Amy E. Allen

Amy Allen is an Associate Professor of History and Social Science in the Elementary Education program in the School of Education at Virginia Tech. Amy has a BSE in Elementary Education and an MS in Educational Technology from the University of Central Missouri, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Oklahoma. Before earning her Ph.D., Amy taught elementary school in Missouri and Oklahoma. She considers herself a social studies scholar who focuses on addressing gaps in current research on the intersection of religion and education, signature pedagogies in social studies (including the use of GenAI), and the demographics of the social studies teaching force. In addition to more than 30 publications, she also has an online, OER text, Teaching History with Chatty Geeps: A Technocurious Approach to Generative AI in the Classroom, and a co-edited book titled Beyond Single Stories: Changing Narratives for a Changing World. She serves as the Executive Director of the Social Science Education Consortium and a founding board member of the Virginia Council for History Education. She also works with doctoral students in the Curriculum and Instruction program at VT and prepares undergraduate and master’s level students for teacher licensure.

Every year, Amy spends the average GDP of a small country on Dr. Pepper. Current projects include: (1) investigating religious picture books endorsed by the National Council for the Social Studies; and, (2) place-based learning, primarily as an excuse to travel cool places around the world. She is known for thinking any distance is walking distance, and she likes nice things. In addition to speed reading for work and for fun, in her free time, Dr. Allen listens to Taylor Swift and travels (mostly to Disney… you might say she’s a Disney adult:—*shudder*). Secretly, she likes to pretend she is the leading actress in every popular Broadway musical and sometimes does karaoke for fun alone in her living room. While Amy could have been the inspiration for Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Barbie, she was more likely the inspiration for Polly Pocket in the 2006 breakout hit, Pollyworld. However, she is best known for her role as Twi’lek Jedi Aayla Secura in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith (aka the blue girl) or for being the first woman to win a songwriting Grammy. Her least favorite Chappell Roan song is Casual, and while she is pretty sure Dr. Hicks’s bio is supposed to be funny, hers is 100% real. 

Principal Areas of Research Focus 

• Religion in Social Studies Education

• Elementary Social Studies

• Signature Social Studies Pedagogies, including teaching with primary sources

• AI in History Education

• Demographics of Social Studies Educators