TLPL Faculty Search: Francesca López (Arizona)
Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership
University of Maryland
Teacher Education Faculty Search Candidate Presentation
Dr. Francesca Lopez
Monday, November 6, 2017
9:45 am to 10:45 am
Room 0306
Benjamin Building
Francesca López began her career in education as a bilingual (Spanish/English) elementary teacher, and later as high school counselor, in El Paso, Texas. After completing her PhD in Educational Psychology at the University of Arizona (2008), she served on the faculty of the Educational Policy and Leadership department at Marquette University (2008-2013) and is currently an associate professor in the Educational Policy Studies and Practice department at the University of Arizona (as well as an affiliate faculty member in Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies). Her research is focused on the ways educational settings promote achievement for Latino youth and has been funded by the American Educational Research Association Grants Program, the Division 15 American Psychological Association Early Career Award, and the National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. Francesca is a National Education Policy Center Fellow, and was a Visiting Fellow for the Program for Transborder Communities at Arizona State University. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment and Contemporary Educational Psychology, and is currently senior associate editor for the American Journal of Education and co-editor of the American Educational Research Journal.
“Nurturing Confianza: The Role of Asset Pedagogies in Achievement for Historically Marginalized Youth”
Prior research has contributed to our understanding about the ways teachers communicate their expectations to students, how students perceive differential teacher behaviors, and their effect on students’ own perceptions of ability and achievement. Despite more than half a century of this work, historically marginalized students continue to be underrepresented in a vast array of achievement outcomes. Scholars have argued that asset based pedagogy is essential to effective teaching, but reviews of research repeatedly point to a need for empirical evidence. This presentation describes a study wherein asset-based practices are applied to a classroom dynamics framework to examine how teachers’ asset based pedagogy beliefs and behaviors are associated with Latino students’ ethnic and achievement identities, as well as their academic outcomes.
