Race and Intersectional Studies in Educational Equity Research

RISE works to support and cultivate transformative pedagogies, curriculum, and instruction for a more equitable world. Our scholarship in this area presents robust analyses and offers opportunities for educators to strengthen their teaching skills and approaches for intersectional racial justice and equity.

Our research and community-engaged scholarship seeks to challenge historically entrenched systemic marginalization of youth in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education education in PK-12 and beyond.  We work with youth and teachers to identify the institutional and systemic barriers that impact participation and identity development in STEM, as well as to imagine pedagogical approaches and practices that transform learning contexts into more inclusive and participatory spaces.

PK-12 Transformative Pedagogy and Curriculum

• Rethinking High-Leverage Practices in Justice-Oriented Ways (Journal of Teacher Education, 2020)
• Engaging with multicultural YA literature in the secondary classroom: Critical approaches for critical educators (book, 2019)
• Leadership in the era of the Trump presidency: implications for the education of American Indian children and youth (Journal of Educational Administration and History, 2017)
• Achieving Latina students: Aspirational counterstories and critical reflections on parental community cultural wealth (Journal of Latinos and Education, 2017)

STEM for PK-12 and Higher Education

• Assuming Brilliance in Boys of Color in Our STEM Education Classrooms (ARISE, 2020)
• They hated me till I was one of the “good ones”: Toward Understanding and Disrupting the Differential Racialization of Undergraduate African American STEM Majors. (The Journal of Negro Education, 2019)
• Latinx Students’ Sense of Familismo in Undergraduate Science and Engineering (The Review of Higher Education, 2019)
• Assuming brilliance: A decriminalizing approach to educating African American and Latino boys in elementary school STEM settings (Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 2018)
• “But the science we do here matters”: Youth‐authored cases of consequential learning (Science Education, 2017)
• And Still I See No Changes: Enduring Views of Students of Color in Science and Mathematics Education Policy Reports (Science Education, 2015)

PK-12 Teachers, Teaching and Learning

• “Who’s the one being disrespectful? Understanding and deconstructing the criminalization of elementary school boys of color” (Urban Education, 2019)
• Can We Say the “r” Word?: Identifying and Disrupting Colorblind Epistemologies in a Teacher Education Methods Course (Educational Studies, 2019)
• “From the Beginning, I Felt Empowered”: Incorporating an Ecological Approach to Learning in Elementary Science Teacher Education (Research in Science Education, 2017)
• Standin’ tall: criminalization and acts of resistance among elementary school boys of color (Race Ethnicity and Education, 2017)
• Cultural institutions as partners in initial elementary science teacher preparation (Innovations in Science Teacher Education, 2017)
• Uncovering the need for diversity among K–12 STEM educators (ResearchGate, 2015)
• Understanding Profiles of Preservice Teachers With Different Levels of Commitment to Teaching in Urban Schools (Urban Education, 2013)

Postsecondary Pedagogy, Curriculum, and Instruction

• Teaching in the borderland: critical practices in foundations courses (Teaching Education, 2012)

Developing and sustaining equitable and inclusive educational environments must welcome and invite active engagement of leaders across multiple settings (i.e., schools, colleges, and universities, community organizations). In doing so, we recognize that consciousness of, and a willingness to address, how racial inequity intersects with other systems of inequity is a key responsibility of all leaders.

RISE scholars support this alignment and consciousness through research on a number of issues and close examination of the conditions that both support and inhibit student learning and becoming (e.g., facilitating the development of cultural competencies among clinical mental health, school, and career counselors; applying culturally responsive counseling interventions with underserved populations; examining institutional rhetoric related to equity and justice).

Postsecondary Leadership

• Why They Hate Us: How Racist Rhetoric Impacts Education (book, 2021)
• Exploring methodological and ethical opportunities and challenges when researching with Indigenous youth on issues of identity and culture (International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2019)

Diversity and Equity Among Postsecondary Faculty

• Diverse Faculty Hiring/Retention/Promotion: Literature Review (Report to the Dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences, 2019)

Culturally-competent Counseling and Support

• A Preliminary Longitudinal Study of Multicultural Competence in Counselor Education (Journal of Counseling and Development, 2020)
• Multicultural Competence and the Working Alliance as Predictors of Client Outcomes (The Professional Counselor, 2018)

Intersectional racial equity in higher education, including college access and campus climates, are key public concerns requiring dynamic dialogical exchanges between research, and PK-16 praxis and leadership. RISE supports research-praxis partnerships to identify and advance innovative organizational transformations for more equitable college pathways for degree completion and participation in higher education.

Campus Climate

• Interrogating Racist Nativist Microaggressions and Campus Climate: How Undocumented and DACA College Students Experience Institutional Legal Violence in Colorado (Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 2018)
• Unpacking Resilience and Trauma: Examining the “Trump Effect” in Higher Education for Undocumented Latinx College Students (Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, 2018)
• The “Trump Effect” and Undocumented and DACA Community College Students (UndocuScholars, 2018)
• Identity, Social Activism, and the Pursuit of Higher Education: The Journey Stories of Undocumented and Unafraid Community Activists (book, 2015)

Diversity and Equity Among Faculty

• Diverse Faculty Hiring/Retention/Promotion: Literature Review (Report to the Dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences, 2019)