Jennifer completed a Ph.D. in Anthropology and Education at Arizona State University with an emphasis on Early Childhood Education. Jennifer is a former preschool teacher. Her research and teaching interests focus on the role of race, culture(s) and cross-cultural experiences in early childhood education, with a particular focus on the experiences of teachers, parents and children from immigrant communities. She is concerned with improving educational equity at all levels of early childhood education, particularly through the inclusion of project-based instruction and other agency-producing teaching/learning approaches in the early grades.
She has used the multivocal, videocued ethnographic method with children, teachers and parents throughout the U.S. and India as well as with projects in Europe. Her work has been published in journals such as Teachers College Record, The International Journal of Research and Method in Education, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, Race, Ethnicity and Education and Young Children. Jennifer recently received the Outstanding Article of the Year award for her article in the Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education. In 2012, Jennifer became a Young Scholar (2012-2015) with the Foundation for Child Developmenttobetter understand how culturally-relevant types of agency in early elementary classrooms affects the social and academic development of Latino children of immigrants.
Ph.D. in Anthropology and Education, Arizona State University, 2009
Research interests focus on inequities in early schooling and the intersection of immigration, race and early childhood.
Member, Management Board, The University of Texas Elementary School
Adair, J K. (2012). Discrimination as a Contextualized Obstacle to Preschool Teaching of Young Latino Children of Immigrants.. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 13(3). (View)
Adair, J K., Tobin, J. & Arzubiaga, A. (2012). The Dilemma of Cultural Responsiveness and Professionalization: Listening Closer to Immigrant Teachers Who Teach Children of Recent Immigrants.. Teachers College Record, 114(12). (View)
Towards a Culturally Relevant Emphasis on Agency in the Social and Academic Development of Latino Children of Immigrants in PK-3 Educational Settings
This proposal focuses on the types of environments and teacher behaviors that foster immigrant children's use of agency in ways that positively affect their social and academic development. Foundation for Child Development (FCD) New American Children Young Scholarship Fellowship program
Cultural Nature of Project-Based Instruction
Pilot project on how children of immigrants and their families and teachers respond to greater classroom-based agency within project-based instruction models.
Children Crossing Borders
This large-scale study with research teams in the U.S., Germany, Italy, France and England aims to better understand the perspectives of preschool teachers and immigrant parents regarding early childhood education. (Spencer Foundation)
Young Scholar Fellowship, Foundation for Child Development, New American Children Program (2012 - 2015)
Emergy Scholar (Early Career) Award, American Educational Research Association (2012)
Outstanding Article, Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education (2011)
Summer Research Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin (2010)
Research Fellowship, Arizona State University (2006 - 2007)
Da Hei Ku, Ph.D., expected 2021 (Committee Member)
social context of education, early childcare centers and early childhood education, educational policy, policy implications on early childhood education
Anna Falkner, Ph.D., expected 2020 (Co-supervisor)
Joanna Englehardt (Committee Member)
Joanna Englehardt is a doctoral candidate and assistant instructor of Curriculum and Instruction in Early Childhood Education at The University of Texas at Austin. As a former preschool director her professional and research interests center on promoting teacher retention through the use of ongoing center-based inquiry professional development that provides teachers agency in their learning and critical reflection of their teaching practices.
Kate Puckett (Supervisor)
Mentoring of inservice teachers in childcare settings
How children's risky play supports their growth and the affordances for children taking risks in schools and community spaces.
Sunmin Lee (Supervisor)
| Year | Semester | Course |
|---|
| 2018 | Fall | EDC 385G: 1-Glbl Comp Early Childhood |
| 2018 | Spring | EDC 385G: 88-Rsch Early Childhood Educ |
| 2017 | Fall | EDC 388R: 3-Educational Ethnography |
| 2017 | Fall | ALD 321: Play In Early Childhood Devel |
| 2017 | Spring | ALD 321: Play In Early Childhood Devel |
| 2016 | Fall | EDC 385G: 1-Glbl Comp Early Childhood |
| 2016 | Fall | ALD 321: Play In Early Childhood Devel |
| 2015 | Fall | EDC 385G: 82-Maj Theorists Early Chldhd |
| 2015 | Fall | EDC 388R: Educational Ethnography |
| 2015 | Spring | EDC 385G: 88-Rsch Early Childhood Educ |
| 2014 | Fall | EDC 388R: Educational Ethnography |
| 2014 | Spring | EDC 371G: Teaching Young Children-E |
| 2014 | Spring | EDC 385G: 2-Parents And Education |
