Sharon Hayes, PhD

Dr. Sharon Hayes is an associate professor in elementary education and the program coordinator for the Curriculum and Instruction EdD program at West Virginia University. She work with students in WVU’s Five-Year Teacher Education program, teaching courses in literacy, teacher leadership, practitioner inquiry, and qualitative research.

Before beginning her work in higher education, Dr. Hayes taught in elementary and middle schools in Tennessee, Ohio, New Jersey and Alabama. She holds a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Florida, which is where she began her work in professional development schools. Her early PDS work focused on the mentoring relationships that developed between pre- and in-service teachers and how these relationships provided opportunities for educative mentoring that benefitted the learning and practices of both. Currently, Dr. Hayes works with a partner school in the WVU Collaborative PDS Network and is exploring how school-university partnerships develop and can be used to support simultaneous renewal, as well as to provide opportunities for both practicing and prospective teachers to cultivate an inquiry stance and leadership skills.

Dr. Hayes has published articles in professional journals focused on mentoring and qualitative research. Her ongoing research interests include teacher identity, mentoring, professional learning communities, teacher leadership, equity literacy, the purposes and possibilities for collaborative partnerships, practitioner inquiry as a space for the transformation of personal, local and global views of teaching, learning and the ways we do school, and the ways in which prospective and practicing teachers engage in learning and professional development.