Penn Graduate School of Education

From workforce development and STEM education to racial literacy and collaborative learning, our faculty are tackling some of today’s most pressing challenges in education.

Explore some of their latest scholarship:
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Penn GSE Faculty Publications: May 2026 Penn GSE faculty recently published new scholarship on workforce development, STEM learning, executive function, racial literacy, language education, and collaborative learning. Assistant Professor Sade Bonilla: “Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead? Evalu...

Penn GSE's impact isn't limited to the classroom. It can be felt across Penn's campus, connecting ideas, people, and purpose. Our alums bring their expertise, leadership, and passion for education into every corner of the University. Truly !

Once again, this summer, we’re spotlighting just some of the Penn GSE alumni who help Penn thrive, starting with Aman Goyal, GED'13, director of Penn Traditions, Young Alumni Programs, Penn First Plus, and Industry Initiatives in Alumni Relations.

Says Aman: "Before Alumni Relations, I worked across Penn in the University Life Division and Wharton School. What I learned and still use from my GSE days in the Higher Education Master's Program is the importance of taking care of the whole student and not treating interactions with them as transactional. I loved the concept of 'in loco parentis' or 'in the place of a parent.' College administrators are the adults on campus whom students can look to for mentorship, support, advice, or a listening ear. It's vital that we are there for them and offer accountability and 'lightbulb moments' for them so that they are becoming full people, not just seeing their relationship with Penn as a transactional checkbox."

Last week, students and alums from our Education Entrepreneurship program gathered on campus to celebrate the work of latest cohort with a venture showcase and a live pitch competition.

Read about some of the different showcased ventures and the network of changemakers the program creates:

Education Entrepreneurship Community Celebrates Innovation, Impact On Sunday, June 14, students, alums, faculty, mentors, and industry leaders gathered at Penn GSE for the Education Entrepreneurship (EdEnt) program's annual Venture Showcase and Pitch Competition, an end-of-year celebration highlighting ventures designe...

An end-of-the-year teach-in gathered community members together not simply to remember September 11, 2001, but to examine the world it created. Timed ahead of 9/11's coming 25th anniversary, the event was organized by Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher, advanced senior lecturer at Penn GSE and director of the International Educational Development program, in collaboration with a coalition of departments from across the University.

“It is an important day in the history of this country,” said Ghaffar-Kucher, who is planning another teach-in for the fall. “But there is a much larger story about what 9/11 brought upon the world and how the world changed. We live in the world that September 11 made.”

Learn more:

Teaching September 11 at 25 Inside a fifth-floor classroom at 3440 Market Street, 40 students, faculty, staff, and community members gathered earlier this spring not simply to remember September 11, 2001, but to examine the world it created.

Celebrate Pride Month by strengthening your practice! 🌈

In our latest Educator's Playbook, Associate Professor Ed Brockenbrough discusses queerly responsive pedagogy, explaining how teachers can move beyond harm reduction to support their LGBTQ+ students through classroom practices and make them feel seen, represented, and included.

Learn more: https://www.gse.upenn.edu/news/supporting-lgbtq-students-agents-change-queerly-responsive-pedagogy

Supporting LGBTQ+ Students as Agents of Change: Queerly Responsive Pedagogy In many classrooms, support for LGBTQ+ students centers on protection, such as preventing bullying, responding to harm, and ensuring safety. That work is essential, but it is not enough.“Even if the harm stops, students still have needs that schools are...

Before coming to Penn GSE, Amy Guillotte, who just graduated with her PhD in Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education, worked with students and teachers across a range of contexts from DC and Atlanta to Jordan and Uganda.

“I came to Penn GSE because I wanted to learn more about how to design and facilitate meaningful learning experiences for language and literacy educators, and how to study how teachers learn within these spaces,” she said.

Now she's returning to the classroom as assistant professor in the Elementary Education program at Towson University.

Learn more about Amy's academic and professional journey:

Class of 2026: Amy Guillotte Photo: Hassan Javed Amy Guillotte has worked with students and teachers across a range of contexts.

The day before , Penn GSE celebrated another milestone: the annual doctoral hooding ceremony. At this year's event, 72 new PhDs and EdDs received their hoods from their advisors in the Zellerbach Theatre in the .

For a full gallery of photos from the special day: https://penng.se/photos

What's next for our Class of 2026 graduates? Well, Mark J. Comesañas, a recent grad of our Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational and Organizational Leadership, is the the executive director of My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Newark, a nonprofit focused on closing opportunity gaps for boys and young men of color through policy and system-change work, and was recently elected to his local school board.

Mark is always working to scale his impact.

“When I was a teacher, I served the 30 students in my classroom,” he said. “As a school leader, I served the hundreds in my schools. As a nonprofit leader, I influence ecosystems that serve thousands of boys and young men of color across my city.”

Read more about Mark:

Class of 2026: Mark J. Comesañas Mark J. Comesañas is always looking to scale his impact.

Penn GSE has been awarded a $720,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation to support the launch of the Learning Embedded Approach to Preparation and Staffing (LEAPS), an ambitious model that reimagines how teachers learn, grow, and remain in the profession.

Built on years of research and deep partnerships with Philadelphia schools, LEAPS creates a new staffing and learning structure that places multiple adults—an experienced Attending teacher, an Early Career teacher, and at least one teacher Candidate—in two or more PreK–4 classrooms, all learning together while centering student outcomes.

Learn more:

Penn GSE Awarded Grant to Transform Teacher Preparation Through Innovative New Model A new, two-year $720,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation will support the launch of the Learning Embedded Approach to Preparation and Staffing (LEAPS), an ambitious model that reimagines how teachers learn, grow, and remain in the profession.