The initial question was innocent enough, at least on the surface: How do scholars and practitioners define child centered, developmentally appropriate, culturally responsive education in places distant from my home in the US? I was originally inspired to ask this question by my graduate students--aspiring and practicing Waldorf teachers--who were…

The focus of my dissertation is the 'problem of the Other'. The central question is: how does one relate to the other without immediately taking away their alterity? If the Other is an absolute other, how can we relate in a way that is respectful and ethical? There are many examples of relationships among people that demonstrate ways that are…

This dissertation is primarily concerned with nature-human relations -- how human people relate with and see themselves in relation to the rest of nature. Nature-human relations are part of how we make sense of the world around us, and these relationships therefore affect our broader reasoning and decision-making. The magnitude of environmental…

European colonization of vast portions of the world has left its mark long after the point when most societies were supposedly freed. The coloniality of power has ensured the continuing dominance of Eurocentric ideologies in the form of racism, sexism, and the marginalization of Black and Indigenous knowledge production. In this dissertation…

This dissertation, "A Need to Teach Differently: Storied Experiences of Transformative Educators in Nigerian Special Education," explored the narratives of educators who have significantly impacted the special education landscape in Nigeria. The study aimed to highlight the motivations, challenges, and transformative practices of these…

This research study examined how students and I navigated learning and teaching about genocide and mass violence in the context of a semester-long high school comparative genocide and human rights elective course at DeWitt Junior-Senior High School in rural south-central Wisconsin. Specifically, the study examined how students individually and…

Social studies teachers in the United States are often unprepared or hesitant to teach about race and racism. This is especially true among White teachers. If teachers are to teach American history, they must be prepared to teach about race and racism, starting with the construction of race in Colonial America and continuing to emphasize the…

Prior research has well outlined, detailed, and critiqued the effects of post-colonialism on schooling in Trinidad and Tobago and throughout the Caribbean, but there is a glaring absence of teacher voice regarding its legacy in teaching, learning, and schooling. The literature largely frames teachers as deprofessionalized, invisibilized, passive,…

Settler colonialism relies on land seizure and the erasure of Indigenous peoples and culture, and has not ended, despite common belief (Arvin et al., 2013; Patel, 2021). As settler colonialism continues to function, so does its oppressive structures. This study identified dual phenomena requiring investigation. First, the presence of settler…

This project is a regional case study of higher education institutions, employees, and students in the occupied Palestinian town of Bethlehem. A three-article format, this project employs autoethnography to explore the ways the author's religious community conceived of the holy land; mapping and photo documentation to explore the infrastructures…

The promotion of language ideologies, policies and pedagogies that treat languages as separate and hierarchical has become a central concern for critical education scholars. In this case study, I explore how school actors at Colegio Colombiano (CC), an international school in Colombia, engaged with critical approaches to bi/multilingual education…