Distinguished scholar and Michigan State University Professor Cary Roseth was named chairperson of the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education, or CEPSE. Roseth assumed the leadership role from Professor Emeritus Richard Prawat, who retired from the position after 27 years as chair.
Roseth has been part of the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, or EPET, faculty since 2007. He came from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, where he earned his master’s and doctorate degree in educational psychology. Since 2013, Roseth has been co-director of the EPET doctoral program, and became a full professor on June 1.
“This is a huge honor,” Roseth said. “I am part of an amazing department and college; the faculty are great scholars. To be asked to take a leadership role is humbling.”
Roseth calls back to the legacy of the department in his vision for the future.
“CEPSE has been and continues to be a place where many people flourish; for this, we owe a big thank you to Dr. Prawat,” Roseth said.
Roseth studies the ways peers affect each other’s motivation, achievement and behavior. Specifically, he examines the social-psychological mechanisms underlying these processes and developing practical strategies to ensure peers promote rather than inhibit each other’s successes.
“There is increasing pressure today to view higher education in marketplace terms, with students being viewed as ‘clients’ and the value of faculty members measured by ROI, or returns on investment,” Roseth said. “But this metaphor confuses higher education’s financial health with its core missions. After all, we are in the marketplace of ideas, where success is measured by new knowledge and practical contributions—not dollars and cents.
“What this means for our department is that our needs for resources must be closely linked with our missions in research, teaching and service,” he said. “The challenge for a chairperson is how to create both a realistic and ambitious environment where faculty and students have the resources they need to pursue knowledge and improve educational practice.”
Roseth’s background and previous success are an indicator of what’s to come for CEPSE.
After a series of promotions from assistant dean of students through assistant headmaster of Kimball Union Academy, Roseth took the next step to obtain his master’s and doctoral degrees.
“I found the leadership roles to be meaningful,” he said. “As a teacher, you have ideas about how to do things differently and then, as an administrator, you have the opportunity to act on some of those ideas. My sense was that research should play a more important role in the development and testing of those ideas, using data to support innovation.”
Roseth is now in his fifth year as associate editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology. He has served as chair and was awarded by various special interest groups in the American Educational Research Association, or AERA, and was a leader in various capacities for the American Psychological Association, Div. 15. To date, he’s also published 37 journal articles and 10 chapters and presented his research around the world, most recently at a 2017 UNESCO conference on school violence in South Korea.
At MSU, he has taught 38 courses and graduated 10 doctoral advisees. He’s also served on 120 graduate student committees in all five CEPSE programs and three other university programs. He has also served on a variety of greater MSU committees, including the Faculty Senate, the University Council and as a faculty liaison to the Board of Trustees. In 2013, he was recognized with a MSU Teacher-Scholar Award.
With his prior leadership experience, scholarly achievement and his vision for the future of the department, Roseth is well-prepared for his new role as CEPSE’s chairperson.