Catharine Biddle

Director, Center for Applied Research on Education and Schools
Associate Professor of Educational Leadership
catharine.biddle@maine.edu
207.581.2450

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

Bio: Dr. Biddle’s research focuses on ways in which rural schools and communities respond to social and economic change in the 21st century. She is particularly interested in how schools can more effectively leverage partnerships with external organizations or groups to address issues of social inequality and how non-traditional leaders—such as youth, parents and other community members—may lead or serve as partners in these efforts. Her interests are driven by her professional background in community development that leverages schools. Her research has been funded by the American Educational Research Association, the National Science Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation, among others. Her recent projects have looked at how schools addressed social service provision during COVID-19 school closures, how rural schools can better support caregivers in recovery from substance use disorder, how to support long-term teacher and school leader well-being in rural schools, and increasing the pipeline of high-quality STEM teachers to rural schools and communities.

Education
Ph.D., 2015, The Pennsylvania State University

Courses taught at UMaine

EHD 661: The Sociology of Education
EHD 590: Rural School and Community Leadership
EHD 698: Advanced Research Methods

Sample publications

Biddle, C., & Frankland, M. (2024). Leading “survival learning”: Rural school leaders during COVID-19. In S. White, J. Downey, & M. Fuqua (Eds) Leading rurally: Lessons on leadership in rural education. Routledge.
Brown, S. P., & Biddle, C. (2023). Testing a teacher costs to caring resilience model to identify burnout mediators. Teaching and Teacher Education, 127, 104078. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104078
Biddle, C. (2022). “‘We’ll probably all be in trouble for hugging a kid’: Rural teacher radicalism in addressing adverse childhood experiences.” The Rural Educator, 43(4), 43-57.
Brown, L.M., Biddle, C. & Tappan, M. (2022). Trauma-responsive schooling: Centering student voice and healing. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Azano, A., Eppley, K., and Biddle, C. (Eds) (2021). Bloomsbury Handbook of Rural Education in the United States. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.

Professional website: catbiddle.wordpress.com