Catharyn C. Shelton, PhD
Catharyn C. Shelton, PhD
Associate Professor of Educational Technology | Former Prek-12 Teacher
About
Catharyn Shelton, PhD
Biography
Catharyn Shelton, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Educational Technology at Northern Arizona University's College of Education. She began her career as a Prek-12 public school teacher (high school Spanish, high school special education, and bilingual elementary), and is an advocate for techno-critical approaches to teaching and learning.
In her primary research, Dr. Shelton considers how teachers, influencers, and online platforms are changing the face of education. Her work documents how said platforms promote low curricular quality and intensify teacher work, while profiting. Dr. Shelton has critiqued the role that for-profit online platforms play in dictating what teachers see, produce, and pursue online. In turn, she advocates for teacher education centering critical digital literacies and platform accountability.
Catharyn's published research appears in Teachers College Record, Learning Media and Technology, Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, and popular presses including Slate, Kappan, Educational Leadership, and Edutopia. She is based in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Expertise
- teacher education
- critical perspectives on educational technology and schooling in the digital age
In the News
Authored by Catharyn:
Lesson plan platforms for teachers have a racist problem in Slate, August 2020
How to design a culturally responsive Bitmoji classroom in Edutopia, October 2020
Quotes and Mentions:
The Good and the Bad of Using Apps to Connect with Parents. In EducationWeek, April 2024.
TeachersSpend 2 Hours A Day on TikTok. What Do They Get Out of It? In EducationWeek, March 2024.
Saturnis a New App for High Schoolers. Here’s Why It Has Educators Concerned in EducationWeek, November 2023.
TikTok is Raising National Security, Privacy Concerns. Should Educators Steer Clear? in EducationWeek, March 2023
New York City Blocks ChatGPT at Schools. Should other Districts Follow? in EducationWeek, January 2023
Gas is the latest app to catch fire with kids. What you need to know about it in EducationWeek, December 2022
Why Teachers Pay Teachers? in ASCD Blog, October 2022
What Teachers Pay Teachers is learning from bad lessons and upset teachers, in EdSurge, February 2021
TikTok teachers go viral in these Covid times, in EducationHQ, October 2020
Resources for Teachers
Guidance for P-12 teachers, inspired by our research about online lesson planning.
Curating and Creating with Care:
History / Social Studies
Guiding questions for critiquing resources from online educational marketplaces
Publications
Publications
If you need access to any of the publications below, requests are welcome: catharyn.shelton@nau.edu.
Selected Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Carpenter, J., Morrison, S., Shelton, C., Clark, N., Patel, S., Toma-Herold, D. (in press). How and Why Educators Use TikTok: Come for the Fun, Stay for the Learning? Teaching and Teacher Education, 142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2024.104530
Schroeder, S., Shelton, C., & Curcio, R. (2024). Curriculum in the digital age: Intensifying the work of teachers, the remix. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy. Advanced online publication. DOI: 10.1080/15505170.2024.2312118
Schroeder, S., Curcio, R., & Shelton, C. (2023). Crafting the consumer teacher: Education influencers and the figured world of K-12 teaching. Learning, Media and Technology, 49(3), 442-455. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2023.2207140
Carpenter, J., Shelton, C., & Schroeder, S. (2023). The educational influencer: A new player in the educator professional landscape. Journal of Research on Technology in Education. 55(5),749-764. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2022.2030267
Harris, L., Archambault, L., & Shelton, C. (2023). Issues of quality on Teachers Pay Teachers: An exploration of best-selling U.S. history resources. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 55(4), 608-627. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2021.2014373
Shelton, C., Archambault, L., &Harris, L. (2023). The quest for quality within an online educational marketplace: Indicators of expert-evaluated quality in U.S. history activities. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 3(39), 145-163. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2023.2210318
Carpenter, J., & Shelton, C. (2022). Educators’perspectives on and motivations for using TeachersPayTeachers.com. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 56(2), 281-232. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2022.2119452
Shelton, C., & Archambault, L. (2022). Educators engaging in online educational marketplaces: A vision for teacher education to prepare critical consumers, careful creators, and discerning professionals. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 30(2), 155-166. Retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/221214/.
Shelton, C., Curcio, R., Carpenter, J., & Schroeder, S. (2022). Instagramming for justice: The potentials and pitfalls of culturally relevant professional learning on Instagram, TechTrends, 66(5), 837-854. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-022-00758-1
Shelton, C., Koehler, M., Carpenter, J., & Greenhalgh, S. (2022). Lifting the veil on TeachersPayTeachers.com: An investigation of educational marketplace offerings and downloads. Learning, Media and Technology, 47(2), 268-287. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2021.1961148
Shelton, C., Geiger, T., & Archambault, L. (2021). Becoming a better teacher through online teacherpreneurship? Factors influencing online teacherpreneurs’ perceived gains in teaching practice. Elementary School Journal (Invited Special Issue). 122(1). https://doi.org/10.1086/715521
Koehler, M., Shelton, C., Carpenter, J., & Greenhalgh, S. (2020). Where does all the money go? Free and paid transactions on TeachersPayTeachers.com. Teachers College Record. https://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=23478
Shelton, C., Schroeder, S., & Curcio, S. (2020). Instagramming their hearts out: What do edu-influencers share on Instagram? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 20(3).
Shelton, C.C., & Archambault, L. M. (2020). Learning from and about elite online teacherpreneurs: A qualitative examination of key characteristics, school environments, practices, and impacts. Teachers College Record, 122(7), 107-132.
Shelton, C.C., & Archambault, L.M. (2019). Who are online teacherpreneurs and what do they do? A survey of content creators on TeachersPayTeachers.com. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 51(4), 398-414. doi: 10.1080/15391523.2019.1666757
Shelton, C.C., & Archambault, L. M. (2018). Discovering how teachers build virtual relationships and develop as professionals through online teacherpreneurship. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 29(4), 579-602.
Selected Peer-Reviewed Chapters
Shelton, C., Schroeder, S., Curcio, R. (2023). The teacher-to-teacher online marketplace of ideas (TOMI): A new future in curriculum? In V. Benson & R. Hartshorne, Handbook of Social Media in Education, Consumer Behavior, and Politics. Academic Press, pp 21-43.
Shelton, C., & Archambault, A., (2023). What teachers should know about online education resource marketplaces. In Ferdig, R. E.,Hartshorne, R., Baumgartner, E., Kaplan-Rakowski, R., and Mouza, C. (Eds). (2023). What PreK–12 Teachers Should Know About Educational Technology in 2023: A Research-to-Practice Anthology. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/p/222690/,pp 427- 435.
Shelton, C.C., Aguilera, E., Gleason, B., & Mehta, R. (2020). Resisting dehumanizing assessments: Enacting critical humanizing pedagogies in online teacher education. In Ferdig, R.E., Baumgartner, E., Hartshorne, R., Kaplan-Rakowski, R. & Mouza, C. (2020). Teaching, Technology, and Teacher Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Stories from the Field. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/p/216903/, pp 125-129.
Selected Editorially Reviewed Articles
Shelton, C. (2024). Engaging Freire’s humanizing pedagogy with student-created texts. Distance Learning Journal, 21(3).
Shelton, C., & Carpenter, J. (2023, February). Four strategies for vetting online lesson materials. Educational Leadership, 10-11.
Archambault, L., Shelton, C., & Harris, L, (2021, May). Teachers beware and vet with care: Online Educational Marketplaces. Kappan.
Shelton, C. (2020, October 9). How to design a culturally responsive Bitmoji classroom. Edutopia.
Shelton, C. & Archambault, L., Harris, L. (2020, August 7). Lesson plan platforms for teachers have a racist problem. Slate.
Connect
Catharyn Shelton, PhD
Catharyn.Shelton@
nau.edu 
Google Scholar
Updated January 2026 by Catharyn Shelton
All site images are personal photos of C. Shelton or Srikingly stock images licensed for free use.
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