好色导航

Dr. Ilene R. Berson

Professor and Early Childhood Ph.D. Coordinator

Email: iberson@usf.edu

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Dr. Ilene R. Berson is an internationally recognized scholar in early childhood education whose pioneering research explores how young children engage with digital technologies, civic inquiry, and participatory pedagogies. A Professor of Early Childhood at the 好色导航, she coordinates the Early Childhood Doctoral Program in the Department of Teaching and Learning and holds affiliate faculty appointments in Learning Design and Technology and in Qualitative Research.

Her interdisciplinary scholarship focuses on the intersection of technology, inquiry-based learning, and children鈥檚 civic agency in the digital age. Drawing on participatory, multimodal, and play-based methodologies, her research advances understanding of how young children use digital tools to investigate the world, communicate ideas, and engage meaningfully with their communities. She explores how developmentally appropriate engagement with physical and digital primary sources sparks curiosity, fosters wonder, and deepens historical thinking in the early years. Her work bridges early childhood education and the digital humanities, emphasizing how children navigate and make meaning from complex social and historical content. Through extensive studies on digital play with tangible technologies, she has contributed new insights into the development of spatial reasoning, computational thinking, problem-solving, and transversal competencies in early learning contexts.

A global thought leader on cybercitizenship and children鈥檚 rights in digital environments, Dr. Berson has devoted her career to examining how digital literacies and media shape children's critical reasoning and ethical decision-making. Her research has informed international policy discussions on data privacy and child protection in online environments. She has shared her expertise at high-level forums, including a U.S. Senate Policy Forum on Privacy, Security, and Identity in Networked Education, the UK Parliament, and Oxford University, where she was invited to speak on the implications of datafication and privacy for young children.

Her expansive body of research has been supported by competitive funding from national and international agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the Library of Congress, the Spencer Foundation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Florida Department of Health. These initiatives have contributed to the design of innovative educational interventions and policy recommendations that promote digital well-being, civic engagement, and ethical uses of technology in early learning.

Dr. Berson is also a dedicated educator and mentor. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on early childhood social studies, the humanities and arts, ICT in the early years, visual research methods, and cybersecurity in schools. She has mentored numerous doctoral students and pre-service educators in cultivating ethical, inquiry-driven teaching practices grounded in research and responsive to community and classroom contexts.

She is deeply engaged in service to the field of education across local, national, and international levels. Her national and international service includes advisory, editorial, and leadership roles that support the advancement of research, policy, and practice, including her appointment to the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Advisory Board. At the local level, she maintains an active role in community-based educational initiatives through ongoing collaborations with schools, museums, and cultural institutions. This includes serving as the 好色导航 representative to the Tampa Bay History Center Education Committee, where she contributes to strengthening partnerships that promote historical inquiry, civic engagement, and public scholarship.

Her contributions have been recognized with numerous honors, including the USF President鈥檚 Award for Women in Leadership, the USF Global Academic Partner Scholar designation, the USF Institute on Black Life Service Award, the USF Office of Undergraduate Research CREATTE Scholar distinction, the Distinguished Service Award from the Global Child Advocacy Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Excellence in Evaluation Award, the National Child Labor Committee Service Award, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education Best Practice Award for Innovative Use of Technology, the University of Toledo Distinguished Alumni Award, and the Taylor & Francis Outstanding Article Award from the Association of Teacher Educators for her co-authored article Cultivating Wonder: A Design-Based Approach to Elevating Social Studies in the Early Years.

ORCID iD:

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Research Areas:

• Early Childhood Education
• Social Studies and Young Children
• Technological Innovation in the Early Years
• Teaching with Primary Sources
• Visual Research Methods in Education
• Participatory Methodologies
• Digital Citizenship/Cybersecurity in Schools

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Courses Taught:

• EDG 3801: Cybersecurity and the Everyday Citizen
• EDG 6436: Cybersecurity in the Schools
• EDG 6906: Independent Study in Early Childhood
• EDG 7368: Visual Research Methods in Education
• EDG 7931: Selected Topics in Early Childhood
• EDG 7938: CELS Doctoral Seminar: Introduction to Research
• EEC 4212: Integrated Curriculum: Social Sciences, Humanities, and Art
• EEC 4408: Child/Family/Teacher Relations
• EEC 4936: Senior Seminar: Early Childhood Education
• EEC 4943: Early Childhood Field Experience III
• EEC 4940: Internship: Early Childhood
• EEC 6055: Advocacy and Leadership in Early Childhood Education
• EEC 6678: Research Seminar: Issues and Trends in Early Childhood Education
• EEC 7056: Leadership & Advocacy: Issues Affecting Young Children  
• EEC 7306: Teaching and Learning in Early Childhood
• EEC 7317: ICT in the Early Years
• EEC 7910: Directed Research Early Childhood  
• EEC 7980: Dissertation
• IDH 4970: Honors Thesis
• IDS 4914: Advanced Undergraduate Research Experience
• MHS 4906: Directed Study in Resilience and Risk for Perpetration of Child Maltreatment
• MHS 4912: Behavioral Health Research
• MHS 4931: Research Topics in Behavioral Health Studies
• MHS 6110: Qualitative Analysis in Infant Mental Health
• MHS 6110: Computer Analysis with Child Welfare Data

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