Susan L. Groenke, professor of English education, earned a BA in English in 1993 and an MA in curriculum and instruction in 1995 from Virginia Tech. She taught English, language arts, and creative writing at the middle school and high school levels for six years before returning to Virginia Tech to pursue her doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction. In 1999, Groenke was nationally board certified in English/language arts for adolescents. She received her PhD in 2003. Her research interests include adolescent motivation to read and adolescent understandings of young adult literature. Groenke is currently the program advisor for the MS English education program and the PhD program in Children’s and Young Adult Literature. She teaches courses in secondary English methods, composition pedagogy, and young adult literature. She is the former editor of English Leadership Quarterly, an NCTE publication. In 2014, she became the director of the Center for Children’s and Young Adult Literature at UT.
Groenke’s research interests center on adolescent reading motivation and engagement and using young adult literature (YAL) in anti-racist teacher education. Her research has been published in Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, The ALAN Review, Qualitative Inquiry, and Review of Research in Education. She is co-author (with Lisa Scherff) of Teaching YAL through Differentiated Instruction, published by NCTE in 2010.
Contact Information
A417 Jane & David Bailey Education Complex
1126 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, TN 37996
Phone: 865-974-4242
Email: sgroenke@utk.edu