RESEARCH

My research is based in the following three research strands: (1) understanding how youth in urban areas develop digital literacy competencies, (2) how issues of social justice and cultural diversity can be examined with emerging technologies in secondary classrooms, and (3) teacher training for pre-service teachers in urban settings. In my dissertation entitled, “Hip-Hop Is My Passport! Using Hip-Hop and Digital Literacies to Understand Global Citizenship Education,” with the support of the Fulbright program and mtvU, I examined the intersection of critically conscious global citizenship, digital literacies, and popular culture, specifically socially conscious hip-hop, in classrooms in Australia as well as out of school settings, such as community centers, inside and outside of the United States. The goal of this course was to use socially conscious hip-hop to teach digital literacy skills and topics of social justice. I hope to explore how this course can adapt to secondary classrooms in the United States.  I am also interested in how teachers can adapt other cultural artifacts, which students extensively engage in during out of school settings, into their classroom practices.  

Additionally, I have used my background in mathematics to help design professional experiences for K-12 teachers and faculty in STEM fields. This includes facilitating a Makerspace workshop for in-service teachers and working with the WIPRO MSU Urban STEM program.