Professor Fleming joined the faculty in 2008. She comes to Erikson from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where her research focused on solving practical problems in urban teacher preparation, with the goal of improving educational outcomes for children in urban public schools.
Specifically, she has studied the readiness and needs of new teachers working in urban public schools. Finding that few teachers feel well-prepared for diverse and complex classrooms, she has worked to begin "urbanizing" traditional teacher education courses to help new teachers develop deeper understandings of the role of language, culture, and community in teaching and to address more effectively the academic and social development of a wide range of learners. Fleming also conducts research on the impact of culturally relevant children’s literature on reading development. She has recently completed a review of high-quality picture books with familiar city settings and positive images of urban culture that may be especially useful for fostering the beginning reading skills of children in urban public school classrooms.
Fleming has taught at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Northwestern University, and DePaul University as well as at UIC; she is a former middle school teacher and elementary reading specialist.
Areas of Expertise
Urban teacher preparation; reading instruction and assessment; urban children's literature; trends in reading instruction; reading disability..