Professor
Contact Information
Office: 254B Stouffer Hall
Phone: 724-357-2405
Email: cmachado@iup.edu
Academic Qualifications
- BCom, Business, Karachi University
- BEd, K-12 Education, Karachi University
- MEd, School Administration, Karachi University
- MEd, Primary Education, Australian Catholic University
- EdD, Educational Leadership, Arkansas State University
Academic Interests
- Equity and Social Justice
- Creating Technology-Rich Learning Environments
- Innovation (Pedagogy, Programs)
- Empowerment (Students, Teachers, School Leaders)
- Program Evaluation, Organizational Learning, and Systems Thinking
- Qualitative and Mixed Method Research
CourseSpecialties
- Community and Culture
- Qualitative and Mixed Method Research
- Maximizing Student Learning
- Twenty-First-Century Teaching (Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity) in K-12 and Higher Education Classrooms
- Creating Multicultural Learning Environments that Support Critical Thinking and Reflective Practice
- Mentoring
- Social Justice
- Organizational Learning and Empowerment
- Qualitative and Mixed Method Research
Personal Narrative
Crystal Machado is a professor in the Department of Professional Studies in Education, where she teaches pre-service and in-service teachers, faculty, and K-20 administrators. Prior to joining IUP, Crystal worked as a K-12 teacher, a middle/high school administrator, and an adjunct professor for many years in Pakistan. She holds a doctoral degree in educational leadership; two master's degrees, one in school administration and the other in primary education; and two bachelor's degrees, one in business and the other in education. Crystal's commitment to creating inclusive, technology-rich learning environments, and mentoring, is reflected in her teaching, research, and service.
Crystal’s educational philosophy is grounded in problem-posing pedagogy (see Freire, 1985), social constructivism (see Fosnot and Perry, 2005), and P21 skills, better known as the 4Cs: communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking (Battelle for Kids, 2019). She developed her technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK) skills by attending more than 100 workshops. To increase student access to tools and training, she co-authored 11 grants; these include an Emerging Technologies Mobile Learning Award ($18,651) and a co-authored National Security Association grant ($212,000). She uses performance-based instructional strategies to promote high levels of student engagement, critical thinking, cross-cultural competence, and reflective practice.
Crystal is a teacher-scholar. For over two decades, she has used the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) approach to study and improve her practice as a teacher, leader, and mentor. She also uses a qualitative and mixed-method approach to study international students’ experiences, educators’ use of technology in K-20 schools, equity and inclusion, and organizational learning. She has presented on these topics at international, national, and regional conferences. Her curriculum vitae documents a long history of doctoral student research mentorship. She also mentors postgraduate students and novice scholars. She has co-authored a book and published several book chapters and journal articles. Her scholarship related to teaching and learning was recognized by the Center for Teaching Excellence with the Pedagogical Research award in 2015, the Collaborative Practice Award with Kelly Heider in 2022, and Merit Awards for Research and Scholarship (2012, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2022). She was named Affordable Learning Champion in 2022 by Affordable Learning Pennsylvania.
Crystal seeks to create inclusive learning environments through action locally, nationally, and internationally. She served as an MEd coordinator at the department level for eight years. She chairs PSE's Department Promotion Committee and is a COEC’s Research Committee member. At the university level, she served on the Frederick Douglass Institute of Intercultural Research and Judicial Boards for eight years. For four years, she was the founding member and chairperson of Belonging, Learning, and Exploring New Directions (BLEND), a mentoring program for women and faculty of color. This program provided new faculty access to a network of colleagues from various disciplines who provided advice on instructional issues, career advancement, publishing, and social networking. She has been a member of Safe Zone since 2008. Over the last decade, has led more than 50 workshops for IUP faculty. At the international level, she served as Technology Leadership SIG chair for the Society of Information Technology and Teacher Education. She also reviews papers for eight peer-reviewed journals.