Dr. Amy Gooden is passionate about the intersection of language, education, culture, and inclusion. She received her master’s degree in Education from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. She holds a doctorate in Education from Boston University with a concentration in second language teacher education and intercultural teaching and learning. Dr. Gooden has recently been nominated by the federal government to serve as an English Language Specialist for the US Department of State.
At Lesley University, she serves as Associate Professor of TESOL/ Bilingual Education and Co-Director of the Lesley University Institute for English Language Programs Beyond Borders. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses such as Sheltered English Immersion, Intercultural Education and Communication, Writing Workshop for Multilingual Learners, and Education Abroad: Examining Human Migration at the Crossroads of Spain and Morocco. She also teaches as an adjunct in the International Higher Education master's program.
Dr. Gooden teaches courses at the Harvard University Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning and serves as Technical Advisor for global English language education projects for USAID in Morocco. She was formerly the Academic Director of Global Academic Advantage Programs and has developed a suite of student and faculty development supports for global pathways students.
Her research focuses on case-based pedagogy as a language teaching and intercultural awareness and education tool for educators of multilingual and multicultural learners in K-12 and higher educational contexts; inclusive and decolonizing language teacher education; and arts-based and restorative justice approaches to supporting the needs of immigrant and refugee students and families.
For more than a decade, Amy served as a Preceptor for Harvard University’s Institute for English Language Programs, where she was awarded the prestigious Excellence in Teaching Award for her work supporting international graduate students and multilingual learners in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses.
Thereafter, she served as Lecturer in TESOL/Bilingual/Modern Foreign Language and Intercultural Education and Director of International Teacher Education Certificate Programs at Boston University School of Education, including a global TEFL teacher education partnership she spearheaded with the Chinese Ministry of Education. In this role, Amy also authored and was awarded Governor Deval Patrick’s Gateways Cities grant to support the creation of a multi-year university/public school district partnership. The BU/Malden School District Reach for the Stars Academy was designed to support the language and learning needs of emerging bilingual middle school students through whole-child, arts-infused approaches to teaching and learning. She was also awarded a state grant to direct the Somali Development Center’s language and acculturation program for refugee families. In addition, she served as Coordinator of Field Placements for language teacher licensure programs.
As a licensed ESL and Spanish teacher, she has taught English as a second language and Spanish in public and private schools in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. She serves as an educational consultant and provides professional development for teachers of multicultural and multilingual learners in local school districts and universities including the Boston pathways to licensure program and Brown University-Shenzhen Institute.
She has presented her research nationally and internationally as has been invited by the US Department of State to present on the themes of inclusion and differentiation in language teaching and learning to teachers of critical languages. She has conducted field research on cultural pluralism in a Bribri indigenous and Jamaican descendent community in Costa Rica and on educational, cultural, and social barriers for Roma in Southern Spain.