Dr. Spatig is a professor of advanced educational studies at Marshall University. She earned her B.S. with an emphasis on early childhood education/English at Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina, her M.Ed. with an emphasis on elementary education at Western Washington State University in Bellingham, Washington, and her Ed.D. with an emphasis on foundations of education at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas.
Dr. Spatig is working on several different projects. She is coding and analyzing interview and observation data collected from female school administrators over a five year period. The analysis will highlight issues of race, gender, social class, and place in relation to educational leadership. She is also developing a manuscript based on an ethnographic case study of an African American girl. The longitudinal study follows the young girl from kindergarten through fourth grade. The manuscript also highlights race, social class, and gender issues in the child’s experiences and identity development. She is also working with another CSEGA affiliate scholar (Dr. Mary Jo Graham) in preparing a grant proposal for a five year study that compares the experiences of teen parents in a high school with child care services and those of teen parents in schools without such services. This multidisciplinary, longitudinal study will utilize both qualitative and quantitative methodology and will address issues of gender, race, class, and place.
Dr. Spatig has contributed to several books and textbooks on educational issues. She is the chair of the Pennies from Heaven Committee and a reviewer of exemplary child care programs for the Governor’s Cabinet on Children and Families.