Assistant Professor at the University of California, Riverside
About
Dr. Lorena Gutiérrez is an Assistant Professor of Teaching and Assistant Director of the Center for Educational Transformation in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside. She received her Ph.D. in Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education from Michigan State University. Her research highlights the ways Latina/o migrant and seasonal farmworkers thrive in their educational pursuits in spite of the inequities they face in K–12 schools. In her three year ethnographic study, “Use my name, they need to know who I am!” Latina/o Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Youth at the Interstices of the Educational Pipeline, she examined the schooling experiences of Latina/o migrant farmworker youth in K-12 schools and a High School Equivalency Program in the Midwest. Her research contributes much needed asset based research on the schooling experiences and agency of migrant and seasonal farmworker youth in navigating their educational pursuits. Dr. Gutiérrez’s research is rooted in learning with migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the Midwest, her own experiences in growing up bilingual to immigrant parents in Colton, California, and the heritage of farm work that her grandfather cultivated in El Agostadero, Jalisco.
Current Work:
Currently, Dr. Gutierrez is focused on establishing and expanding the Inland Empire Latina/o Doctors Project, an interdisciplinary group of Latinas/os/xs with doctorates in their respective fields who are committed to building transformative opportunities for Southern California’s Inland Empire youth, communities, and beyond. Most recently, Dr. Gutierrez completed her role as Postdoctoral Scholar in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside where she examined Latinx excellence in K-12 schools in Southern California’s Inland Empire with Dr. Louie Rodriguez and the Collaborative Research for Equity & Excellence in OuR Schools (CREER) research team. Additionally, she is collaborating with doctors Theda Gibbs (Ohio University), Tuesda Roberts (Missouri State University) and Raven Stanbrough Jones (Michigan State University) in exploring the motivations and social justice praxis of doctoral students in education programs.
Research Area Keyword(s):
- Migrant Farmworker Education
- Latinx Excellence
- Latinx Education
- Urban Education
