Rafa is a doctoral candidate in the Language, Literacy and Culture cluster at the Berkeley School of Education. His work focuses on understanding how literacy and technology shape learning in formal and non-formal educational spaces, particularly in rural areas in Latin America. More specifically, Rafa's work seeks to understand how literacy practices shape and are shaped by people's political economy, and how these practices can become windows into the civic projects marginalized communities are trying to build beyond, and sometimes in opposition to, global development projects. Some of the questions guiding his research agenda are: What happens to literacy practices when they move from global policy discourse into local classrooms and community spaces? How do teachers and students appropriate technologies in ways that reflect local histories and aspirations? What civic futures are being imagined through everyday literacy practices? How do communities negotiate, resist, or transform dominant narratives of “innovation” and “progress”? When does technology amplify local agency, and when does it reproduce inequality?
Rafa came to the BSE with almost a decade of experience in research and teaching in his home country, Nicaragua. He abandoned a career in Law shortly after entering a high school classroom for the first time almost ten years ago as a language teacher. Since then, all his work has been dedicated to equity and education. He has been a university lecturer and has worked on Regional Teacher Training Programs funded by international donors. Throughout his career, he has identified these tensions between international development projects and local agency, which have shaped his research.
Looking forward, Rafa hopes to continue working at the intersection of research, teaching, and collaborative program design, building bridges between scholarly inquiry and transformative educational practice. His current projects include partnerships with educational organizations in Honduras, Colombia, and Mexico, as well as ongoing research on literacy, technology, and civic reasoning. Through this work, he aims to contribute insights that support rural teachers, strengthen community-rooted educational initiatives, and inform more relational approaches to educational change. He aims to return to his country one day and play a role in Nicaragua's much-needed democratic transition.
Outside academics, Rafa enjoys writing short stories, watching good movies and tv shows, and spending quality time with his loved ones. Broadly, Rafa is always trying to build bridges and connect with people who, like his favorite writer, Roque Dalton, believe that "poetry like bread is for everyone."
Specializations and Interests
Language and Literacy, Teacher Development, Rural Education
