Alejandra A. Fernández Morgado

Affiliation

Florida International University/Miami Dade College

Biography

My journey has been one in search of equity and access for those disproportionately represented in advanced education and special education. My experiences as a Cuban American woman creating and teaching the enrichment and gifted curriculum, has led me through a journey of better understanding the inner workings of such programs that are abundantly available to White children, while underrepresented by multiply marginalized students (Peters, 2022). My positionality is not unique, given a small but growing body of research that shown how Latinx teachers experiences within schools use their role to resist the structures of power that oppress and marginalize and advocate on behalf of their students and themselves (Kirmaci, 2022). Additionally, my positionality includes my experiences as a student and a mother of a student whose first language was not English and having to acquire needed language skills while learning to navigate educational spaces that favor White, upper middle-class students (Allen, 2017; Ambrose, 2013; Card & Giuliano, 2016; Fish, 2017; Stambaugh & Ford, 2015). I am currently a doctoral candidate at Florida International University and a scholar in Project INCLUDE, a federally funded program that prepares graduate students pursuing a PhD in Teaching and Learning with a specialization in special education. I am a certified educator in Elementary K-6, Special Education K-12, with endorsements in Reading, ESOL, Pre-K disabilities, and Gifted.