University of Virginia

Graduate Student, Educational Leadership, Foundations and Policy

Doctoral Student

Curry School of Education

Thesis Title: Education California-style: A Multiple-leveled, Multiple-lensed Analysis

About

I am an educator. The process of schooling and multitude of opportunities that come as a result of completing one’s studies enthrall me. The appropriate learning environment can change lives. As an educator, I’ve attempted to add to my understanding of schools by teaching and taking leadership positions both in large, comprehensive schools and small schools. I’ve also helped to create or strengthen programs that are impactful to under-served, under-educated, marginalized communities. Early on in my career, I intentionally sought out varied educational experiences, so that I would have a wealth of information and resources to bring to my school setting. I wanted to make an impact on educational institutions on behalf of underrepresented student populations.

My research interests are school-community relations, how educational leaders can build agency for marginalized members of their school communities, and utilize the affective nature of the schooling process to improve academic achievement.

My current research projects consist of an auto-ethnographic, narrative analysis, a secondary analysis of focus group data, and an analysis of both the achievement data  and policy implementation for schools in the Williams v. California settlement. The focus of the self-study is an understanding of my ascendancy into the Academy as an African American male, first generation college student enrolled in a doctoral degree program in education.  I am analyzing focus group data for instances of racial micro-aggressions in schools as experienced by undergraduate students in Central Virginia who identify as African American. Lastly, The study of schools affected by the Williams v. California settlement is my dissertation topic. A paper under development (and accepted for the AERA 2010 conference) is a comparative analysis of math achievement data for Williams-related schools to a national sample, while another manuscript investigates the intentions behind Williams-related policy measures.

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