Kenzie Andrews

Education: EdD in Educational Leadership, 2022, Miami University

Affiliation: Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching, Curriculum, and Educational Inquiry; PK-5 Program Student Liaison, Educator-in-Residence-MU TEACh, Co-Lead for Assessment of Willingness to Teach (AWT)

Why SJTC? “As a former K12 teacher, I have spent many years in public schools investing in the education of young children. This passion drives my research/teaching interests, which include empowering teachers as activists, teaching towards freedom, and dismantling the oppressive structures of schools. When we invest in just practices in our education spaces, we have the opportunity to prepare democratic and free citizens. This work begs for collaboration, which is what made the SJTC so inviting!”

Research Interests: My current research focuses on Mentorship Against Empire, specifically with educators. I am interested in how educators may leverage mentorship to find their voice, resist oppression and advocate for their students in the name of freer school spaces. This work relies on educators as radical imaginaries and critical hope.

Teaching Expertise: PK5: Mathematics, Social Studies, Literacy; Classroom Culture, Community & Climate; justice-oriented pedagogies, gifted education, critical literacies, culturally-sustaining pedagogies

Awards & Recognitions: 18 of the Last 9 Award, Miami University, 2023

Scholarship Highlight:
Andrews, K. L. (2022). hoodies, rainbows, guns, & goodbyes: An Autoethnographic Study Exploring the Experiences that Impacted One Educator’s Decision to Leave K-12 Education [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. 

Andrews, K. Supporting Early Career Teachers in Tumultuous Times. Presented at the annual Society of Professors of Education (SPE) Conference, April 2023, Chicago, IL.

About Me: “I absolutely love music. Some of my favorite genres include indie, funk, rock, and hip hop. I started playing drums when I was 9. I also do some beatboxing!”

Racheal Banda

Education: PhD in Curriculum and Instruction, specialization in Cultural Studies in Education, portfolio in Mexican American Studies, 2017, University of Texas at Austin

Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Literacy Committee Chair, and Literacy & Language MEd Program Coordinator in the Department of Teacher Education, EHS; Center for Human Development, Learning, and Technology

Why SJTC? “My research and teaching center issues of justice in education. As a former K-12 teacher and student teacher supervisor, I have had the experience of gaining a glimpse into many different schools, including public, private, Title I, and affluent schools. Across these schools, I have witnessed the inequities many students of color and students from low-income households face; issues I myself faced as a student. SJTC not only supports my own work as a scholar and educator for justice, but also provides a space that honors collaboration and collectivism, a cultural way of knowing that is familiar to me. For me, SJTC serves as a space of humanization and healing.”

Research Interests: critical and feminist of color theories of education and space; justice-centered teacher education; teacher practices with culturally, racially, and linguistically diverse students and communities; curriculum; qualitative research methods 

Teaching Expertise: culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogies; critical literacy

Awards & Recognitions: Rothrock, R. ($2.5M Grant, 2021). Family Literacy Engagement Coordinator, Preparing English Learner Educational Allies (¡PELEA!, which translates to “Fight!”), Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) National Professional Development, U.S. Department of Education grant. PI/Co-author: Martha Castañeda; Project Director/Co-Author: Robin Schell.

Scholarship Highlight:

Banda, R. M., Reyes, G., & Caldas, B. (Published online 2020). Curricula of Care and Radical Love. In M. F. He & W. Schubert (Eds.), Oxford Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies. New York: Oxford University Press.

Reyes, G., Banda, R. M., & Caldas, B. (Published online 2020). “We’re All in This Boat Together”: Latina/Chicana Embodied Pedagogies of Care. Journal of Latinos and Education.

Rothrock, R. M. (2017). Constructing a high-stakes community in the classroom: A case study of one urban, middle-school teacher. The Educational Forum, 81(4), 363-376.

About Me: “I am a Latina MotherScholar and former K-12 educator who grew up in the Austin, Texas area. My first degree is in Graphic Design and I love finding ways of drawing upon my creative, visual arts background for personal and professional projects (e.g. this SJTC site!). I also enjoy cooking, baking, music, spending time with family (my husband/partner and I have five children, one set of twins), and practicing my faith that compels me to love and care for all.”

Veronica Barrios

Education: PhD in Family Science and Human Development, 2018, Montclair State University

Affiliation: Assistant Professor in the Department of Family, Science & Social Work, EHS; Center for Human Development, Learning, and Technology; College of Arts and Science, Department of Global and Intercultural Studies affiliate, Miami University; Center for the Study and Support of Children and Families of the Incarcerated, Miami University

Why SJTC? “As a Queer, Latinx, interpersonal violence scholar, my work is grounded in intersectionality theory, discussing issues around the absence of and need for diversity, practices that limit and create equity, and the need for radical inclusion. Specifically, I investigate the culture of nondisclosure of violence. My scholarship is used to conduct training for local and national audiences (i.e. practitioners, researchers, educators) on the topics of cultural and trauma responsive strategies for working with individuals across the lifespan.”

Research Interests: sexual violence, Latinx families and the educational experiences of Latinx students

Teaching Expertise: Interpersonal violence and culturally informed practice in Families Science and Social Work

Awards & Recognitions:

Trauma Responsive Strategies Coordinator, ($2,500,000), Preparing English Learner Educational Allies (¡PELEA!, which translates to “Fight!”), Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) National Professional Development, U.S. Department of Education grant. PI/Co-author: Martha Castañeda; Project Director/Co-Author: Robin Schell.

2020 Jessie Bernard Award – Outstanding Contribution to Feminist Scholarship Paper, NCFR

Scholarship Highlight:

Barrios, V.R., *Corpora, M., *Pawlecki, E., &  Caspi, J. (2021). My Sister’s Keeper: Siblings’ discussions of sexual abuse experiences. Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Reyes, G., Barrios, V R., Banda, R., Aronson, B., *Carlos Berlioz, E., & Castaneda, M. (2021). Transgressing the personal/professional divide: Re-connecting and healing through testimonio within a Latina diaspora collaborative group. Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education.

Barrios, V.R., Khaw, L., Bermea, A. & Hardesty, J. (2020). Future directions in intimate partner violence research: An intersectionality framework for analyzing women’s processes of leaving abusive relationships. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. *NCFR 2020 Jessie Bernard Award – Outstanding Contribution to Feminist Scholarship Paper

About Me: I am a Jersey girl born to Puerto Rican and Cuban parents. I enjoy family, friends, and food in that order. I love cooking and dancing. I am first generation born in the U.S. and also to attend college. I hope to offer a bridge to others at all times. 

Katherine Batchelor

Education: PhD; 2014; Kent State University

Affiliation: Associate Professor in the Department of Teacher Education, EHS; English Department Affiliate; Miami University Dolibois European Center (MUDEC)

Why SJTC? “I seek to outgrow myself; I want to engage in critical conversations as well as help to implement change in the educational system at a national level. I teach my students that critical literacy must include action, therefore, I want to model for them how to be a literacy leader to enact change.”

Research Interests: critical, digital, and embodied literacies; writing; young adult literature

Teaching Expertise: undergraduate and graduate courses in Literacy and Language, Adolescent Young Adult/English Language Arts

Awards & Recognitions:

• Recognized by University Provost for Creativity and Innovation in Teaching, 2021
• LRA Reading Hall of Fame Emerging Scholars Fellowship Four-Year Mentoring Award
• National Board Certified Teacher

Scholarship Highlight: Batchelor, K. E.,Bissinger, N.*, Corcoran, C.*, & Dorsey, M.* (2021). Choose wisely!: Interactive fiction narrative videogames in the English classroom. English Journal, 110(5), 94-102. (*denotes undergraduate students)

Batchelor, K. E. (Accepted for 2022, July). Reading Refugee and Immigrant Protagonists in Children’s Literature: U.S. Undergraduate Students Examine Possible Shifts in Perspectives. The 15^th Global Studies Conference, Athens, Greece.

About Me: “I was an English teacher for 10 years in California and Florida.”

Érica Fernández

Education: PhD in Educational Policy Studies, Minor: Latino Studies, Indiana University – Bloomington 2015

Affiliation: Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, EHS 

Why SJTC? “My research is anchored and inspired by the experience of her parents who were themselves formerly undocumented Mexican immigrants. Because of the influence of my parents in my life and work, I specifically focus on the parent organizing initiatives of un/documented Latina/o/x parents, which centrally positions them as educational and community leaders and activists. In doing so, I collaborative research with and alongside un/documented Latina/o/x parents to challenge and expand notions of who and what counts as leaders and leadership.”

Research Interests: Latina/o/x parental engagement & organizing; Intersection of anti-immigration reform and educational policies & practices; Critical Race Theory (CRT), Latinx Critical Theory (LatCrit), & Chicana Feminist Epistemology; Family & community engagement; Qualitative research (critical ethnography, testimonios, community-based participatory research, & participatory action research)

Teaching Expertise: Community based learning and research in education; Family, community, and school partnerships; Culture, leadership, and education; Social justice and transformation

Awards & Recognitions: 2021 Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, Paula Silver Award (Most Outstanding Case of the Year)

Scholarship Highlight: Fernández, É., Rincón, B., & *Hinojosa, J. K. (2021). (Re)creating family and reinforcing pedagogies of the home: How familial capital manifests for Students of Color pursuing STEM degrees. Race, Ethnicity, & Education. 

Ashley Cartell Johnson

Education: MEd, The Ohio State University

Affiliation: Senior Clinical Lecturer, Inclusive Special Education Program Coordinator, Disability Studies Coordinator, and Chief Departmental Advisor in the Department of Educational Psychology

Research Interests: socially just and accessible teaching practices for students with disabilities, disability studies in education, and access for students labeled with intellectual disabilities in higher education

Teaching Expertise: Teaching methods for students labeled with intensive disabilities, inclusive education, disability studies coursework

Awards & Recognitions: Inclusive Excellence Award, Miami Office of the President; Ohio Educator of the Year Award, Ohio Magazine

Scholarship Highlight: Coomer, N., Cartell Johnson, A., Aronson, B., & Reyes, G. (In press). Coalition with/in the boundaries: A radical love response to neoliberal debilitation in special education. In D.I. Hernández-Saca, H. Pearson, & C. Kramarczuk Voulgarides. (Eds.). Understanding the boundaries between disability studies and special education through consilience, self-study, and radical love. Lexington Books.

Callie Batts Maddox

Education: PhD in Physical Cultural Studies, 2012, University of Maryland

Affiliation: Assistant Professor in the Department of Sports Leadership and Management; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program affiliate

Why SJTC? “Sport is a significant feature of our social lives rich with cultural meaning and human connection. It holds the potential to both reproduce and challenge existing inequities and injustices. As such, I am interested in the role of sport in social justice, its capacity to catalyze progressive change, and its impact on individuals and communities.”

Research Interests: women’s baseball, the globalization of sport, embodiment, and sport as a site for social justice 

Teaching Expertise: Critical cultural studies of sport and leisure

Scholarship Highlight: Maddox, C. B. (2020). Not America’s game: The globalization and post-Westernization of women’s baseball. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 44(2), 115-133. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723519884850 

Brady Nash

Education: PhD in Curriculum and Instruction, University of Texas at Austin, 2022

Affiliation: Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching, Curriculum and Educational Inquiry, EHS; Affiliate Faculty, The Ohio Writing Project

Why SJTC? “My research focuses on critical and culturally sustaining approaches to secondary language arts instruction. From these lenses, I consider how the discipline can become more responsive to the diversity of students in our classrooms, more open to varied forms of knowledge and literacy, and more intentional about the teaching and learning of critical perspectives. This group provides space to build upon this work across disciplines, learn from others, and push the boundaries of my own thinking. It also facilitates creative and productive partnerships that allow us to work together to fight for more just and caring educational experiences for all students.”

Research Interests: critical literacy, multimodal literacies, digital literacy, culturally sustaining pedagogy/ies, teacher education, professional development, online learning, positionality, emotions in learning, qualitative research methods

Teaching Expertise: Teacher education, English language arts, adolescent literacy, young adult literature, literacy theory, qualitative research, writing pedagogy, culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies

Awards & Recognitions: Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers J. Estill Alexander Future Leaders in Literacy Dissertation Award (2022)

Scholarship Highlight:
Nash, B. L., Dunham, H., Murdter-Atkinson, J., & Mosley Wetzel, M. (2023). A culturally sustaining approach to multimodal literacies: Building on students’ funds of knowledge in preservice teacher education. Literacy Research and Instruction. https://doi.org/10.1080/19388071.2022.2153766

Nash, B. (2021). Constructing meaning online: Critical reading practices for a post-truth world. The Reading Teacher, 74(6), 713-722. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1980

About Me: I have lived and served as a teacher in Virginia, New York City, and Austin, Texas. When I’m not in class, I’m probably watching TV from the 90s or hiking on a trail.

Meghan Phadke

Education: PhD in Curriculum & Instruction, 2021, University of Minnesota

Affiliation: Assistant Professor, and PK-5 Block 2 Coordinator in the Department of Teacher Education, EHS

Why SJTC? “My work is grounded in my identity as an Indian-American Woman of Color and experiences growing up in an immigrant family. My understandings have grown out of the everyday realities of negotiating the cultural and social boundaries of Americanness, particularly in my time teaching, living and traveling abroad, and learning and working in higher education.”

Research Interests: My current research focuses on the increasing racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity of U.S. students in relation to the overwhelmingly white teacher workforce, whose demographics have seen little change in the past 50 years. I am interested in the implications of this ongoing transformation in demographics within the United States on the nature and notion of American identity, of what and who count as American, and the impacts of this shift on the realities for schools and the lives of teachers and students who labor and learn within them. In particular, my research centers Asian American teachers and utilizes narrative approaches to qualitative research. 

Teaching Expertise: Justice-oriented and culturally-sustaining pedagogies; critical multicultural and global education studies; social foundations of education; curriculum studies; urban education

Scholarship Highlight:

Phadke, M. Second-Generation Asian American narratives of being & belonging in schools. Paper presented at the annual Bergamo Conference on Curriculum Theory and Classroom Practice, October 2021, Dayton, OH.

Phadke, M. Being and becoming American: Narratives of belonging from Second-Generation American Teachers of Color. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, May 2021, Champaign-Urbana, IL, virtual.

Phadke, M. Where are you from? Why am I here?: Rewriting the American migration story. Paper presented at the annual meeting of AERA, April 2021, virtual.

About Me: I am an east coast transplant to the Midwest. I grew up outside of Boston and spent over a decade living and teaching in New York City.

Ganiva Reyes

Education: PhD in Curriculum and Instruction, 2016, University of Texas at Austin

Affiliation: Assistant Professor in the Department of Teacher Education, EHS; Affiliate Faculty Status in Educational Leadership

Why SJTC? “My research revolves around intersectionality, Chicana feminist theory, and pedagogies of care to provide a nuanced approach to topics of diversity and inclusion in teacher education. I use feminist of color and Chicana/Latina feminist theories to make sense of the everyday educational lives of students and teachers. I also integrate culturally relevant teaching, ethics of care, and feminist of color theorizing to show how teachers can re-envision their roles as teachers to be part of a support network for culturally and linguistically diverse students. More specifically, I explore the intimate and interpersonal aspects of teaching, and how teachers need communal and institutional support to provide the same for their students. For example, my work about the interactions between Latina mothering students and their teachers, along the U.S/Mexico border, reveal important lessons about teacher practices and pedagogy born from the knowledges of Latinx populations. Additionally, I engage with gender and sexuality studies in education, as well as feminist and gender theories, to expand the scope what counts as cultural diversity in education. Through my work, I show how justice-oriented curriculum and pedagogy should take into account the race-gendered-classed dimensions of students’ lives in order to be truly culturally relevant.”

Research Interests: theories and pedagogies of care; justice-oriented teacher education; cultural knowledge of teachers; Latinx youth studies and education; Latinx curriculum theorizing; Chicana feminist theories; gender and sexuality studies in education; feminist epistemologies and pedagogies; curriculum theory; cultural studies in education; qualitative research methods 

Teaching Expertise: justice in education; research methods; race and ethnicity studies in education; culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogies; critical literacy

Awards & Recognitions: Professors of Curriculum Honorary Society

Scholarship Highlight:

Reyes, G. (2021). Borderland Pedagogies of Cariño: Theorizing relationships of care from teacher practice with Latina mothering students. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 34(7), 613-627. 

Reyes, G. (2021). Integrated networks of care: Supporting teachers who care for Latina mothering students. Critical Studies in Education, 62(4), 471-485. 

Kelli Rushek

Education: PhD in Language, Literacy, and Culture. University of Iowa, 2021

Affiliation: Assistant Professor of English Education, Department of Teaching, Curriculum, and Educational Inquiry, EHS

Why SJTC? “I taught secondary English in the hyper-segregated Chicago Public Schools district for ten years before entering higher education. I staunchly support public education and transformative, innovative, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive teaching and learning. I want to help prepare the socially just, humanizing, critical, transformative English educators my former high school students deserve.”

Research Interests: My research looks at disrupting whiteness in ELA and literacy teaching and teacher education at the many intersections of critical literacies instruction, transactional and reader response theory, multiliteracies, early career teacher attrition, Culturally Sustaining Literacy Pedagogies, Critical Race English Education theory and framework, critical sociocultural theory and intertwining adolescent development models. 

Teaching Expertise: Critical literacies, integrated literacies, and all things English education (methods of teaching literacies) are my primary strengths.  Secondary strengths are Schooling in the US;  global education at the nexus of the Global Education Reform Movement/neoliberalization/critical cosmopolitanism; adolescent development and classroom communities and cultures

Awards & Recognitions: Academic Year 2021-2022: Professor of the Year Award, Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honors Society of Miami University

Scholarship Highlight:
Rushek, K.A. & Seylar, E. (2022). Collective diamond mining: Using collaborative curriculum excavation to embrace the educator’s responsibility toward culturally sustaining literacy pedagogy. In S. Cantrell, D. Walker-Dalhouse, A. Lazar (Eds.) Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: Honoring Students’ Heritages, Literacies, and Languages. Teachers College Press: New York.

Scott Sander

Education: PhD in Educational Leadership, 2014, Miami University

Affiliation: Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Teacher Education, EHS

Why SJTC? “My work in large lecture courses looks to challenge traditional notions of science teaching and learning as I positions students as novice scientists/scholars who critically analyze both physical and social phenomena.”

Research Interests: science teacher education as it intersects with social justice, diversity, and inclusion 

Teaching Expertise: large lecture courses and science teaching

Scholarship Highlight: Saultz, A., Lyons, A., Aronson, B., Sander, S., and Malin, J. (2021). Understanding Preservice Teachers Dispositions: Implications for Social Justice and Educational Policy.  Teacher Education Quarterly.

Sander, S. (2021). Curriculum as Liminal and Luminous: Anchoring Threshold Concepts in/for Teacher Education.  Presentation panel at JCT Conference in Dayton, Ohio.

Karen Zaino

Education: PhD in Urban Education, 2023, The Graduate Center, CUNY

Affiliation: Assistant Teaching Professor in Teaching, Curriculum, and Educational Inquiry/Urban Cohort

Why SJTC? “In my teaching and research, I seek to surface and unsettle the carceral and colonial foundations of schooling, and knowledge production in general. I examine how various pedagogical and methodological practices, especially participatory and intergenerational research collaborations, might disrupt common-sense epistemological and affective assumptions that unequally distribute value and vulnerability across people in and through learning communities. The SJTC is an embodied example of the kinds of collaborative practices that can interrupt traditional educational hierarchies.”

Research Interests: Youth participatory action research (YPAR); teacher activism and organizing; qualitative and participatory research methodologies; queer-feminist theories; cultural studies

Teaching Expertise: Educational Foundations; Urban Education; Research Methods; Youth & Community-based Critical Participatory Action Research

Awards & Recognitions: John Laska Outstanding Dissertation Award in Teaching, American Association for Teaching & Curriculum; Distinguished Graduate Student Paper Award,  AERA Critical Issues in Curriculum and Cultural Studies SIG;  Excellence in Teaching Award, The Graduate Center, CUNY

Scholarship Highlight:
Sonu, D., & Zaino, K. (2023). Breaking light on the economic divide: Elementary school teachers and how social class matters in teaching. Teachers College Record. DOI: 01614681231177817.

Zaino, K., Caraballo, L., Bigelow, T.*, Coleman, M.*, Inderjeit, A.*, & Wright, N.* (2022). “Regardless, my students and I pressed on”: How early-career teachers develop activist identities. Peabody Journal of Education. (*denotes student collaborator) 

About Me: “I taught high school English for 12 years, primarily in Covington, KY, and I love living and learning in Cincinnati!”