Professor Richard Donato, former Chair of the Department of Instruction and Learning of Pitt School of Education, who is also IISE Research Fellow, received the Frank Mulhern Outstanding Professional Leadership Award. This award recognizes Donato’s dedication and outstanding leadership in the teaching and learning of world languages and cultures.
The award is presented by the Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association (PSMLA). It is a professional organization dedicated to the teaching and learning of world languages and cultures from kindergarten through university levels.
Donato's works on world language and cultures resonate to IISE visions and missions to prepare global generation of students for their generational inheritance as global citizens. Central in many of Donato’s works is about linguistic and cultural diversity. He strongly promotes the integration of teaching culture into language instruction. Through his works, Donate promotes not only awareness and engagements, but also actions, to safeguard tangible and intangible linguistic and cultural heritage around the world.
At Pitt, Donato teaches courses on current research on foreign and second language learning, Vygotsky and sociocultural theory, and sociocultural approaches to language instruction. His research interests include early foreign language learning, language program assessment, sociocultural theory and second language acquisition, the discourse of classroom collaboration, and foreign language teacher education.
Donato is a recipient of several awards and recognitions for his works in language teaching and language education. He received the Paul Pimsleur award for his published research in 1997 on early language learning and in 2006 on the connection of language learning to literature instruction in university foreign language classes. He earned the Northeast Conference Freeman Award (2004) and the French Institute of Washington Award (2003) for his work on dialogic grammar instruction in foreign language classes. In 2016, he was the recipient of the Provost’s award for research mentoring at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2019, he received the Pennsylvania State Language Association, Frank Mulhern Award, for leadership.
Here is for more information about Professor Donato’s recent award, as covered by the School of Education. Professor Donato wins Award for Leadership in World Languages and Cultures