Jasmine Alvarado (she/ella, her)

Jasmine Alvarado is an Assistant Professor in Educational Leadership and Policy at the University at Buffalo, SUNY (UB). With regard to her research agenda, Jasmine focuses on the intersections between societal inequities, educational policies, and the multiliteracies/experiences of racially minoritized families in K-8 schools. Two assumptions ground her work: (1) racially minoritized groups’ literacies, knowledge forms, and histories are dynamic, sophisticated, and critical levers for learning and relationship building in schools and in society; and (2) systemic inequities and accompanied deficit logics influence the functioning, teaching, and learning within schools. In relation, Jasmine draws on understandings from critical race, sociocultural, and feminist poststructuralist theories.

As an educator, Jasmine seeks to support educational leaders in creating transformative learning spaces where students and families, especially those from minoritized groups, can leverage their cultural and linguistic practices, while addressing broader societal inequities and processes that permeate schools. Her teaching experiences over the past decade include teaching university-level courses, supervising teacher candidates, leading conference workshops for educational leaders, teaching elementary bilingual youth, and leading adult language development classes. Beyond higher educational institutions, Jasmine works with community organizations, government agencies, and K-12 school members to advocate and present reforms that address a range of societal inequities.

Her unwavering commitment towards collective learning, organizing, and interconnectedness as part broader efforts for liberation and self-determination stem from her experiences as a student, teacher, and after-school program director of NYC Public Schools, and being a member/caretaker of an Ecuadorian family with Quechua roots.

• PhD, Boston College, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Curriculum and Instruction (2022)
• MEd, Boston College Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Educational Leadership and Policy (2022)
• MEd, Hunter College-City University of New York, Childhood Education-Bilingual Education (2014)
• BA, Harvard College, Romance Languages and Literatures (2011)

• AERA Latino/a/x Outstanding Dissertation Award; American Educational Research Association; 2023-03-13;
• AERA Family-School-Community Partnership SIG Dissertation Award-Honorable Mention; American Educational Research Association; 2023-03-13;
• American Educational Research Association Minority Dissertation Fellowship; The American Educational Research Association; 2021-05-10;
• Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship (declined); The National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation; 2020-05-11;
• Spencer Foundation Research Development Award; The National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation; 2020-05-11;

• Alvarado, J. (2022). A Family-School Liaison’s Negotiation of Racialized Scripts for Family Engagement. Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, 15554589221110846.
• Wargo, J. M., & Alvarado, J. (2020). " Making" Civics and Designing Inquiry: Integrative, Project-Based Learning in Pre-Kindergarten. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 33(1), 28-32.
• Wargo, J. M., & Alvarado, J. (2020). Making as worlding: young children composing change through speculative design. Literacy, 54(2), 13-21.

• Alvarado, J., & Proctor, C.P. (2022). Cultivating bilingual teacher preparation in Massachusetts: From survival to restoration. In C. Aquino-Sterling, M. Gort, B. Bustos (Eds.). Innovative curricular and pedagogical designs in bilingual teacher education: bridging the distance with p-12 contexts. Information Age Publishing.
• Brisk, M.E., & Alvarado, J. (2020). The story and process behind meaningful texts: Bilingual students’ intentions and linguistic choices. In S. Zhao, M. Zappavigna, & B. Quiroz. (Eds.). Discourses of hope and reconciliation: A tribute to J. R. Martin’s contributions to SFL and beyond. Bloomsbury.

• Alvarado, J. & Butler, A (2022, April). "Close and Desirable for Whom?”: Parents Transversing Racialized Spaces and Places in Gentrifying U.S. Schools.” Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference.;
• Alvarado, J. (2022, April). “Reimagining Possibilities for Sibling Relationships in Bilingual Education during a Time of Loss and Uncertainty.” Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference.;
• Alvarado, J. (2022, April). “What Counts as Family Engagement in Schools? Raced, Classed, and Linguicized Relations Between Families and a Two-Way Dual Language Bilingual Program.” Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference.;
• Alvarado, J. (2021, April). “The Tensions, Silences, and Desires within Expected Relationships between Racialized Bilingual Families and Schooling.” Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference. (Conference held online).;
• Alvarado, J. (2021, March). "Traversing Multiple Spaces and Places: An Ethnographic Study of Families in a Two-Way Immersion Program in a Gentrifying Community." Paper presented at the 2021 NAEd Spencer Foundation Spring Conference. (Conference held online).;

• What Counts as Family Engagement in Schools? Raced, Classed, and Linguicized Relations Between Families and a Two-Way Dual Language Bilingual Program.; Foundation and Research Organization; The American Educational Research Association; Awarded; (09/01/2021-06/02/2022)
• Traversing Multiple Spaces and Places: An Ethnographic Study of Families in a Two-Way Immersion Program in a Gentrifying Community; Foundation and Research Organization; The National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation; Awarded; (09/01/2020-06/01/2022)
• An Ethnographic Study of Families in a Two-Way Immersion Program in a Gentrifying Boston Community; Foundation and Research Organization; Boston College; Awarded; (05/18/2020-08/31/2020)

• Reviewer for the following journals: AERA Open, Review of Educational Research, Leadership and Policy in Schools, Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, Latinos and Education
  01/03/2022-05/31/2023
• Grant Reviewer for the following agencies: The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine/Ford Foundation; The National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation
  06/01/2021-05/31/2023
• Curriculum Reviewer, Multilingual and Science K-8 Programs-Waltham, MA Public Schools
  03/01/2019-06/30/2023