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Amy Price Azano

Amy Price Azano, Professor of Adolescent Literacy and Rural Education

Amy Price Azano, Associate Professor of Teaching and Learning
Amy Price Azano, Associate Professor of Adolescent Literacy and Rural Education

School of Education
Hillcrest Hall, Lower Level
385 West Campus Drive (MC 0345)
Blacksburg, VA 24061
540-231-8889  |  azano@vt.edu

  @RuralProf        @VaTechRural

Amy Price Azano, Ph.D., is a professor of adolescent literacy and rural education in the School of Education and the founding director of the Center for Rural Education at Virginia Tech.

Follow Amy Azano on Research Gate.

Dr. Azano's interview on WFXR-TV, Part 1

Dr. Azano's interview on WFXR-TV, Part 2

  • Equity Issues in Rural Education
  • Adolescent Literacy and Rural English Education
  • Critical pedagogies of Place
  • Rural Gifted Education
  • Ph.D., University of Virginia
  • M.Ed., Old Dominion University
  • B.A., Louisiana State University 
  • Director, Virginia Tech Center for Rural Education
  • Director, Summer Enrichment Experience at Virginia Tech
  • Principal Investigator, Appalachian Rural Talent Initiative
  • Chair, Rural Education Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association 
  • Director, SAFE (Supporting Autism Friendly Environments) Program

Association Affiliations

  • American Educational Research Association
  • Appalachian Studies Association
  • Literacy Research Association 
  • National Rural Education Association

Editorial Activities

  • Co-Editor, The Rural Educator
  • Consulting Editor, Member of the Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of Reserach in Rural Education
  • Guest Editor, Journal of Literacy Innovation, Fall / Winter issue 2020
  • CLAHS Land Grant Scholar Award, 2021
  • Stanley A. Brzezinski Memorial Rural Education Research Award, 2021
  • Curriculum Award, “Aristotle’s Rhetoric: Learning the Art of Persuasion,” National Association for Gifted Children, 2016
  • Scholar of the Week, Office of the Vice President of Research and Innovation, 2014
  • Curriculum Award, “Poetry of Everyday Things,” National Association for Gifted Children, 2012

Articles

Eppley, K., Azano, A. P., Brenner, D., & Shannon, P. (2018). What counts as evidence in rural schools?: Evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence for diverse settings. The Rural Educator, 39(2), 33-37.  

Azano, A. P., & Tackett, M. E. (2017). Perceptions of teachers and parents on the educational experiences of students with autism in a remote rural community. The Rural Educator, 38(3), 39-54

Biddle, C., & Azano, A. P. (2016). Constructing and reconstructing the “rural school problem”: A century of rurality and rural education research. Review of Research in Education, 40, 298-325. 

Azano, A. P. (2014) Rural: The other neglected 'R': Making space for place in school libraries. Knowledge Quest, 43(1), 60-65

Azano, A. P. (2011). The possibility of place: One teacher’s use of place-based instruction for English students in a rural high school. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 26(10), 1-12.

Book Chapters

Azano, A. P. (2019, In press). My father’s place in the mountains: An education elsewhere. In J. Pontius, D. Greenwood, & M. Mueller (Eds.). Hunting, gathering, and fishing for food: Place-based learning for the plate. Environmental Discourses in Science Education Book Series. New York: Springer.

Callahan, C. M., & Azano, A. P. (2019, In press). Place-based gifted education in rural schools. In S. Smith (Ed.) International handbook of Giftedness & Talent Development in the Australasian-Pacific. New York: Springer. 

Azano, A. P., Tackett, M. E., Missett, T. C., & Callahan, C. M. (2017). The CLEAR curriculum model. In C. Callahan & H. L. Hertberg-Davis (Eds.). Fundamentals of gifted education: Considering multiple perspectives (2nd ed., pp. 293-309). New York: Routledge.  

Azano, A. P. (2014). Gifted rural students. In J. Plucker & C. Callahan (Eds.). Critical issues in gifted education: What the research says (2nd ed., pp. 297-304)Waco, TX: Prufrock Press. 

Books

Callahan, C. M., Missett, T. C., Azano, A. P., Caughey, M., Brodersen, A., & Tackett, M. (2017). Fiction and non-fiction: Language arts units for gifted students in grade 4. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.

Azano, A. P., Missett, T. C., & Callahan, C. M. (2015). Poetry and fairy tales: Language arts units for gifted students in grade 3. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.

Missett, T. C., Azano, A. P., & Callahan, C. M. (2015). Research and rhetoric: Language arts units for gifted students in grade 5. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.

Awarded Grants in 2020

  1. Appalachian Rural Talent Initiative (PI) Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, 2020-2023 Total / VT award: $500,000 2. 
  2. Summer Enrichment Experience at Virginia Tech (PI): SEE VT, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, 2020 – 2023 Total / VT award: $260,290 Azano, Amy - Previously Funded 
  3. Promoting PLACE in Rural Schools (Co-PI; 25% participation) Carolyn Callahan, PI, University of Virginia U.S. Department of Education, 2014 – 2020 Total: $1,900,000; Azano/VT: $459,578 *Finished Year 6 (no cost extension) 

Previously Awarded Grants

  1. Promoting PLACE in Rural Schools. (2014 – 2019) Co-Principal Investigator. ($1.9 million) 
  2. Five-year grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Jacob K. Javits grant program seeking to increase gifted education services, identification processes, and place-based gifted curricula in economically disadvantaged rural school districts.

2020

  1. Published an op-ed in The Washington Post, “Our mayor’s racist comments don’t define Luray.” (2020, August) 
  2. Nominated by Dr. Kai Schafft, Director of the Center on Rural Education and Communities (Pennsylvania State University), for the national Rural Renewal Research Prize awarded by Oklahoma State University. (2020, August)  
  3. Invited as a guest on PittEdcast Podcast on Rural Education. University of Pittsburgh (2020, December 6). 
  4. Invited to serve on an international panel of rural education scholars by the Australian Association for Research in Education Rural SIG. (2020, November) 
  5. Interviewed by The Roanoke Times (interviewed by C. Mitzel), “Emergency distance learning shows value of support, stability in the classroom.” (2020, May 18) 
  6. Invited to serve on the advisory board for a National Science Foundation grant proposal, “Increasing Digital Literacy in Rural and Rural-Servicing Library Communities.” (Dr. Phyllis Newbill, PI, Virginia Tech) 
  7. Invited by researchers from Oklahoma State University to consult and serve as Co-PI on an NSF grant focused on rural education (grant under review) 
  8. Invited by faculty at Mississippi State University to serve as external reviewer for tenure and promotion candidate (Fall, 2019) 
  9. Invited to serve as rural education expert on dissertation committees for doctoral students at the University of Virginia and in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech.

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