Susan Brondyk teaches Curriculum/Methods and Classroom Management for elementary and middle school teacher candidates. In conjunction with these courses, Sue partners with local PreK–12 schools to provide learning experiences for her students and to support the teachers who work with her students. She enjoys collaborating with student researchers and has been involved in studies that examine elements of effective teaching. 

In addition, Sue was instrumental in redesigning the Hope College Department of Education’s student teaching program and regularly co-leads professional development sessions for the teachers who mentor Hope’s student teachers.

Sue is one of two faculty advisors for Hope’s student chapter of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), which is the first student chapter in the country to be recognized by this national organization for educators. She also co-leads the Hope Comes to Watts May Term, in which students gain experience teaching in an urban setting.

Sue joined Hope’s Department of Education in 2013.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Sue’s primary focus has been in the area of mentoring new teachers. As the associate director of Launch into Teaching at Michigan State University before she came to Hope, she worked with principals, mentors and instructional coaches to support beginning teachers in struggling urban districts. In this capacity, she led sustained, job-embedded professional development, conducted school visits to work with leadership teams and provided one-on-one support for mentors.

Her research examines mentor preparation at the pre-service and induction level. Most recently she has been studying differentiated mentoring and, in particular, the ways that mentors use Hope’s new Student Teaching Assessment Tool (STAT) as a developmental tool to promote growth in teacher candidates.

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., curriculum, teaching and educational policy, Michigan State University, 2009
• MAT, elementary education, Aquinas College, 2000
• Elementary Teacher Certification, Aquinas College, 1986
• B.A., ancient civilizations, Hope College, 1984

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• “Mentor Study Groups as Sites for Mentor Teacher Learning” (with A. Guenther et al.), in Engaged Clinical Practice: Preparing Mentor Teachers and University-Based Educators to Support Teacher Candidate Learning and Development (edited by P. E. Bernhardt et al.), Rowman & Littlefield, 2021
• A Story of Transformation: How One Educator Preparation Program Reinvented Student Teaching (with Nancy Cook), Peter Lang Publishing, 2020
• “Mentoring as Loose Coupling: Theory in Action,” chapter in The Wiley International Handbook of Mentoring (edited by B. Irby et al.), Wiley-Blackwell, 2020
• “The Teacher Leadership Process: Attempting Change within Embedded Systems” (with K. S. Cooper et al.), Journal of Educational Change, 2015
• “Best Practices in Mentoring: Complexities and Possibilities” (with L. Searby), International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 2013
• “Complexities Involved in Mentoring towards a High-Leverage Practice in the Induction Years” (with R. N. Stanulis), Teachers College Record, 2013

OUTSIDE THE COLLEGE

Sue and her husband, Dan (class of ’85), live in Grand Rapids and have three grown children who are scattered across the country doing their own thing. When she’s not teaching or writing, Sue can be found kayaking and biking in Leelanau County. She is a life-long member of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Grand Rapids.