Rosalie Rolón-Dow

Rosalie Rolón Dow is an associate professor of education at the University of Delaware. Rolón-Dow devotes her work to transforming how we understand and address the educational experiences of minoritized students. Her research in both K-12 and higher education settings focuses on the intersections of sociocultural identities with educational equity and opportunity, and on the application of Latino/a critical race theory (Lat/Crit) to educational problems. She also serves as associate director of the Center for the Study of Diversity, the Center's mission is to produce and disseminate scholarship on diversity and equity in higher education. In this capacity, she supports scholars across the university conducting research on diversity and equity issues.

Current Work:

The "Tell it like it is" project, is a research study that utilizes critical race theory as a conceptual and methodological framework for documenting counterstories centering the lived experiences of minoritized students at a predominantly white university. Using narrative interviewing, the project documents and shares stories of racial microaggressions and microaffirmations experienced by undergraduate and graduate students. Study findings are being used to develop a typology for classifying microaffirmations and to extend understandings of how perceptions of campus racial/ethnic climate are influenced by both microaggressions and microaffirmations experienced by students.

"A Racial Literacy Framework in Teacher Education Courses" is a two-part research project examining (1) student responses to equity-oriented teacher preparation curriculum and (2) self-reflection and peer feedback in developing and implementing this pedagogy across three courses. In phase one, the teacher candidates' responses to pedagogy focused on developing racial literacy were examined. In phase two, the researchers studied themselves, two White and one Latina professor, examining their experiences as they learned with each other and their students. The project highlights the impact on the teacher candidates and professors and extends understandings of a racial literacy framework for conceptualizing teacher education curriculum.

Research Area Keyword(s):

Higher education equity, teacher education, race/ethnicity, identity