Shireen Al-Adeimi, assistant professor of language and literacy in the Michigan State University Department of Teacher Education, is a recipient of the 2024-2025 MSU Teacher Scholar Award.
The honor, bestowed by the Office of Faculty and Academic Staff Development, is part of the university’s All-University Awards. Teacher Scholar Awards are given “to faculty who have earned the respect of students and colleagues early in their careers for their devotion to and skill in teaching and whose instruction is linked to and informed by their research and creative activities,” according to the Office of the Provost.
MSU transformations and selected scholarly efforts
Al-Adeimi, who joined the college in 2018, has transformed courses in the Department of Teacher Education. For example, she was influential — if not the leader — behind redesigns and course curricula revisions for several TE department courses, including those for graduate and undergraduate students. She has also designed a special topics seminar course for graduate students. In addition to her role in the Department of Teacher Education, Al-Adeimi is a core faculty member in the MSU Muslim Studies Program.
Al-Adeimi is also the director of the Global Educators Cohort Program (GECP) and continues to shape the undergraduate experience, including by improving and aligning core curricular opportunities, implementing extracurricular events and developing a speaker series.
“Dr. Al-Adeimi’s work exemplifies the highest standards in the field, merging innovative research, committed teaching, public scholarship and service to the educational community,” said University Distinguished Professor Patricia A. Edwards in a nomination letter. Edwards’ letter also references various highlights of Al-Adeimi’s academic scholarship, including how Al-Adeimi developed the Low-Inference Discourse Observation tool, which “provid[es] a validated method for analyzing classroom discourse and yielding insights into how dialogic talk can be fostered in diverse educational contexts.” From 2020-2023, Edwards and Al-Adeimi were amongst the MSU team who served as editors of The Reading Teacher. She currently serves as the Area 3 Chair for the Literacy Research Association, a position she’s held since 2023.
As written by students
According to Professor Anne-Lise Halvorsen, Al-Adeimi’s students “positively rave about their experiences in [her courses].”
Professor Christina Schwarz and Assistant Professor Alexandra Allweiss, who co-championed Al-Adeimi’s nomination for the award, wrote: “Students regularly seek out [Al-Adeimi’s courses] and describe the impact of her courses on their work and life.”
In one nomination letter, an alum and two students share how Al-Adeimi “sets an emulatory example of what it means to support and be supported.” The letter includes individual memories of personalized and academic-based support shown by Al-Adeimi. It ends with: “[Her] mentorship goes beyond the walls of Erickson Halls and is far-reaching.”
In one nomination letter, co-signed by five students in the Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education program, celebrate how Al-Adeimi’s “curriculum design is effective in ensuring students from all backgrounds.” In addition, the letter continues, “her innovative teaching meets students where they are and allows them to critically understand and apply quantitative knowledge through the ways she adapts every course to the individual students present.”
“For many of us,” the same nomination letter concludes, “[Dr. Al-Adeimi] has been a guiding force that exemplifies that scholarship, teaching and activism are not mutually exclusive but interconnected avenues for meaningful change. Through these interactions, we have become better scholars, educators and individuals because of [her] insightful contributions, thoughtfulness and dedication to social justice.”
Al-Adeimi will formally receive the award at an annual ceremony on April 7, 2025.