About Us

The Center for Educating Critically envisions classrooms and schools for students that are anti-oppressive and intersectional learning spaces.

We do this through:

  • working with PK-12 teachers, staff, administrators, and community members 

  • researching new approaches to humanizing, anti-oppression teaching and learning 

  • amplifying research focused on equitable and just teaching and learning 

  • collaborating with other equity-focused researchers and practitioners

The continuous interrogation of history, research, and practice through questioning lies at the core of the work of the Center for Educating Critically. Our approach fosters a deep understanding of the past and present and empowers educators and students to challenge and dismantle oppressive systems and construct educational possibilities.

Our work is grounded in Crenshaw’s conceptualization of intersectionality which posits that a person has multiple social identities and that various aspects of those identities interact to create unique experiences and outcomes. In other words, we must address multiple oppressions simultaneously because none exist in a vacuum.

Scroll down to meet the real people behind the work.

Meet the Team

  • A light skinned Latina woman with curly light-gray hair sits on a bench with her arm resting on the back of it. She wears a black shirt with numerous fists on it reading "We Rise Together".

    Dr. Laura M. Jiménez

    DIRECTOR
    Senior Lecturer, BU Wheelock


    My scholarship focuses on the ways educators can and should teach anti-oppression with and through children’s literature. As a result of being in teacher education, my work also encompasses Whiteness, intersectionality, and growth through radical honesty and inclusion. 

    I am a White presenting Latina lesbian and so I represent both the colonized and the colonizer. I represent the LGBTQIA community as an out and vocal lesbian. In my allyship, I try to support and uplift marginalized voices by consistently attending to the representation of people, history, and communities and the ways oppressive bias acts to uphold racist, misogynist, homophobic, ableist, and Eurocentric norms. 

    I am a founding member of the editorial board of Research on Diversity in Youth Literature and I co-authored Lee and Low’s 2019 Diversity Baseline 2.0 survey. My work has been published in The Lion and the Unicorn, Reading Teacher, Journal of Lesbian Studies, Teaching and Teacher Education, and the Journal of Literacy Research, as well as other peer reviewed journals. In addition, I am a member of the We Are KidLit Collective, and a regular contributor to See What We See review database on Social Justice Books website.

  • A white woman with curly shoulder-length hair and bold glasses smiles at the camera. She is wearing a shirt with a cardigan, a necklace, and is wearing a bold lipstick.

    Dr. Kristin McIlhagga

    ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

    My scholarship focuses on anti-oppression pedagogies in K–12 and postsecondary classrooms. I draw on culturally and historically responsive pedagogies, intersectionality, and critical whiteness studies to consider ways that educators can actively counter explicit and implicit oppressive practices inherent in formal education systems. As a white, straight, cis-woman who represents the nearly 80% of teachers in US K-12 classrooms, I recognize my privilege means that I have caused harm as an oppressor, whether intentional or not; and that I will cause harm again. I come to this work with humility and urgency. Before coming to Boston University, I was an assistant professor at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan as well a Lecturer at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. I have presented at Annual Conferences of National Council of Teachers of English, Children's Literature Association, Literacy Research Association, and Michigan Reading Association. My work has been published in The Michigan Reading Journal and The Journal of Education

Affiliate Colleagues

  • A Black woman with slightly curly dark brown hair, which fades into lighter brown, smiles at the camera

    Dr. Davena Jackson

    ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
    Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development

  • A man with dark brown hair and a brown jacket smiles at the camera. Behind him is a cluster of trees.

    Dr. Eric Cordero-Siy

    CLINCIAL ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
    Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development

  • A Black woman with dark brown curly hair that is gray at the roots, smiles at the camera with silver hoop earrings and big round glasses.

    Dr. Stephanie Jones

    ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
    Grinnell College

Think your team will work well with ours?

Let’s connect and talk about how we can collaborate.