Noreen Garman

  • Senior Fellow, IISE – 2007-Present. Co-Director, IISE – 1996-2003

Professor Noreen Garman served as Co-Director of IISE from 1996-2003, and was instrumental in helping to expand the Institute’s influence abroad and within the University of Pittsburgh. She began her teaching career as an English teacher who also directed the dramatic activities. In 1968 she began to supervise teaching both in the public schools and the University. Her dissertation focused on an instructional supervision program for teaching assistants in the English Department at the University of Pittsburgh. Since then she has been teaching courses in instructional supervision, curriculum studies and adult learning. She also teaches qualitative research and ways of knowing. Garman brings an interpretivist orientation from her roots in arts to her research and practice in education. Because of her writings, she worked extensively in Australia, lectured in Korea, and took a senior Fulbright position in Philippines. In the mid 1990s, Garman directed two educational programs in Bosnia during and after the war. As a result of her international focus, she has taken on administrative positions. She is the founder of the Dissertation Study Group since 1980. Over the years, the Study Group, a community of learners, has been the center of intellectual nourishment for her which helped her to name her deepest insights.