Brian Walker Johnson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Phone: (618) 650‑3433
Office: Founders Hall 1136
About Dr. Johnson
Brian Walker Johnson, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning in the School of Education, Health, and Human Behavior at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Dr. Johnson joined SIUE in 2013. Dr. Johnson achieved his doctorate in Educational Leadership in Literacy from Emory University in 1995. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses related to literacy methods, curriculum design, and teacher supervision. He also supervises undergraduate and graduate field experiences. Dr. Johnson currently serves as a curriculum coordinator for the SIUE Elementary Education Program. Before coming to SIUE, Dr. Johnson completed a 22-year career with the Principia College Education Department in Elsah, Illinois. This teacher licensure institution served as one among four model teacher development programs in the State of Illinois. Here he taught a variety of courses ranging from civil discourse to philosophy of education, to elementary methods of teaching mathematics. He also supervised a variety of K-12 clinical field experiences and established four professional development school partnerships. He has continued this work with the SIUE Elementary Education Program.
Research Profile
Dr. Johnson started his career as a mentor teacher and literacy specialist in kindergarten, grade 2, and middle school, teaching in both public and private schools. He took a special interest in school literacy achievement emerging from teacher, administrator, and students’ metacognitive awareness of their reading and writing strategies. This interest has led him to explore topics such as metacomprehension strategies, teacher and organizational change and mentoring, and teacher candidate responses to high stakes licensure examinations. The result of these efforts has yielded a variety of scholarly activities including articles, conference presentations, and school-based graduate methods courses. A unifying theme in all these activities has been empowering teachers and school administrators to make meaningful and effective decisions. Since serving as elementary program curriculum coordinator he has adjusted his focus on scholarly activities to better serve the program. This work has resulted in research into disciplinary literacy instruction in elementary science, as well as elementary teacher candidate response to high stakes mandates such as the Illinois Licensure Testing System (ILTS) Content Exam and edTPA Elementary Literacy Assessment.
Education:
- Ph.D., 1995, Educational Leadership, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
- D.A.S.T., 1990, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
- M.Ed., 1986, Teacher Supervision, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
- B.A., 1982, Elementary Education and Religion & Philosophy, Principia College, Elsah, IL
Specialization:
K-12 Literacy Education, Diagnostic Literacy, Teacher Development and Supervision
Selected Scholarly Activities:
Publications
- Foster, S. & Johnson, B.W. (in press). Teaching the New Deal: 1932-1941 – review and analysis. The Councilor.
- Marlette, S., Johnson, B.W. and Martin, B. (2021). Development and Use of a Formative Assessment Tool to Prepare Preservice Teachers for a High Stakes Performance Examination. Critical Issues in Teacher Education, The Journal of the Illinois Association of Teacher Educators, Volume 27, pages 35-45.
- Johnson, B.W., & Batchelor, M. (2018). Collaborative Resistance to Digitized Instruction in a Rural Middle School. Middle School Journal, Volume 49(3), 4-16.
- Johnson, B.W., & Marlette, S. (2018). Investigating Sources of Language Feature Complexity in Informational Science Texts. Critical Issues in Teacher Education, The Journal of the Illinois Association of Teacher Educators, Volume 25, pages 48-61.
Presentations:
- Marlette, S., Johnson, B.W. and Hill (April 5, 2019). Winners or Losers: Teacher Candidate’s Success in Standardized Licensure Examinations, a poster presentation 33 rd Annual Midwest ATE Spring Conference, West Lafayette, IN.
- Johnson, B. W., and Marlette, S. M. (September 13, 2019). Teacher Candidate Success and Objective Content Area Licensure Examinations, a paper presentation at Annual Midwest edTPA Conference, Iowa City, IA.
- Marlette, S., Johnson, B.W. and Martin, B. (November 10, 2018) Using Preservice Teachers’ Self-Perceptions of Competence to Prepare for a High Stakes edTPA Elementary Literacy Assessment Performance Examination, a breakout session at the 62nd Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers 2018 Annual Conference, Louisville, Kentucky Conference (peer reviewed)
- Marlette, S., Johnson, B., and Martin, B. (February 3, 2017). Using Teacher Candidate’s Self-Perception of Competence to Prepare for a Licensure Examination, a paper presented for a roundtable discussion at the Annual Association of Teacher Educators Meeting.
SIUE Educational Outreach Graduate Partnerships for Literacy Instruction:
Roxana, IL, Community Unit School District #1 (2014-Present) Stephen Oertle, Assistant Superintendent
East Alton, IL, Elementary School District #13 (2016-Present) Alyssa Smith, Assistant Superintendent
Madison, IL, Community Unit School District #12 (2020-Present) Andrew Reinking, Superintendent
