Penn State Human Rights Initiative faculty win mentorship, dissertation awards

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Two faculty members associated with the Penn State Hammel Family Human Rights Initiative have earned national awards for their work.

Rachel Wolkenhauer, an associate professor in the College of Education at Penn State and an affiliate faculty member with the initiative, earned the Duaine C. Lang Distinguished Mentoring Award from the Association of Teacher Educators. The award will be presented on March 29 during the group’s annual conference in Anaheim, California.

Yun-chen Yen, an assistant research professor for the initiative, earned the Dissertations Scholarship Award from the American Educational Research Association. The award will be presented April 13 during the association’s annual conference in Philadelphia.

In her dissertation, “A Case Analysis of Collective Teacher Efficacy in a Practitioner Inquiry Community,” Yen investigated educator collaborations.

“I like to be a thought partner with teachers and show that I care about what excites them, confuses them, what struggles they have, what success they see in themselves and in their students,” Yen said. “It's not just me empowering teachers, they empower each other, too. They ask each other questions, they listen to each other, they feel the struggle of one another, and they get curious about that together.”

Yen earned her doctorate from Penn State in 2023. Wolkenhauer served as her dissertation adviser.

“Yun-chen’s research offers a rich description of the participants’ experiences,” said Wolkenhauer, who leads the initiative’s internal professional learning. “Her findings describe compelling empirical characteristics of educators’ collective efficacy through four sources: mastery experience, vicarious experience, social persuasion, and emotional states.”

Besides leading the initiative’s internal professional learning, Wolkenhauer has teamed up with Yen and other initiative team members to research its professional learning programs, which help K-12 educators navigate difficult issues such as racism and the Holocaust.

Yen facilitates initiative programs at New Jersey’s Greater Egg Harbor Regional School District and Colorado’s Aspen School District.

Founded and directed by Boaz Dvir, an associate professor in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications and an award-winning filmmaker, the Hammel Family Human Rights Initiative and the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education Initiative offer professional learning programs throughout Pennsylvania and around the country.