Dr. Gail Burnaford is a Professor in the College of Education's Department of Curriculum,
Culture and Educational Inquiry (CCEI) at Florida Atlantic University where she teaches doctoral
and masters courses in program evaluation, curriculum design and instructional practice. Prior
to this, she was Director of Undergraduate Teacher Education at Northwestern University and
taught in the MS in Education Program in SESP. She is a former high school English teacher. Her
research interests are spirituality and learning, arts in education, teacher development,
professional learning and arts partnership program evaluation.
She is the author of four books, Arts Integration Frameworks, Research & Practice: A
Literature Review (Burnaford, 2007), Renaissance in the Classroom: Arts Integration and
Meaningful Learning, (Burnaford, Aprill, Weiss, 2001), Teachers Doing Research: The Power of
Action Through Inquiry (Burnaford, Fischer, Hobson, 2001, second ed.), and Images of
Schoolteachers in America, (Joseph and Burnaford, 2001 second ed.), all published with
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. She has also published in Arts Education Policy Review, Music
Education Journal and most recently, she coauthored a chapter in Lights, Camera, Action and the
Brain: The Use of Film in Education (2012), based on a case study in 2 Chicago Public Schools and
chapter in The Routledge International Handbook of Creative Learning (2011), focused on the
work of arts partnerships in the investigation of creativity.
Dr. Burnaford has been an evaluator on numerous projects with organizations including
the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education, the New Mexico Arts Council’s Ticket to Learning in
Roswell, New Mexico, the Ravinia Music Festival, and the Smart Museum at the University of
Chicago. She has worked on Department of Education Model Dissemination Grants and
Professional Development Grants as a Principal Investigator. In 2005, Gail presented school
program evaluation research at both the International Congress for School Effectiveness and
Improvement (ICSEI) in Barcelona, Spain, and in 2006, she presented a paper on assessment and
research at the World Conference on Arts Education. (UNESCO) in Lisbon, Portugal. In January of
2007, she presented at the European and International Symposium for Evaluating the Impact of
Arts and Cultural Education on Children and Young People in Paris, France. She was Principal
Investigator and site director for the national initiative with the Music in Education National
Consortium, in conjunction with the New England Conservatory of Music, Georgia State
University, CAPE and the Metropolitan Opera Guild, funded by the Fund for the Improvement of
Post Secondary Education, (FIPSE).
Dr. Burnaford studied voice with Dorothy Darr Robinson, Frederick Robinson, and
Florence Kopleff and has done much recital, concert, and operatic performance as well as church
section leader/solo work. Professor Burnaford sang with Robert Shaw's Atlanta Symphony
Chorus and Chamber Chorus, touring Europe with the orchestra and chorus. She also sang with
the group Basically Bach and the Bach Festival Chorus in Chicago for several years.
During the 2010‐2011 academic year, Dr. Burnaford took a sabbatical and received a
Master of Arts in Religion degree, studying adult spirituality, the arts, and education at Lancaster
Theological Seminary in Lancaster, PA. In February of 2012, she will present her research titled
“Adults Matter: Transforming Education for People in the Pews” at the Religion and Spirituality
in Society conference in Vancouver.
