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Curtis Acosta, Ph.D.
Program Director | Assistant Professor |
Prior to his current role as assistant professor in language and culture in education, Curtis Acosta was a high school teacher for nearly 20 years, where he developed and taught Chicanx/Latinx literature classes for the renowned Mexican-American Studies program in the Tucson. He is an award-winning educator who was named one of the “Top 10 Latinos to Watch in US Politics” by the Huffington Post. His work was featured in the documentaries Precious Knowledge and Dolores, as well as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He has had articles published in The English Journal, Voices in Urban Education, Multicultural Perspectives and the books Educational Courage: Resisting the Ambush of Public Education and Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality.
Dr. Acosta is the founder of the Acosta Educational Partnership, a consultation firm that helps educators create culturally sustaining and humanizing educational practices in their classrooms, schools, and communities. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and later obtained a Master of Arts degree and Ph.D. in Language, Reading, and Culture from the University of Arizona. His current passion is assisting educators in the application of community and culturally sustaining pedagogy, in combination with humanizing teaching practices, in order for youth of color, and all students, to reach their academic potential.
Richard Orozco, Ph.D.
Associate Professor | Advisor
Richard Orozco is an associate professor of secondary education and the interim program director for the M.Ed. in Secondary Education, Alternative Pathway program. Prior to arriving at the University of Arizona in 2013, Orozco served as a faculty member of the College of Education at Oregon State University. He also taught social studies classes for 15 years in a segregated high school in Tucson. He graduated with his Ph.D. in Language, Reading, and Culture from the College of Education in 2009. His research interests include investigating the schooling experiences of students of color using critical whiteness studies, critical race theory, and critical discourse analysis. He has published chapters in various edited books and articles in journals including, Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, Journal of Education Policy, World Studies in Education, Journal of Latinos and Education, Education Policy Analysis Archives, Multicultural Perspectives, and Whiteness and Education.
Etta Kralovec, Ed.D.
Professor | Advisor
Etta Kralovec is an award-winning professor of teaching, learning and sociocultural studies. She holds a doctorate in philosophy from Teachers College, Columbia University, from which she received a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2018. In 2017, she received an honorary Master of Philosophy degree in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic and in 2002, she received a distinguished alumni award from her undergraduate college, Lewis and Clark College. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 1996 to establish a teacher education program at Africa University in Zimbabwe. Working closely with student editors, they co-authored the collection, Identity in Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Writings from Zimbabwe Students. Under Kralovec’s direction, the UA South M.Ed. program received over $3 million in federal funding to prepare STEM teachers for Title One schools in Arizona border communities. Her program was awarded the Peter Likins Inclusive Excellence Award from the University of Arizona in 2015. Kralovec’s work explores the importance of context in the preparation of teachers for schools in border communities. She has conducted comparative research on teacher education in Finland and on the Finnish/Russian border. Kralovec’s international work also includes video projects with high school students in Finland and Mexico.
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