My research advances a multi-layered agenda focused on:
Expanding equitable access to advanced and gifted education
Examining disparities in identification and placement practices
Centering multilingual and multicultural learners in advanced pathways
Understanding the experiences of twice- and thrice-exceptional (2e/3e) learners
Documenting educator and family knowledge through testimonio and community-based inquiry
A systematic review synthesizing research on access, teacher preparation, bias in identification, and culturally responsive practices. This work highlights structural barriers while identifying promising pathways, including enrichment models and dual language programming.
A post-qualitative testimonio study with Latina educators working across special and gifted education contexts. This project examines how educators navigate institutional constraints while engaging in forms of resistance, care, and transformation through storytelling, visual inquiry, and collective reflection.
A community-engaged project documenting the lived experiences of families navigating special education systems. This work centers family knowledge, language, and advocacy practices often excluded from formal decision-making processes.
A collaborative project exploring how educators in Minnesota conceptualize and enact inclusive practices within advanced and special education contexts, particularly in response to shifting policy and demographic landscapes.
An interdisciplinary initiative focused on developing teacher preparation models that bridge special education and advanced education, with an emphasis on multilingual learners and equity-centered practice.
A collaborative project documenting how preservice and early service special and advanced educators navigate institutional constraints while engaging in forms of resistance, care, and transformation through storytelling, visual inquiry, and collective reflection.
Voces Valientes [Fernández Morgado, A. A., Moreno, S.C., Blandon, F.A., Morgado, M.I., Blandon, A.G., & Sullivan, H.] (2025; in press). A collective of gifted Latiné voices: An auto-testimonio project. Journal of Advanced Academics.
Fernández Morgado, A. A. (2025, November). Mi primer idioma es español: Gifted access for multilingual students. Journal of Advanced Academics. https://doi.org/10.1177/1932202X251394704
Fernández Morgado, A. A. (2025). Disrupting power from las rajaduras. Current Issues in Education, 26(3), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.14507/cie.vol26iss3.2340
Fernández Morgado, A. A. (2025). Recovering myself on a journey resisting ivory towers. Educational Borderlands, 3, 83-98. https://doi.org/10.51734/em49ys87
Fernández Morgado, A.A. & Arizmendi, G.D. (2026, March). Bridging language, spirit, and resistance: transforming bilingual special education [Paper presentation]. Council for Exceptional Children, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Fernández Morgado, A.A. (2026, March). Who gets to be gifted? teacher race, district demographics, and student representation in Florida, [Paper presentation]. Council for Exceptional Children, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Novak, A.M. & Fernández Morgado, A.A. (2026, March). GTCrit: identifying & empowering marginalized gifted learners in trying times of raids & fear [Paper presentation]. Council for Exceptional Children, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Fernández Morgado, A.A. (2026, February). Access to advanced education: Overcoming barriers and providing enrichment curriculum for marginalized students [Paper presentation]. National Association for Bilingual Education, Chicago, Illinois.
Fernández Morgado, A.A. (2026, February). Resisting marginalization: Multilingual Latina educators’ spiritual and visual testimonios in advanced education spaces [Poster presentation]. National Association for Bilingual Education, Chicago, Illinois.
Fernández Morgado, A.A., Blandon, A.G., Blandon, F.A., Moreno, S.C., Morgado, M.I. (2026, February). Gifted, marginalized, and multilingual: Testimonios of Latinx experiences navigating gifted education [Paper presentation]. National Association for Bilingual Education, Chicago, Illinois.
Fernández Morgado, A.A., Blandon, F.A., Moreno, S.C., Morgado, M.I., & Blandon, A.G. (2025, November). Gifted voices from Latin America: Testimonios of being identified...or not [Paper presentation]. National Association for Gifted Children Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Fernández Morgado, A.A. (2025, October). The spirals of making rajaduras into K-
12 advanced education for teachers and students who are multicultural,
multilingual, and multiply marginalized [Paper presentation]. American
Association for Teaching and Curriculum Annual Conference, Minneapolis,
Minnesota.
Novak, A.M. & Fernández Morgado, A.A. (2025, October). Co-teaching en
comunidad: Authentic collaboration between profesores de gifted and
multilingual learners [Paper presentation]. National Association for Co-
Teaching Annual Conference, New Albany, Indiana.
Fernández Morgado, A. A., & Novak, A.M. (2025, June). GTCrit: Identifying & empowering marginalized gifted learners in trying times of fear [Paper presentation]. Florida Council for Exceptional Children Annual Conference, Gainesville, Florida.
Novak, A. & Fernández Morgado, A. A. (2025, May 29). Now, more than ever, the need for gifted critical race theory [conference presentation via Zoom]. National Association for Gifted Children’s Opportunity and Access Symposium Conference, Washington, District of Columbia.
Fernández Morgado, A. A., Riera, D., Fernandez, C., Abraham, E., & Christ, R. (2025, May 16). Art is at the heART of What Binds and Liberates our (Re)Search-ing(s) [conference panel presentation via Zoom]. 20th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry Conference, Urbana, Illinois.
Fernández Morgado, A. A. (2025, February 20). Latina educators creating community through conversations and advocacy [Paper presentation]. National Association for Bilingual Education Annual International Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.
Fernández Morgado, A. A. (2025, February 20). Three studies and methodologies aimed at access for Latinx teachers and students [Paper presentation]. National Association for Bilingual Education Annual International Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.
Fernández Morgado, A. A. (2024, November 23). An analysis of multicultural and multilingual gifted students in Florida. National Association for Gifted Children’s Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington.
Novak, A. & Fernández Morgado, A. A. (2024, November 22). Displaced, safe space; grieving, grateful; newcomer, multilingual: K-12 gifted refugees. National Association for Gifted Children’s Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington.
Fernández Morgado, A. A. (2024, October 3). UGS writing fellows workshop 3: Self-editing strategies [Workshop]. Florida International University’s University Graduate School, Miami, Florida.
Fernández Morgado, A. A. (2024, September 24). What access do multilingual and multicultural students have to power structures like gifted education? [conference presentation via Zoom]. National Association for Gifted Children’s National Symposium on Equity for Black and Brown Gifted Students Conference, Washington, District of Columbia.
Novak, A., Austin, K., Fernández Morgado, A. A., & Asfour, J. (2024, September 24). Open the door and teach: Community in the time of censorship. [conference presentation via Zoom]. National Association for Gifted Children’s National Symposium on Equity for Black and Brown Gifted Students Conference, Washington, District of Columbia.
Novak, A. & Fernández Morgado, A. A. (2024, September 25). What is CRT and what is it doing in a nice field like gifted and talented education? [conference presentation via Zoom]. National Association for Gifted Children’s National Symposium on Equity for Black and Brown Gifted Students Conference, Washington, District of Columbia.
Fernández Morgado, A. A. (2024, May 31). Latina educators on the verge of transformational resistance: Crossing the threshold [conference presentation via Zoom]. 20th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry Conference, Urbana, Illinois.
Fernández Morgado, A. A., Fabian, A. P., Hernández Flores, M. L., & Monsalve, I. (2024, April 13). Testimonios as resistance? Coyolxauhqui imperative: Diffracting identities to center our voices from the margins [Roundtable]. American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. https://doi.org/10.3102/2105412
Fernández Morgado, A. A. (2024, April 6). The spirals of making rajaduras into
K-12 advanced education for Latinx teachers and students who are multicultural, multilingual, and multiply marginalized [Paper presentation]. Florida International University School of Education and Human Development Graduate Conference, Miami, Florida.
Fernández Morgado, A. A. (2024, March 28). Access to power structures: gifted access to multiply marginalized multilingual and multicultural students [Paper presentation]. National Association for Bilingual Education Annual International Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Fernández Morgado, A. A., Meyer, M., Fabian, A. P., Hernández Flores, M. L., Monsalve, I., Flores, H., Cummings, C., & Lumpkin, A. (2024, March 11). Black and Latina South Floridian special education scholars resist against the dying of the light [Panel presentation]. 2024 Comparative and International Education Society Annual Conference, Miami, Florida.
Fernández Morgado, A. A. (2023, November). The experiences of Latinx students and teachers embarked on a hero’s journey to accessing power in K-12 advanced education [Roundtable]. Project Include Consortium Annual Conference, Miami, Florida.
*Fernández Morgado, A. A., Hernández Flores, M. L., Monsalve, I., Barroso, A., Fabian, A. P., Silva, M, & Urquiza, N. (2023, October). Testimonio as resistance?: Navigating intersectional identities and Latina pan-ethnicity in special education research and academia [Paper presentation]. Florida Council for Exceptional Children Annual Conference, Lake Mary, Florida.
Hernández Flores, M. L., Fernández Morgado, A. A., Monsalve, I., Barroso, A., Fabian, A. P., Silva, M, & Urquiza, N. (2023, May). Testimonio as resistance?: Navigating intersectional identities and Latina pan-ethnicity in special education research and academia [Paper presentation]. 19th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry Conference, Urbana, Illinois.
Fernández, A. A., &Monsalve, I. (2023, March). An analysis of culturally and linguistically diverse gifted students in a southeastern state [Poster presentation]. 2023 Council for Exceptional Children Annual Conference, Louisville, Kentucky.
Fernández, A. A., & Monsalve, I. (2022, November). A spectrum of disproportionality in gifted education [Paper presentation]. Teacher Educators for Children with Behavior Disorders Conference, Tempe, Arizona.
Fernández, A. A., & Monsalve, I. (2022, November). The impact of bias on culturally and linguistically diverse students in gifted [Poster presentation]. Teacher Education Division Conference, Richmond, Virginia.
Fernández, A. A., & Monsalve, I. (2022, October). The implications of implicit bias [Poster presentation]. Florida Council for Exceptional Children Annual Conference, Daytona, Florida.
Fernández, A. A. (2022, October). The impact of culturally relevant enrichment programs on multiply marginalized youth [Poster presentation]. Florida Council for Exceptional Children Annual Conference, Daytona, Florida.
My work is characterized by methodological plurality, bringing together:
Testimonio as a relational and narrative methodology
Post-qualitative inquiry to challenge traditional boundaries of research
Visual and arts-based approaches to represent lived experience
Quantitative analysis and systematic review to document structural patterns
This approach allows her to examine systems while also centering the voices and knowledge of those most impacted by them.
My scholarship is deeply collaborative and grounded in community. I work alongside educators, families, and research collectives to co-construct knowledge, mentor emerging scholars, and develop research that is both rigorous and responsive to lived realities.