Allison Firestone

Allison Firestone is a doctoral candidate in the School of Education. Her research focuses broadly on equity-centered preservice teacher education, with an emphasis on building future teachers' capacity to enact a critically inclusive practice. Her dissertation is a mixed methods experiment that examined the impact of integrating inquiry groups into student teaching coursework. Her findings indicate how participation impacted preservice teachers’ knowledge and enactment of inclusive practices, and the participatory experiences that led to changes in novice teachers' practice.

Allison’s work is grounded in critical disability theory, and her secondary area of research examines the ways in which school systems pathologize difference and justify educational exclusion through discipline and special education systems and practices. Prior to her doctoral studies, she earned a master’s degree in special education from the University of Oregon and worked as both a general and a special education teacher at the elementary school level.

Specializations and Interests

Mixed methods research; equity-centered teacher preparation; critically inclusive pedagogy; teacher inquiry groups; disability studies and critical race theory in education

portrait image of doctoral student allison firestone

Degree(s)

MA, Special Education, University of Oregon
BA, Literatures of the World; Minor, Political Science, UC San Diego

Curriculum vitae

Contact