Samuel S. Perkins, Ph.D.

In addition to serving as Director of the BS/MS in Education Program, Dr. Perkins also serves as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) Point of Contact for the School of Education as well as serving as the Certification Ombudsman. Dr. Perkins has also served as Chair of the Department of Early and Middle Childhood Education, Director of the TESOL Department, TESOL Coordinator, and Undergraduate Program Coordinator. In addition to his passion for teaching and his advocacy for students, Dr. Perkins has engaged in research in a number of areas relevant to the education profession including transformative education, culture, language acquisition, assessment, and distance education. He has authored or co-authored multiple articles that have appeared in peer-reviewed journals, and authored the following chapters in textbooks used in one of the TESOL courses in the BS/MS Program: Culturally proficient educators and students: Partners in transforming challenges into opportunities (in Preparing the Way: Teaching ELLs in the K-12 Classroom) and Culture: the ever-present enigma (in Perspectives on teaching K-12 English Language Learners). Dr. Perkins has also presented or co-presented at conferences from international to local in scope including presentations at the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) International Conference, the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, the Southeastern Regional TESOL Conference, and the Southeastern Regional Association of Teacher Educators.