About. Teacher Educator | Researcher | Activist | Consultant | Writer | Speaker | Mentor |
Daughter of the U.S. South |
Biography.
My commitment to helping educators develop into racial equity leaders stems from a deeply personal place. I was the second child born to an unwed, teen mom and was raised in an impoverished home in the rural South. As a young girl, I attended all-Black de facto segregated schools shortly after Alabama forced integration in the early 1970s. This attempt at integration resulted in dual school systems: white segregation academics and Black public schools that were staffed by exemplary mostly Black teachers.
After graduating from high school, I attended college as a first-generation student and earned a B.A. in English, and immediately afterward, an M.Ed. in English Education. I excelled in school in spite of the many obstacles I faced, but this is not the case for far too many Students of Color and students from economically disadvantaged families who face structural barriers that are often insurmountable.
Overwhelmingly, these bright, brilliant students attend overcrowded, under-resourced schools with high teacher-attrition. Curricula and teachers marginalize their identities, devalue their cultural knowledge and languaging practices, and respond to their behavior in punitive ways. After teaching in public schools and at the community college, I was motivated to earn a Ph.D. because I wanted to correct these injustices by ensuring that teachers and curricula were culturally relevant and racially just.
I've done this work for the last several years as a teacher educator and consultant. My goal is to help educators become racial equity leaders who enact anti-racist schooling practices that lead to educative spaces where all students can thrive! This work is important to me because attaining academic and professional success should be the norm for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, not the exception.
Further details about my professional work can be found on my CV.altheria_caldera_2022_march_cv.pdf
After graduating from high school, I attended college as a first-generation student and earned a B.A. in English, and immediately afterward, an M.Ed. in English Education. I excelled in school in spite of the many obstacles I faced, but this is not the case for far too many Students of Color and students from economically disadvantaged families who face structural barriers that are often insurmountable.
Overwhelmingly, these bright, brilliant students attend overcrowded, under-resourced schools with high teacher-attrition. Curricula and teachers marginalize their identities, devalue their cultural knowledge and languaging practices, and respond to their behavior in punitive ways. After teaching in public schools and at the community college, I was motivated to earn a Ph.D. because I wanted to correct these injustices by ensuring that teachers and curricula were culturally relevant and racially just.
I've done this work for the last several years as a teacher educator and consultant. My goal is to help educators become racial equity leaders who enact anti-racist schooling practices that lead to educative spaces where all students can thrive! This work is important to me because attaining academic and professional success should be the norm for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, not the exception.
Further details about my professional work can be found on my CV.altheria_caldera_2022_march_cv.pdf
My Work.
Teaching Areas.
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Research & Scholarship.
My most recent peer-reviewed publication, "Being a Conduit and Culprit of White Language Supremacy: A Duo-Autohistoria," can be accessed here.
My article, "Woke Pedagogy: A Framework for Teaching and Learning" is the most downloaded article on the journal's website. Read it here. Interested in learning more about equity-related pedagogies, like culturally relevant, culturally responsive, culturally sustaining, click here for an overview of terms. You can find my other peer-reviewed publications here. |
IDRA Education Equity Policy Fellowship.I completed a 9-month education policy fellowship for the Intercultural Development Research Association from November 2020-July 2021. As a fellow, I wrote policy, advocated for/against bills, and worked with coalitions during Texas' 87th Legislative Session. Get a snapshot of my projects here.
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