March 28, 2022
Catherine Park
Catherine’s research focuses on the intersections of globalism and urbanism in schooling. She looks at how global turns in schooling shape/are shaped by global desires and transnational investments, and further interacts with urbanizing/gentrification processes in the United States and in China. Specifically, she focuses on the cultural politics and meaning-making processes of students, parents, teachers, and administrators who navigate these conflict-ridden spaces.
What Catherine wants students to gain from her class: "My primary goal is to ensure that all students are heard, and have the space and resources to express their complex, authentic selves in my classroom. In my current role as an instructor, this means expanding the repertoires of how we teach, assess, and support students on their journeys of learning to include transcultural, multimodal literacies that draw on students’ lived histories. I hope one big takeaway that students get from me is that we, as educators, care about who they are as students, friends, children, parents, hobbyists, professionals, etc. and as teachers who can help me, and their peers, learn."
Allison Bradford
Allison engages in design-based research in partnership with teachers from several Bay Area school districts. Her current research is centered on teacher customization of middle school science curriculum in response to their students’ ideas and learning needs. Her studies focus on teacher customization, both as it occurs in-the-moment as teachers review learning analytics and during summer professional development workshops designed to guide teacher refinement of the curriculum. She is particularly interested in increasing partnership between teachers and researchers in the space of learning analytics with the aim of making learning analytics that are more practically important to teachers, better grounded in theories of learning, and more connected to the full range of ways students express their understanding.
What Allison wants students to gain from her class: "While the class I’m currently teaching is about project-based instruction, I hope my students’ big takeaway is more about the nature of teaching. I hope that my students will develop the understanding that teaching is a practice of lifelong learning and self-reflection. Through our class activities and what I try to make visible in my own teaching practice, I hope my students will recognize that there are questions they will and should grapple with time and again throughout their teaching careers. I hope they leave with the expectation that as teachers, they should always investigate what practices, resources, and activities best serve the students in front of them."
Arlyn Moreno Luna
Arlyn's scholarly interests include access and equity in higher education for first-generation and traditionally underrepresented students; students’ higher education pathways; students’ experiences when transferring from community college to four-year institutions; and bachelor's degree attainment for students who begin post-secondary education at a community college.
Arlyn was born and raised in Mexico, migrating to the U.S. as a teen. She started in a new educational system without knowing English, which shaped her perspectives and educational aspirations. Arlyn experienced firsthand how historically marginalized students are tracked into technical careers and not into college. Arlyn developed a strong desire to conduct research that provides systematic evidence that informs best practices to promote immigrant and student equity
What Arlyn wants students to gain from her class: "My goal as a GSI is for students to understand and learn how to navigate the pathways to graduate school. As a GSI, I share with students my educational trajectory and share my experiences as a doctoral student. I hope that by sharing information about graduate school, I will help to demystify graduate school and encourage students to continue with their education after their bachelor’s degree. The biggest takeaway I hope is for students to see themselves as future GSIs, mentors, and scholars contributing knowledge to the field."
Aukeem Ballard
Aukeem’s work focuses on shedding light on the intersections of critical studies and the seemingly intangible aspects of schooling for marginalized populations. Aukeem pursues lines of inquiry that help clarify the sense-making and experiences of marginalized populations in phenomena such as love, courage, vulnerability, and togetherness. He seeks to trace the ways in which these experiences are mediated by critical theory constructs found in psychoanalysis, critical race theory, intersectionality, and class. Aukeem uses the research to support policies and practices that center joy and justice for actors within the education field who are frequently situated in discourses of inescapable deficit and destitution.
Brittney Cooper
Brittney's research is focused on language development and, in particular, how children develop relational concepts through social interaction and embodied activity. Her current projects are related to language development among children who communicate using Augmentative and Alternative Communication.
Her interests also include supporting students who are both bilingual and have special learning needs. As a school-based Speech and Language Pathologist, Brittney is passionate about promoting additive bilingual environments for students and families.
What Brittney wants students to gain from her class: No matter what subject I teach, I want my students to recognize themselves as being a part of an epistemic evolution. My hope is that students think of established scholarship as the beginning of the journey, not the end. I want them to know that all prominent scholars of the past were students once and that the questions discussed in classrooms today are the seeds of tomorrow’s collective knowledge.