Dr. Maria Elena Reyes is a third generation Mexican American from Texas. She is Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction. Dr. Reyes graduated with a bachelor’s degree with honors [sociology and English] from Pan American University, received a master’s degree in secondary education from Sul Ross University, and earned a doctorate in curriculum & instruction from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a university fellow and worked for the renowned scholar Don Americo Paredes. She came to UTPA in fall 2006, from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the flagship institution in the great state of Alaska, where she spent ten years as a professor in the School of Education and where she was the first Latina to gain tenure.
Dr. Reyes brings a background as a mother and homemaker, as a high school English teacher in Eagle Pass, Texas, and as the first director of the award winning University of Texas at Austin’s Hispanic Mother –Daughter Program. She has had a life-long commitment to equity issues. Dr. Reyes first came to the Rio Grande Valley in the late 60’s to work with Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers in an attempt to organize agricultural workers in the region and to better the social conditions in the area.
Dr. Reyes current research interests include technology and education, the impact of gender in student achievement at the secondary and post secondary levels, and testing in K-12 schools. In fall 2007, a book she co-authored entitled “American Reform in the American States” will be published. For the book, she contributed three chapters including a chapter on Texas that outlines the history of testing in the state. Dr. Reyes is an experienced researcher and grant writer.
Teaching Philosophy
Dr. Reyes is a student centered teacher. She was a constructivist before she even learned about the term. As a high school teacher, she gladly welcomed and taught students that other teachers struggled with or refused to teach. In this context, she threw away state-adopted texts and used a variety of resources to challenge students to perform at the highest academic levels. All her students passed the state high school exit test of that period. Dr. Reyes took great satisfaction in having her students, who had been considered “under performers,” quote Shakespeare and other great writers. In her Eagle Pass High School English classroom, she brought in culturally appropriate resources, such as Paredes’ work on “corridos,” which at the time was not common practice. Dr. Reyes still lovingly remembers her high school students.
What she likes about teaching at UTPA
Dr. Reyes has always been excited by social change and is aware of the individual’s responsibility to build a better future. She believes that this university is perfectly posed to become a great place of learning, scholarship, and research for this area of the state. She knows how much work this will take, and she is rolling up her sleeves to help.
