Esther A. Enright

A photo of Esther Enright.

Associate Professor of Educational Leadership
Director of Graduate and Online Programs
esther.enright@maine.edu

334 Merrill Hall
University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469-574

Bio: Esther A. Enright, Ph.D. (she/they) is an associate professor of educational leadership and director of graduate and online programs in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Maine. Dr. Enright is interested in the positioning of university-based professional preparation programs within the higher education system, and how a better understanding of that embeddedness could inform equity-based approaches to program recruitment, admissions, curriculum building, and student development. Additionally, Dr. Enright studies leadership in public systems within predominantly rural states. Prior to becoming faculty, Dr. Enright worked as a middle and high school teacher, student success coordinator, and higher education student affairs professional.

Education
Ph.D. in Education, 2016, University of Michigan
M.A. in Higher Education, 2015, University of Michigan
M.A. in Political Science, 2009, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
B.Sc. in History and Secondary Education, 2003, University of Wisconsin

Courses taught at UMaine

  • EAD 655: Qualitative Methods
  • EAD 656: Social and Ethical Foundations of Educational Leadership
  • EAD 656: Stakeholder Engagement
  • EAD 660: The Adult Learner

Sample publications

  • McNaughtan, J., Enright, E. A., Xia, W., Billings, M.,& Harris, N. F. (2025). Shared Governance in Wicked Times: Perceptions of Faculty Senate Presidents on Faculty and Administrator Relationships.Teachers College Record. 127(1): 1-36. https://doi.org/10.1177/01614681251322581
  • McNaughtan, J., Enright, E. A., & Harris, N. F. (2024). A seat at the table: A conceptual model to frame shared governance from the perspectives of faculty senate presidents. Higher Education Policy. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-024-00370-3
  • Enright, E. A., & Toledo, W. (2023). What type of citizen am I? A study of preservice elementary teachers’ civic identities. Journal of Social Studies Education Research. 14(1): 83-109. http://jsser.org/index.php/jsser/article/view/4685
  • Enright, E. A., Toledo, W., & Wright, K. L. (2023). Advancing civics-specific disciplinary writing in the elementary grades. Journal of Writing Research. 15(1): 41-71. https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2023.15.01.03
  • Enright, E. A., Toledo, W., Drum, S., & Brown, S. (2022). Teaching with culturally sustaining practices during COVID-19: A comparative case study of teachers’ adapting civics instruction. The Journal of Social Studies Research. 46(1): 69-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssr.2021.11.007
  • Enright, E. A., & Wieczorek, D. (2022). Advancing a democratic pedagogy and supervision framework: An Illustrative case of teacher questioning in secondary mathematics instruction. Journal of Educational Supervision. 4(3): 17-45. https://doi.org/10.31045/jes.4.3.4
  • Aronson, B. A., Enright, E. A., & Amatullah, T. (2021). Developing an angled perspective as teacher educators: Using narrative reflection to disrupt the funding of identity in teacher education. Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning, 13(3), 215–232. https://doi.org/10.14305/jn.19440413.2021.13.3.03
  • Williams, H., & Enright, E. A. (2020). Using lifemaps to build capacity for educational leadership. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 32(1): 159-167. http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE3702.pdf
  • Dismuke, S., Enright, E. A., & Wenner, J. A. (2019). Building capacity in teacher preparation with practitioner inquiry: A self-study of teacher educators’ clinical feedback practices. Journal of Practitioner Research. 5(1): 1-18. https://doi.org/10.5038/2379-9951.4.1.1095

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