can take precedence over what is actually taking place for learners in a classroom. Thus, she approaches the work of teacher education with a learner-centered framework that seeks to disrupt what we think we know about what it means to teach.
Harvey earned her B.A. in English, M.A. in American Studies, and secondary teaching credential from Pepperdine University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. (’15) in Education at UCSB’s Gevirtz School.