William Davies

Will Davies earned a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy from Boston University and a M. Ed. in Education Policy and Planning (EPP) from the University of Texas at Austin. Following four years teaching English as a foreign language in South America, Will spent five years working as a (Spanish/English) bilingual elementary classroom teacher and three more as a campus literacy specialist in Central Texas public schools. Since 2018 he has worked with Breakthrough Central Texas, a local educational non-profit that supports first-generation college aspirants from 6th grade through postsecondary completion to achieve their personal and professional goals. As their Associate Director of Policy and Data, he is responsible for the execution of Breakthroughs research and advocacy activities across institutional and legislative domains and leads the collection, management, and analysis of data to improve the organizations services. Since 2019, Will has also worked as a research analyst for a federally-funded research project called Building a Green Texas: Activating a New Generation of Sustainability Leaders. The initiative partners the University of Texas system, Texas school districts, sustainability professionals, municipal governments, and community based organizations to strengthen climate resiliency through the development of green building pipelines and active environmental education for youth from the communities most impacted by climate change and least represented in green careers. He helps with program design and implementation supporting the evaluation team of Dr. Miriam Solis (School of Architecture) using Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methods. His personal, academic, and professional experience working with experts across a wide variety of disciplines has helped him develop methodological skills and theoretical knowledge that improves his understanding of how environmental, economic, social, and geographic contexts impact schooling and educational opportunities for minoritized youth and communities. As doctoral student in the EPP program, Wills research has often focused on the sociopolitical context of bilingual education, especially the rapid discursive shift around and expansion of dual language education (DLE) and its meaning for the access and experience of minoritized students and families. His dissertation research focuses on how principals across diverse DLE implementation contexts understand the purpose and target population of their programs, and what implications that has for how they interpret and enact language policy on their campuses.