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Noreen Naseem Rodriguez, PhD

Assistant Professor, Michigan State University

About

I am Assistant Professor of Elementary Education and Educational Justice in the Department of Teacher Education and core faculty in the Asian Pacific American Studies program at Michigan State University. I engage critical race frameworks to explore how racial and cultural experiences impact the pedagogy and curricular enactment of Asian American and Latin@ pre- and in-service teachers. I also study how educators teach so-called difficult histories to young learners through children's literature and primary sources. My current project, generously funded by the Spencer Foundation, examines grassroots advocacy efforts for Asian American Studies in K-12 classrooms in Georgia, Texas, and Virginia, particularly as they compare to legislative mandates in politically liberal Northern and Midwestern states. I previously held tenure track positions at the University of Colorado Boulder (2021-2023) and Iowa State University (2017-2021).

I am an experienced elementary teacher who taught first, second, fourth, and fifth grades in Austin, Texas for nine years and I continue to provide professional development to K-8 social studies teachers at the national, state, and local levels. As a teacher educator, I have taught early childhood and elementary social studies methods courses and courses about secondary social studies, Asian American education and bilingualism, bilingual education, and Latinx youth. At the graduate level, I have taught introduction to qualitative research, critical race theory (CRT), CRT and teachers of color, history and policy issues in teaching and teacher education, and Asian Americans in education. Honors include the 2017 Larry Metcalf Exemplary Dissertation Award from the National Council for the Social Studies, the 2019 Early Career Award from the Children's Literature Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English, a 2020 Teaching Innovation Award from Iowa State, the 2021 Early Career Award from the Research on the Education of Asian Pacific Americans Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Award, the 2021 Early Career Award from the College and University Faculty Assembly of the National Council for the Social Studies, and the 2022 Outstanding Paper Award from the Social Studies Research Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association.

Outside of academia, my interests include baking, art, music, documentaries, crafting, and planning elaborate themed parties for my two daughters. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at @NaseemRdz

When those who have power to name and to socially construct reality choose not to see you or hear you, whether you are dark-skinned, old, disabled, female, or speak with a different accent or dialect than theirs, when someone with the authority of a teacher, say, describes the world and you are not in it, there is a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked in to a mirror and saw nothing. Yet you know you exist and others like you, that this is a game with mirrors. It takes some strength of soul—and not just individual strength, but collective understanding—to resist this void, this nonbeing, into which you are thrust, and to stand up, demanding to be seen and heard.
- Adrienne Rich