I love the feeling of muddling—sometimes for days—and the eventual ‘aha’ feeling I get when I figure out a problem. The feeling of discovery when problem-solving is so exciting!”
Angel Bohannon (she/her)
PhD Candidate in the Human Development and Social Policy Program (HDSP)
Angel Bohannon is a PhD candidate in the Human Development and Social Policy Program in the School of Education and Social Policy. She examines how educational leaders and research-practice collaborations might promote equitable, system-wide instructional improvement. Her dissertation targets how school administrators experienced and dealt with the barrage of concurrent problems vying for their limited attention during the COVID-19 crisis. Angel was awarded an AAUW American Fellowship and a Northwestern Graduate Research Grant.
How would you describe your research and/or work to a non-academic audience?
I am interested in when and how research-practice partnerships and educational leaders can foster equitable, system-wide instructional improvement. For my dissertation, I examine how school leaders experienced the onslaught of multiple, simultaneous issues competing for their limited attention during the COVID-19 crisis. I show how school leaders frequently experience attentional dilemmas wherein they are confronted with messy choices between paying attention to two or more competing, highly desired goals or values, all of which cannot all be fully satisfied. I also describe the bundles of interconnected strategies leaders use to manage these multiple demands.
Tell us what inspired your research and/or work.
Prior to grad school, I worked on a research-practice partnership where we partnered with administrators and faculty to implement an asset-based math intervention in community colleges. This experience sparked my commitment to doing equitable, collaborative research in partnership with front-line practitioners centered on problems of practice that are meaningful to them.
What do you find both rewarding and challenging about your research and/or work?
One research moment that is both rewarding and challenging is when I’m stuck on a research problem and am not sure how to proceed. I love the feeling of muddling—sometimes for days—and the eventual "aha" feeling I get when I figure out a problem. The feeling of discovery when problem-solving is so exciting!
What is the biggest potential impact or implication of your work?
My dissertation highlights the negative consequences of attentional dilemmas for school leaders’ mental, emotional, and physical health. This has important implications for how policymakers and funders might reimagine the everyday work of school leaders to both reduce the onslaught of demands competing for their attention and minimize the impact of these dilemmas on their health.
How do you unwind after a long day?
Bouldering and board games. I really appreciate the communities I’ve gotten to know and spend time with during these activities. Also, binge watching too many episodes of reality TV.
How would your closest friends describe you?
Loyal. I’ve known and regularly kept in touch with some of my closest friends for almost my entire life.
What did you originally want to be when you grew up?
I’ve always been fascinated by people and issues of social change, but I wasn’t sure for the longest time what that would look like. Originally, I wanted to be a therapist or psychologist.
Published: January 31, 2023
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