College of Education and Human Development

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Equity in education

Understanding and promoting achievement, fairness, and opportunity in education.

Nina Asher Nina Asher

In the mid-1980s, armed with my master’s degree in social work (from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Bombay, India), I began working as a research assistant on intervention projects focused on improving the educational achievement levels…

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Nina Asher

Blanca Caldas Chumbes Blanca Caldas Chumbes

Blanca Caldas is an assistant professor in Multilingual Education and Elementary Education—College of Education and Human Development at The University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She completed her Ph.D.

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Blanca Caldas Chumbes

Vichet Chhuon Vichet Chhuon

My research has broadly focused on the experiences of immigrant youth and students of color to understand how school institutions might better help them realize their promise.

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Vichet Chhuon

Lesa Clarkson Lesa Clarkson

The foundation of my research agenda is mathematics in urban classrooms. This interest evolved from my initial study which examined a middle school reform mathematics curriculum to determine if mathematics achievement, as determined by the state…

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Lesa Clarkson

Colleen Clements Colleen Clements

Santa Barbara Independent Innovation in Theatre Award ICQI, International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry NWSA, National Women’s Studies Association AERA, American Educational Research Association, Division G – Social Context of Education SIG -…

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colleen clements

Samuel David Samuel David

My work as both a teacher and researcher at the University of Minnesota are centrally concerned with improving instruction for minoritized multilingual students across diverse classroom contexts.

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Samuel David

Justin Grinage Justin Grinage

The focus of my research centers on analyzing processes of racialization in school and classroom spaces through several areas of inquiry including critical whiteness studies, Black education, neoliberal multiculturalism, and critical literacy.

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Justin Grinage

Jeff Henning-Smith Jeff Henning-Smith

Jeff Henning-Smith is a Senior Lecturer in the Elementary Education and Social Studies program areas.

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Jeff Henning-Smith

Kendall King Kendall King

  • Professor of Multilingual Education, Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Faculty Development
  • 612-625-3692
  • kendall@umn.edu

Schools play a crucial role in determining the life trajectories of minoritized language students as well as the status of minoritized languages and the future of linguistic diversity.

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Kendall King

Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr

  • Department Associate Chair, Associate Professor - Teaching
  • she, her, hers
  • 612-625-4187
  • kmartink@umn.edu

Keitha-Gail received her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota in 2016. Her research interests live at the intersection of collective memory work, elementary education, teacher education, being Black, and living queerly.

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Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr

J.B. Mayo J.B. Mayo

I am an Associate Professor in social studies education. I hold a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of South Florida, where my focus of study was gender and sexuality within the social studies, specifically on the formation and…

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J.B. Mayo

Bic Ngo Bic Ngo

  • Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, Rodney S. Wallace Professor for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning
  • 612-625-7520
  • bcngo@umn.edu

My research and teaching interests focus on culturally relevant pedagogy, urban and multicultural education in general, and immigrant education in particular.

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Bic Ngo

Abigail Rombalski Abigail Rombalski

Abby Rombalski works to cultivate university-community partnerships and opportunities for public scholarship that work towards racial justice in education with youth at the center.

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Abigail Rombalski

Cassie Scharber Cassie Scharber

  • Associate Professor of Learning Technologies, Director of the L+T Collaborative, Bonnie Westby Huebner Chair in Education and Technology
  • she, her, hers
  • 612-625-6607
  • scharber@umn.edu

I am troubled by the narrow conceptions and practices of literacy and learning that proliferate in schools and current educational inequalities that are rooted in the gendered, racist, and classist histories of U.S. schooling.

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Cassie Scharber

Susan Staats Susan Staats

As a cultural anthropologist with research and teaching responsibilities in mathematics, my academic pathway is varied and unusual.

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Susan Staats

Crystal Wise Crystal Wise

Dr. Wise’s work as a kindergarten and second-grade teacher informs her research and post-secondary teaching in early literacy, culturally responsive pedagogies, and historical and contemporary literacy practices of African Americans.

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Crystal Wise
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