A recipient of the North Carolina Teaching Fellows scholarship, Dr. Jeanne Dyches' career in education began in 2008 when she began teaching English language arts at Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School in Raleigh, NC.

In her teaching, Jeanne quickly noticed deep disconnects between her students, who almost entirely identified as Black Indigenous People of Color, and the required canonical curriculum, which overwhelmingly reflected the voices and experiences of White male authors. The incongruences between students’ lived experiences and the curriculum perplexed her.

But they inspired her to action, too.

The longer she taught, the more she questioned the broader historical dialogue of curriculum and its relationship to, and impacts on, U.S. students.

Upon completing her master's degree at NC State in 2011, Dr. Dyches decided to pursue answers to these questions. While completing her PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2016), she developed a research agenda melding critical curriculum studies, secondary literacies, and qualitative methodologies. From 2012-2016, she held research assistantships at both UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University and worked as a literacy coach at a high school in Raleigh, NC.

In fall 2016, Dr. Dyches joined the faculty of Iowa State University’s School of Education as an assistant professor of secondary literacy education. At Iowa State, Dr. Dyches teaches courses on social justice, disciplinary literacy, and critical disciplinary literacy. Dr. Dyches has won awards for her teaching on both the secondary and post-secondary levels. Among other responsibilities, she is the advisor of the Future Teacher Educators Association, member of the Education for Social Justice administrative team, and the program designer and lead of the Disciplinary Literacy in Rome study abroad program. The American Educational Research Association, American Reading Forum, Society of Professors of Education, and Iowa Academy of Education have recognized Dr. Dyches’ research and scholarly contributions to the field of education.

Outside of her professional life, Jeanne likes to read, travel, garden, spend time with her family, and head home to the Carolinas as much as possible.