Arnetha F. Ball
Professor of Education

Arnetha F. Ball is Professor of Education at Stanford University, where she has taught for the past eight years. Prior to that, she taught at the University of Michigan (1992 –1999) where she received an Outstanding Teaching Award in 1998.

Her research interests focus on the oral and written literacies of culturally and linguistically diverse populations in the United States and South Africa. In particular, she focuses on research in writing and writing instruction and the preparation of teachers to work with poor, marginalized, and underachieving students. She combines sociocultural and linguistic theory to investigate the discourse patterns of students in classrooms and community-based organizations across national boundaries and provide insights on teacher professional development and the successful pedagogies of teachers who work effectively with students of African descent.

This research is applicable to the teaching and learning of a wide range of students from diverse backgrounds and has broad educational implications. It emphasizes the importance of bridging the gap between research on secondary and college students and the importance of incorporating students' cultural resources into the curriculum.

Before entering the professorate, she taught pre-school, elementary, and secondary students for over 25 years and was the founder and Executive Director of Children’s Creative Workshop, an early education center that specialized in providing premiere educational experiences for students from diverse backgrounds.

Dr. Ball has served as an Academic Specialist for the United States Information Services Program in South Africa, co-taught courses on Multiliteracies and English Methodologies in the teacher education program at Johannesburg College of Education, and taught in the Further Diploma in Education Program at the University of Cape Town. She has served on many boards and committees in her field and has published widely, with numerous book chapters and articles in journals that include Linguistics and Education, Applied Behavioral Science Review, Language Variation and Change, and Written Communication.

Dr. Ball is one of the editors of Black Linguistics (along with Dr. Sinfree Makoni, Dr. Geneva Smitherman, and Dr. Arthur Spears) and co-editor of Bakhtinian Perspectives on Language, Literacy, and Learning with Dr. Sarah Freedman. She has two additional books, Literacies Unleashed with Dr. Ted Lardner and her single-authored book, Multicultural Strategies for Eduation and Social Change: Carriers of the Torch in the U.S. and South Africa. Dr. Ball also received the Richard Braddock Award with Dr. Ted Lardner for a College Composition and Communication’s outstanding journal article published in 1997.

Dr. Ball has been married for thirty eight years, is the mother of three beautiful daughters and the grandmother of four very sweet grandchildren.