Janet Kim, the College of Education (COE) Special Education Recruitment Specialist, was awarded a 2020 NAGAP Graduate Education Research Grant for her proposal, Understanding the Special Education Teacher Pipeline. She was recognized during a National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals (NAGAP) virtual award’s ceremony on April 23, 2020.
“NAGAP is an amazing organization that has fundamentally helped shape my role as the special education recruitment specialist over the past five years,” Kim said. “This research grant will allow me to capitalize on best practices in survey research as I can invest in professional services and tools to support the visual design of my survey instrument and afford to implement a multi-modal dissemination plan.”
As a “Gold” research grant award winner, Kim will receive $2,500 to fund her research. Building upon her dissertation work, she will explore initial motivations related to pursuing a career in special education. She will survey current Hawai‘i Department of Education (HIDOE) special education teachers, especially those from underrepresented populations, to better understand who chooses special education as a career and why.
Kim added, “My research findings will help to inform future marketing and recruitment strategies so that we are better able to target those who are more likely to enter the profession. I hope that this will serve as a strategy in addressing the long-standing special education teacher shortage in Hawai‘i.”
Previously serving as an elementary special education teacher for the HIDOE, Kim holds the first full-time recruitment position in the COE. Her work focuses on distance and online recruitment methods and programs to meet the unique needs of rural and remote populations across the state of Hawaiʻi.
In addition to the monetary prize, Kim will receive a complimentary NAGAP membership for one year as well as registration and travel expenses for NAGAP’s 2021 Graduate Enrollment Management (GEM) Summit in San Francisco where she will present her research.
