Ph.D., Professor of English Education
Director of Coaching, Curriculum & Instruction for the Virginia New Teacher Support Program (VANTSP)
Office: Memorial Hall 3240C

Mary Beth Cancienne, PhD, is professor of English education at James Madison University in the Middle and Secondary Education Department in the College of Education. She was honored in 2017-2018 as the Distinguished Teacher and in 2011- 2012 as the Madison Scholar. She teaches courses in high school English methods and accompanying high school practicum, Curriculum and Co-Curriculum, Foundations of American Education, student teaching, and seminar. In 1999, she cofounded the Arts and Inquiry in the Visual and Performing Arts in Education SIG with the American Education Research Association. She has also published in such academic journals as the Virginia English Journal, Qualitative Inquiry, Theory into Practice, the Journal of Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue and the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing. Her chapters appear in such books as the Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research (2007) and Knowing Differently (2008). Additionally, she co-edited, with C. Bagley, a book and CD-ROM titled Dancing the Data (2002, Peter Lang).

Dr. Cancienne's google scholar page.

Recent Publications

DeFazio, G., Cancienne, M. B., Taylor-Jaffee, A., Kay, E., Wilson, N. & Jones, R. (in press, Spring 2025). Teaching about racial violence in Virginia: Strategies for addressing difficult histories in the classroom. Virginia Tech Publishing.

Cancienne, M. B., Whittaker, A., Zugelder, B., & Nickel, J. (2024, December). The Virginia New Teacher Support Program. VASCD Journal, 21, 85-99.

Renee, A., Abdullah-matta, A., Benson, A., Cancienne, M. B., et al. (2024). The Furious Flower Syllabus Project: Opening the World of Black Poetry. Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike.

Cancienne, M. B., Estes, M. D., Allen-Bronaugh, D., & Wilson, R. W. (2022). CoE leadership and exploration development team: Reshaping leadership through a grow your own program. In B. S. Zugelder & M. L’Esperance (Eds.)., Handbook of Research on the Educator Continuum and Development of Teachers (pp. 527-545). IGI Global.

De Fazio, G., Cancienne, M. B., Taylor Jaffee, A., Hegg, K., Kaye, E., & Wilson N. (December 2021). Critical digital pedagogy and civic education: The experience of the racial terror: Lynching in Virginia project, Scholé. Rivista di Educazione e Studi Culturali (1), 65-78.

International, National, and State Conference Presentations

Cancienne, M.B., & Taylor-Jaffee, A. (2025, April). Lynching in Virginia: Digital curricular approaches toward just educational renewal [Conference session]. American Educational Research Association, Denver, CO.

Cancienne, M.B., Whittaker, A., Zugelder, B., Nickel, J., & Spencer, T. (2025, March). The Virginia new teacher support program: Advancing evidence-based coaching into the future [Conference session]. Association of Teacher Educators Conference, New Orleans, LA.

Wooley, D., Cancienne, M.B., Wallace, I., Hannon, B., Hendrix, TJ. (2024, November). Opening our classrooms to the world of Black poetry: Lessons from the #FuriousFlowerSyllabus [Conference session]. National Council of Teachers of English Conference, Boston, MA.

Cancienne, M.B., Bartolac, A., McDowell, Z., & Phelps, K. (2024, October). Middle school novel units: Engaging students in reading and writing. [Conference session]. Virginia Association of Teachers of English Conference, Harrisonburg, VA.

Cancienne, M.B., Phelps, K., Shanks, L. (2024, October). The Furious Flower Syllabus: Opening The worlds of Black poetry to middle and high school students [Conference session]. Virginia Association of Teachers of English, Harrisonburg, VA.

Cancienne, M. B., Zugelder, B., Whitaker, A., Spencer, T., Nickel, J. (2024, February). The Virginia new teacher support program [Conference session]. American Association of College for Teacher Education Conference, Denver, CO.

Cancienne, M. B. (2024, April). Open the worlds to Black poetry: A Furious Flower syllabus as a call to action [Conference session]. American Educational Research Association Conference, Philadelphia, PA.

DeFazio, G. L., Cancienne, M. B., Kaye, E., Wilson, N. (2024, March). Teaching hard history for racial healing: The lynching in Virginia curriculum project [Conference Session]. Virginia Council for Social Studies Conference, Farmville, VA.

Cancienne, M. B., Longacre, O., Schaick, T. V., Dean, J., Terrones, M. (2024, March). Celebrating Simms: An oral history project [Conference Session]. Virginia Council for Social Studies Conference, Farmville, VA.

Cancienne, M. B., Davis, H., & Hannon, B. (2023, October). The Furious Flower syllabus: Opening the world of Black poetry. [Conference Session]. Virginia Association of Teachers of English Conference. Virginia Beach, VA.

Cancienne, M.B., & Coleman, B. (2022, November). Pursuing the light of African American poets: Teaching a reader response strategy and writing a cento poem [Conference session]. National Council of Teachers of English Conference, Anaheim, CA.

Cancienne, M.B., & Jones, R. (2022, November). Teaching spoken word poetry, Black poetry & hard history: The case of Emmett Till, Susan Smith, & Raymond Byrd [Conference session]. National Council of Teachers of English Conference, Anaheim, CA.

Education

University of Virginia, Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction
Louisiana State University, M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction
Louisiana State University, B.A. in English

Courses Taught at JMU

MSSE 570: Content Area Methods of Teaching in High School: English 9-12
MSSE 571: Content Area Field Experiences in High School: English 9-12
MSSE 607: Curriculum Theory and Teaching in a Diverse Society
MSSE 650: Internship Seminar
MSSE 675: Internship (Student Teaching) in Middle and Secondary Education
EDUC 300: Foundations of American Education

Professional Interests

Furious Flower Poetry Center Collaborator (since 2019)
Teacher Induction
Movement and Thought in English Education Methods
Diversity, Social Justice, & the Arts in English Education
Pre-Service Teacher Education
Curriculum Theory and Teaching in A Diverse Society

Service

Faculty Award Committee Chair (2022-2025)
University Writing Center Committee
Dispositions Committee (2017-2021)
Search Committee Member
What Sustains Us (Advisory Chair since 2011)
Co-Founder of the Arts & Inquiry in the Visual and Performing Arts in Education SIG at AERA (since 1999)
NCTE/CAEP Accreditation SPA for English Education
Virginia Association of Teachers of English Board Member (2010-2012)
Chair of the College of Education Diversity Committee (2010-2013)
Departmental Personnel Advisory Council
Teacher Work Sample Committee