Currently, Arnetha Ball conducts an interdisciplinary program of research that aims to improve education for urban populations in three intersecting contexts: U.S. schools in which predominantly poor African American, Latino, and Pacific Islander students are underachieving; community-based organizations that are part of an alternative education system offering "second chance" or "last chance" opportunities for individuals in search of personal, academic, and economic success; and teacher education programs in the U.S. and South Africa.
Ball specializes in the preparation of teachers to teach in urban schools and has served as an academic specialist for the United States Information Services Program in South Africa. Ball's research integrates sociocultural, sociolinguistic, and ethnographic approaches to investigate the processes of teacher change, teacher generativity, and teacher development, as well as the language and literacy practices of students in multicultural and multilingual settings. She works with Duquesne University as their Sizemore Consulting Professor on issues of Urban Education and in 2011-2012 served as President of the American Educational Research Association.
