At Oklahoma State University, composition courses engage students in critical conversations about analysis, evaluation, and provide them with a framework of skills to respond to writing within their respective fields of study. Many of our students are studying in programs outside of the English Department, wherein the composition program is located. Our instructors reflect this variance of experience—professors who are literature experts, creative writers, graduate students studying rhetoric. We are also privileged to work with visiting professors and lecturers who contribute to scholarly fields outside of the English Department—enter Dr. Robin Holly!
Dr. Holly received her PhD here at Oklahoma State University, focusing on Curriculum Studies with an emphasis in college curriculum and teaching, and with a specific cognate area of Early Childhood Education. Prior to her studies and scholarship at OSU, Dr. Holly worked as a public educator, spending fourteen years teaching in Stillwater classrooms. This experience deeply influenced Dr. Holly’s decision to obtain a PhD, and investigate developmental interventions, and identify gaps affecting education in the public school arena. Dr. Holly explains, “My expertise in curriculum and instruction has equipped me with a versatile skillset that I feel transcends traditional academic boundaries. I’m in an interdisciplinary field that allows me to blend knowledge from various arenas. I’m not confined to just early childhood or elementary education; instead, my area is applicable across diverse domains in higher education, public education, advocacy, and I really strive to be an educational leader within my field. I'm able to excel in various roles and various educational disciplines. Whether it's undergraduate courses, graduate programs, or specialized professional development initiatives, I am to adjust my pedagogy to meet those needs. I want to positively impact curriculum and instruction and I lean on my expertise in shaping effective learning experiences across the entire spectrum of higher education and beyond.” In short, much of Dr. Holly’s work, both in Early Childhood Education and in the FYC classroom, highlights both student needs and areas of impacted access.
This semester, Dr. Holly’s research on accountability reform in classrooms was accepted to the 2024 Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness - Early Childhood Research Symposium. Only twenty-two other educators and scholars were accepted to showcase their research, and out of that group, Dr. Holly’s presentation—“Educators’ Perspectives on the Importance of Play: Time & Environment as Barriers”—won the People’s Choice Award. Dr. Holly’s research, findings, and presentation focused on early educators working in Oklahoma, and the barriers that impact their ability to perform their jobs. Factors such as professional autonomy, time, overall environment, and much more, were all identified as areas that required significant reform, to achieve both the wellness and life satisfaction of teachers, but also, the educational success of students. The work that Dr. Holly showcased at the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness Symposium was pulled directly from her PhD dissertation—Less Time for Play: The Effects of Accountability Reforms on Early Childhood Educators and Education. The dissertation is a significant contribution to the scholastic conversation surrounding early childhood education and educational access. Interviews, collaborative inquiry, community engagement, and fore fronting the opinions and voices of educators all come together in Dr. Holly’s research, bridging the gap of a lack of teacher perspectives in contemporary Early Childhood Educational scholarship to demonstrate the relationship that educator wellness and environmental considerations impact student development.
Having Dr. Holly’s work selected for such a prestigious honor showcases both the outstanding nature of her scholarship, and the urgent need for it. At the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness Symposium, educators, colleagues, and government officials alike came together to discuss Early Childhood Education reform and the current, precarious position of accountability reforms in the state of Oklahoma. “It was invigorating,” says Dr. Holly, “to be around other colleagues…being around these cohorts was great to be able to inter-dialogue about…efficacy, legislation, the teacher shortage and job satisfaction, the academic shutdown…asking how do we advocate and create a snowball effect.” Among the symposium attendees was Representative Jacob Rosecrants, who spoke with Dr. Holly following her presentation. Representative Rosecrants is a former public-school educator, and a strong advocate for reinvesting time, money, and developmentally-appropriate teaching methodologies into Oklahoma’s public school system. Representative Rosecrants is also an advocate for play-based learning, a fundamental facet of Dr. Holly’s research. “I told him he could borrow my presentation poster to hang in the Capital,” she jokes.
Play-based education requires an individualization of both classroom and curriculum—this is a fundamental focus of Dr. Holly’s inquiry. An enforcement of a blanketed “un-individualized” curriculum, or a school system that expects all instructors to teach the same, are practices that only increase the inaccessibility of curriculum goals and objectives. On one of Dr. Holly’s research posters, in large font, is a quote—
We are not Stepford Teachers! “When you try to make everything the same, you end up with inequity at a larger scale” says Dr. Holly. Her attention to the individual student extends beyond her research in Early Childhood Education and impacts the way she approaches her FYC classroom. Dr. Holly believes in establishing connections with each student that takes a class with her; for example, on the first day of class, students design fun nametags so that Dr. Holly can practice memorizing names with faces.
“I immediately know 83 students’ names,” says Dr. Holly. “I can then recognize them on campus, and they feel more connected to me. Because of this, they’re not afraid to ask questions or approach me. That vulnerability comes with the ability to see them, hear them, and value them as a person.” Students also have the opportunity to pursue course objectives through their own personal interests—picking research topics for large-scale writing assignments, which allows for a deeper engagement with course material, and for students to become more personally committed to curricular outcomes and classroom objectives. “Each one of my classes is completely different in how they act and how they’re on track, and I just know them so well. I think these practices and that individualism comes into play, and it’s helped them learn how to be more vulnerable in writing, and take writing criticism back and apply it, rather than just take it.”
Dr. Holly is a busy person on campus—not only is she teaching composition courses, she teaches courses in the Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education departments at OSU. Classes like “Foundations in Early Childhood Education”, “Introduction to Teaching and Learning,” or even “Children’s Play,” which is an international class credit that allows students to observe play habits across countries and cultures. She’s turning her dissertation into a book and continues to work to publish the research she has conducted in academic journals.
If you are interested in our Education programs here at Oklahoma State, make sure to find Dr. Holly’s name on a course list. Or, if you’re just excited to take a course with an instructor so committed to the individual student, look for her composition classes. OSU’s FYC program is lucky to have Dr. Holly on our roster of wonderful instructors, and we’re grateful for her commitment to constantly working to better OSU’s classrooms, care for our students, and ensure they feel seen: “I’ve only ever been at OSU; it’s my place, it’s my jam, it’s the only place I want to teach.”