Thea Renda Abu El-Haj is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Theory, Policy and Administration. Her diverse experiences as an elementary school teacher, researcher and teacher educator have shaped her primary commitment to teaching and research that fosters the development of just and equitable educational practices for all children. Her research focuses on critical analyses of race, gender, class and disability in schooling; conceptualizations of social justice in educational practice; and immigration and citizenship education. Her publications include: Elusive Justice: Wrestling with Difference and Educational Equity in Everyday Practice (Routledge); “I was born here but my home it’s not here”: Educating for democratic citizenship in an era of transnational migration and global conflict. Harvard Educational Review. “Global politics, dissent and Palestinian-American identities: Engaging conflict to re-invigorate democratic education” (2005) in Lois Weis & Michelle Fine (Eds.). Beyond Silenced Voices: Class, Race and Gender in United States Schools; and “Practicing for Equity from the Standpoint of the Particular: Exploring the Work of One Urban Teacher Network” in Teachers College Record.

Title(s): Assistant Professor

Education: Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of EducationM.A. Bryn Mawr CollegeB.A. Swarthmore College

Affiliations:

American Anthropological Association
American Educational Research Association
North Dakota Study Group on Evaluation

Research interests:

My research examines grounded perspectives on educational equity. Through different research projects, I examine how educators conceptualize and practice for equity; and I compare these grounded theories and practices to those implicit in educational policies. My most significant piece of work from this area is a book (Elusive Justice: Wrestling with Difference and Educational Equity in Everyday Practice, 2006, Routledge) that focuses on expanding our understanding of the range of justice claims at play inside real schools; it makes the case that there are several different, important dimensions of educational equity that are often ignored in contemporary policy debates.

A second strand of research investigates questions of new immigration, citizenship and nation-formation in relationship to education. I examine issues of transnational migration, processes of social incorporation (and social exclusion) and the roles schools play in these processes of social incorporation, with a particular focus on Palestinian and other Arab American communities. In a recent article, “I was born here but my home it’s not here”: Educating for democratic citizenship in an era of transnational migration and global conflict. (2007, Harvard Educational Review) I focus on the complex and contradictory ways that Palestinian American youth from one immigrant community position themselves and are positioned in relation to citizenship and national belonging at this particular historical moment and I raise questions about educating youth for democratic citizenship and belonging in an era characterized by globalization and transnational migration.

Recent publications:

Abu El-Haj, T. (2007). “I was born here but my home it’s not here”: Educating for democratic citizenship in an era of transnational migration and global conflict. Harvard Educational Review 77 (3): 285-316.

Abu El-Haj, T. (2006). Elusive justice: Wrestling with difference and educational equity in everyday practice.  New York: Routledge.

Abu El-Haj, T. (2006). Race, Politics, and Arab American Youth: Shifting Frameworks for Conceptualizing Educational Equity, Educational Policy 20 (1), 13-34.

Abu El-Haj, T. (2005). Global politics, dissent and Palestinian-American identities: Engaging conflict to re-invigorate democratic education. In L. Weis and M. Fine (Eds.), Beyond Silenced Voices: Class, race and gender in United States Schools (pp.119-215). Revised edition. Albany: SUNY press.

Abu El-Haj, T. (2003). Challenging the inevitability of difference: Young women and discourse about gender equity in the classroom. Curriculum Inquiry 33 (4), 401- 425.

Abu El-Haj, T. (2003). Practicing for equity from the standpoint of the particular: Exploring the work of one urban teacher network. Teachers College Record 105 (5), 817-845.

Abu El-Haj, T. (2002). Contesting the politics of culture, rewriting the boundaries of inclusion: Working for social justice with Muslim and Arab communities. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 33(3), 308-316.