Cheryl Hunter
-
Professor,
Education, Health & Behavior
- nature-based curriculum and instruction; qualitative methodology and design; narrative research methods; critical ethnography; education leadership; gender, education and the environment
Contact Info
- Email: cheryl.hunter@UND.edu
- Office: 701.777.3431
- Dept: 701.777.2171
Office Address
Education, Health & Behavior
Education Building Room 240
231 Centennial Drive Stop 7189
Grand Forks, ND 58202-7189
Biography
Cheryl A. Hunter, PhD, is a Full Professor in the Department of Educational Foundations and Research at the University of North Dakota, where she has built a distinguished career at the intersection of qualitative inquiry, equity-centered pedagogy, and social justice. With a PhD in History, Philosophy and Policy Studies in Education from Indiana University, where she concentrated in International and Comparative Education with a minor in Sociology, Dr. Hunter brings a richly interdisciplinary lens to her scholarship, teaching, and community engagement.
Dr. Hunter's scholarly identity is defined by a deep commitment to methodological pluralism. She employs a diverse range of qualitative approaches, including ethnography, narrative inquiry, portraiture, phenomenology, cognitive task analysis, participatory research, and autoethnography. Her work has crossed the boundaries of education, medical anthropology, environmental studies, multicultural education, gender studies, rural policy, and international comparative education, demonstrating the versatility and power of interpretive research methods to illuminate human experience in context. This breadth is perhaps best exemplified in her co-authored book Understanding Doulas and Childbirth: Women, Love, and Advocacy (Palgrave Macmillan) and her co-edited work Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice in Educational Research: Methods at the Margins (Palgrave MacMillan). Her published work spans journals in medical anthropology, environmental science, multicultural education, rural health, teacher education, and educational research methods. Her recent work explores ecological narrative methodology, citizen science as climate literacy, and nature-based experiential pedagogy, connecting methodological innovation to pressing issues of environmental and social justice.
Equity-centered pedagogy shapes everything Dr. Hunter does in the classroom. As Director of UND's Qualitative Inquiry Certificate, she has built a graduate methods program grounded in the idea that how we teach research is inseparable from what research is for. Her courses include: EFR 510: Qualitative Research Methods, EFR 520: Advanced Qualitative Research Methods, EFR 507: Gender Bias in Science: Curriculum and Policy Implications. Across her teaching she models what she calls provocative pedagogy- using interpretive methods and disruptive content to challenge students to think across disciplines, question inherited assumptions, and engage research as a tool for social change. She has been an NSF-funded invited presenter on qualitative methods for the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) and received the Thomas J. Clifford Faculty Award for Graduate or Professional Teaching Excellence.
Dr. Hunter has mentored more than fifty doctoral students to completion, many of whom conducted qualitative dissertations on topics rooted in equity and justice: indigenous knowledge systems and decolonizing methodology, racial campus climate at predominantly white institutions, LGBTQ+ identity development, literacy as resistance in a domestic violence shelter, the experiences of Native women in higher education leadership, and parental leave policy in higher education, among many others. Her mentorship reflects the same values that animate her scholarship — methodological rigor, deep respect for research participants, and a conviction that inquiry must be in service of justice. She currently serves as Co-Director of the GRO.UND Learning Gardens, a community-rooted initiative connecting nature-based experiential learning to sustainability education. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the Cicadian an interdisciplinary journal publishing creative and embodied scholarship rooted in nature-based relationships, stories of place, and experiential inquiry.
Throughout her career, from a postdoctoral fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine to faculty appointments Indiana University and University of Louisville, to her current role at UND, Dr. Hunter has demonstrated that qualitative methods, practiced with care and purpose, can cross disciplinary borders, serve diverse communities, and advance the causes of equity and justice in education and beyond.
TLPP
TL 539 College Teaching
EFR
EFR 500 Foundations of Educational Thought
EFR 505 Sociological Foundations of Education
EFR 506 Multicultural Education; EFR 507 Gender, Education and the Environment
EFR 509 Introduction to Applied Education Research
EFR 510 Qualitative Research Methods (Participatory Research Methods)
EFR 520 Advanced Qualitative Research Methods (Translational and Pluralistic Research Design)
EFR 525 Comparative and International Education
EFR 590 Special Topics:The Witch and the Wolf
EFR 590 Special Topics:Translational Qualitative Research
sustainability education
qualitative methodology and design
narrative research methods
gender, education and the environment
nature-based curriculum and instruction
critical pedagogy
educational leadership and advocacy
medical and ecological education
AWARDS and HONORS
Recipient (2016), Thomas J. Clifford Faculty Award for Graduate or Professional Teaching Excellence, UND. This award recognizes individual graduate or professional faculty who meet the highest standards in teaching as recognized by their students and peers.
Finalist (2013),Thomas J. Clifford Faculty Award for Graduate or Professional Teaching Excellence, UND
Recipient (2011), President's Award for Outstanding Paper, The Society of Gynecologic Surgeons
Diwadkar, G. and Hunter, C. (2011) Using cognitive task analysis to understand the critical components of performing vaginal hysterectomy. 37th Annual Meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Surgeon's, San Antonio, TX. April 11, 2011
Cleveland Clinic Scholarship in Teaching Award (2010). This award was based upon collaborative research on the implications of using virtual technology for teaching communication skills to medical students.
Distinguished Educator Certificate (2009), Cleveland Clinic Academy. This award represents completion of a year-long faculty development training series and successful faculty teaching observations.
FELLOWSHIPS
Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University (2008-2009). The medical education fellowship provided the opportunity to hone my skills as a qualitative methodologist by consulting on multiple research projects with faculty. I completed an independent research project on the assessment of portfolios in medical education, participated in faculty development projects, evaluation projects and completed the Distinguished Educator Series.
John H. Edwards, Graduate Fellowship, Indiana University (2006-2007). The John H. Edwards Fellowship is one of the University’s most prestigious academic awards at Indiana University; a university-wide committee selects fellows of superior scholastic ability, intellectual capacity, good citizenship and character as demonstrated by a strong record of voluntary public service.
Spencer Foundation, Graduate Fellowship Discipline Based Scholarship in Education (2002-2003; 2003-2004). The Spencer Fellowship offered a unique opportunity to gain direct research experience with Sociology faculty and interdisciplinary research/study opportunities in collaborations between departments.
Cheryl Hunter received her PhD in History, Philosophy and Policy Studies at Indiana University with an emphasis in qualitative research methodologies. As a Spencer Foundation Fellow at Indiana University, she worked closely with Sociology faculty exploring education policy as well as the use of narrative methodologies. She was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Cleveland Clinic College of Medicine where she focused on the areas of curriculum design and instruction, research design, and the use qualitative assessment within the framework of medical education.
Ph.D. History, Philosophy and Policy Studies (2007)
Dept of Education Leadership and Policy Studies
School of Education, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Concentration: International and Comparative Education
Minor: Sociology
M.S. Elementary Education (1999)
Indiana University, Bloomington
License Awarded 1997
B.A. Sociology (with Honors) (1995)
Butler University, Indianapolis, IN
GRO.UND (Grow UND) Learning Gardens was initiated on the campus of UND (and with the generous support of the CEHD) to develop ecological literacy and a sense of place in our schools and communities through sustainable and regenerative garden education. Learning gardens and place-based practices create a vehicle for community engaged stewardship and sustainability while addressing the social, economic and ecological needs of our community. We also believe that being outside and working together is what connects all of us, as humans on this planet. We live in a time when personally connecting to the earth by working alongside each other is even more necessary than ever before - and there is no place better than outside in nature.
Please viist our webpage GRO.UND LEARNING GARDENS
Below are a representative sample of the diverse span of methodological, empirical and pedagogocal publications.
Hunter, J.E., Hunter, C. (2025). Lessons for hopeful and hungry academics: Conviviality, community, and rootedness inspired thru the sharing of food and kitchen stories. In Brewer, Jameson & Hayes II, Cleveland (Eds.), Food stories: Navigating the academy with cultural lessons from the kitchen. Gorham, ME: Myers Education Press.
Hunter, C. (2024) Provocative Pedagogy: What Interpretive Methods Offer in Traditional Education Spaces. National Association of Interpretation, Legacy Magazine 35(4)
Felege, C., Hunter, C. & Felege, S. (2022). Personal impacts of the undergraduate teaching assistant experience. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 22(2) pp.33-66 DOI:10.14434/josotl.v22i2.31306
Hunter, C., Hoffer, T., Hunter, J.E. (2022). Using Intentionality and Interactivity to frame how we teach research methods online. In Nind, Melanie (editor), Handbook of Teaching and Learning Social Research Methods. University of Southampton, National Center for Research Methods, UK
Felege, C., Romsdahl, R., Hunter, J.E., Hunter, C., & Ellis-Felege, S. (2019). Immersive field experiences lead to higher level learning and more translational impact on students. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences 9(3), 286-296.
Johansen, L., Evanson, T., Ralph, J., Hunter, C., & Hart, G. (2018). Experiences of rural health nurses who commute to larger communities. Journal of Rural Health Nursing 18(2) pp. 224-264
de Silva, R., Gleditsch, R., Job, C., Jesme, S., Urness, B., & Hunter, C. (2018). Igniting student learning through teacher engagement in Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. Multicultural Education 25(3&4), pp. 23-28
Felege, C., Hunter, C., Hunter, J., & Felege, S. (2018.) Pedagogy and practice in STEM field experiences: intersections of student and mentor identity and impacts upon student outcomes. Journal of Education for Teaching 44 (4) DOI: 10.1080/02607476.1450818
Felege, C., Hahn, E., Hunter, C., & Gleditsch, R. (2016). Bench, bedside, curbside, and home: Translational research to include transformative change using education research. Journal of Research Practice 12(2), pp.1-11
Hunter, C., & Kallio, A. (2016). Understanding Doulas and Childbirth: Women, Love, and Advocacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gleditsch, R., Hahn, E., Molapo, T. & Hunter, C.A. (2016). Intercultural Competency in Social Studies Education Methods. Journal of Natural Inquiry and Reflective Practice 29:2, pp.105-120
Parson, L., Hunter, C. A., & Kallio, B. (2016) Exploring educational leadership in rural schools. Planning and Changing: An Educational Leadership and Policy Journal 47:1/2, pp.63-81
Molapo, T., Parson, L., Hunter, C., & Butz, J. (2016). Changes in principal evaluation standards: A case study of North Dakota. School Leadership Review 11:1, pp. 18-25
Hunter, C.A., Parson, L., Pearson, D., Kallio, B., Hung, S., & Houdek, S. (2015). The North Dakota Rural Principalship: Qualitative differences according to school enrollment. North Dakota Department of Public Instruction.
Hunter, C.A., Winkle-Wagner, R., & Ortloff, D. (2014). Out of our Comfort Zones: Teaching Qualitative Research at a Distance. The Qualitative Report 19:45, pp. 1-24
Kartoshkina, Y. & Hunter, C.A. (2014). Applying cognitive task analysis methodology in educational research. Journal of Research & Method in Education 4:5, pp. 51-57
Hunter, C., Pearson, D., & Gutierrez, A.R. (2014). Interculturalization and Teacher Education: From Theory to Practice. New York: Routledge / Taylor & Francis Group.
Winkle-Wagner, R., Hunter, C.A., & Ortloff, J.D. (Eds) (paperback 2013, 2009). Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice in Educational Research: Methods at the Margins. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan
Hunter, C.A. & Gutierrez, A.R. (2013). Learning language is ‘hard work’: Pre-service teacher reflections upon second language acquisition through cultural immersion. Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice 5:1, pp.1-23
Gutierrez, A.R. & Hunter, C.A. (2012). Learning about literacy outside the classroom: Pre-service teachers reflect on learning a second language through cultural immersion. Journal of Education for Teaching 38:5, pp. 629–632
Hunter, C.A. (2012). Intimate space within institutionalized birth: women’s experiences birthing with doulas. Anthropology and Medicine 19:3, pp. 315–326
Hunter, C. & Eder, D. (2010). The Role of Storytelling in Understanding Children's Moral/Ethic Decision-Making, Multicultural Perspectives, 12: 4, pp. 223 — 228
Hunter, C. A. (2007). On the Outskirts of Education: The Liminal Space of Rural Teen Pregnancy. Ethnography and Education, 2(1), pp.75-92
DEPARTMENTAL SERVICE
Graduate Director, Qualitative Inquiry Certificate (2024- current)
Search Committee Chair (2022-2023), EFR Faculty Search Committee: Qualitative Methodologist position
Department Chair (2018-2022), Teaching, Leadership, and Professional Practice
Graduate Director (2023-2024; 2016-2017; 2014-2015), Educational Foundations and Research Department (EFR)
Search Committee Chair (2015-2016), EFR Faculty Search Committee: Program Evaluation position
Faculty Advisor (2012-2015), EFR Graduate Student Organization
Assessment Chair (2012- 2013), EFR Department Research Assessment Retreat
Website Coordinator (2011-2013), EFR
COLLEGE SERVICE
Tenure & Promotion Committee (current)
Finance Committee member (2024-2026)
Interim Dean (2023-2024)
Ad hoc Policy Committee Member (2022-2023)
Assistant Dean, Graduate Studies (2021-2022)
Chair, College Research Council (2016-2017)
College Research Council Member (2015- 2016)
Appeals Committee Member (2012-2015)
UNIVERSITY SERVICE
Co-Director, Gro.UND Learning Gardens (2024-current)
Outstanding Faculty Awards Committee (2017), Office of Instructional Development, University of North Dakota
Graduate Advocate (2016-2017), Dean of School of Graduate School, University of North Dakota
Senate Executive Committee (2015-2017), University of North Dakota
Co-Chair (2015-2016), Study of Practices for the Evaluation of Administration (SPEA), Ad Hoc Senate Committee, University of North Dakota
University Search Committee (2015-2016), Dean Search, School of Graduate Studies, University of North Dakota
Mentor (2015-2016), Alice T. Clark Faculty Mentoring Program
Senator (2014-2016), University Senate, University of North Dakota
Higher Learning Commission Committee (2011-2013), 2-C, University of North Dakota
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Grand Forks Food Policy Council (2024-2026). Founding member of Grand Fork’s Food Policy Council.
Reviewer
- The Qualitative Report (2012-2013; 2022-2024)
- Research Methods and Education, Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group (September 2017)
- Social Science and Medicine (September 2017)
- Sociological Spectrum (2014-2015)
- Medical Anthropology Quarterly (2014-2015)
- Teaching and Learning: Journal of Natural Inquiry and Reflective Practice (2012-2013)
- Comparative and International Education Society, SIG: Teacher Education and the Teaching Profession (2013- 2014)
- American Education Research Association Division G - Social Context of Education: Education in Multicultural Contexts Within and Across Subject Areas (2013)
Committees
Chair (2019-2021), Excellence in Teaching Award Committee Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools
Chair (2018-2019), Outstanding Dissertation Committee, American Education Research Association-Qualitative Research SIG
Executive Committee (2018-2019), American Education Research Association-Qualitative Research SIG
Member (2017-2019), Excellence in Teaching Award Committee Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools
Member (2013-2017), Outstanding Dissertation Committee, American Education Research Association-Qualitative Research SIG
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Grand Forks Public Schools Summer Book Study (2014, 2015) I developed and facilitated a five-week book study for teachers in the Grand Forks Public Schools. I met with teachers for 2 hours each session over four weeks during each summer session.
Safe Kids Water Safety Committee (2012-2013) Altru Health and YMCA
The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
Breaking Together: A freedom loving response to collapse by Jem Bendell
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
Women and Other Monsters by Jess Zimmerman
Bitch: On the Female of the Species by Lucy Cooke