I specialize on the social, geographical, developmental, and cultural factors that impact a person’s learning experiences, including how early educators develop cultural awareness of self and others of these named factors. I am a former early childhood childcare and public elementary school teacher who conducts research in community settings and partners with community institutions to understand how children learn in informal environments. I am committed to practices of critical, interpretative qualitative inquiry and embrace designing community-informed research that draws on social justice methodologies and analyses that support the positioning of participants as central agents in change-making processes. The goal of my community-based research is to understand and address urgent social problems by generating extraordinary insights into the authentic, multiple voices and perspectives of community members.
I received my Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a postdoctoral fellow/Research Associate at the Wisconsin Center for Educational Research.
My research and publications focus on pedagogical practices that draw on children’s multiple resources and knowledge from daily experiences at home, in the community, and in play.
I have published articles in a range of outlets, including Teaching and Teacher Education, Early Childhood Development and Care, Teacher Education Quarterly, Journal of Latinos and Education, and Early Years: An International Research Journal. I was a co-PI on an NSF, ITEST-funded grant, BODYMODELS, researching how early elementary school teachers can incorporate biomechanics (how the body moves) into inquiry-based science and mathematics curriculum. I also study how children appraise risk taking during play.
I am the recipient of the NAECTE Outstanding Early Childhood Teacher Educator Award. I serve as the President of the Nebraska Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators and am a 2021-22 Policy Fellow for the Nebraska Academy for Early Childhood Research.