Mustafa Ozcan

Dr. Ozcan, a native of Turkey, began his professional life as an elementary school teacher and taught bilingual students for four years. He continued his education, became certified for secondary school teaching and completed his Master's degree in Social Foundations of Education at the University of Ankara, College of Educational Sciences in 1981. Dr. Ozcan worked as a high school teacher and administrator, and also as an assistant superintendent in different parts of Turkey. He came to the United States in the spring of 1988 and completed his Ph.D. degree in the Sociology of Education at the University of Iowa in 1993. Before finishing his Ph.D. began to teach courses in multicultural education at the University of Iowa and became a full time instructor at Clarke College in Iowa in 1992, where he taught for nine years. In 2001, he came to Rhode Island College. His research focuses on the impact of culture and socioeconomic status on learning and teaching. His teaching strategies reflect the social constructivist approach in education.

Since 1992, he has taught FNED 502, Social Issues in Education to students in the M.Ed. in TESL and other graduate programs. He also teaches Cultural Foundations of Education, Educational Research, Measurement and Assessment, Multicultural Education (under various titles). From 2002-2004, he ran the workshop, Service Learning Projects in K-12 Classes for Rhode Island teachers. Since 2005, he has offered a Cultural Competency workshop for teachers from Providence, Central Falls, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, and Newport school districts. His latest article, The Education We Need: Democratic, Diversified, and Experiential was published in 2006 in Issues in Teaching and Learning.