ABOUT US
OUR TEAM
All co-directors and assistant directors for the Center for Equity and Justice in Teacher Education (CEJTE) work in the College of Education & Human Development at Georgia State University as teacher educators in initial teacher preparation and continuing teacher development. They also conduct research in the area of social justice teacher education, as well as pursuing other individual research interests. Click on the pictures below to view more information about each leader.
Chantee Earl, Ph.D.
Rhina Fernandes Williams, Ph.D.
Nadia Behizadeh, Ph.D.
CRITICAL ADVISORS
The Center for Equity and Justice in Teacher Education (CEJTE) invites critical advisors to act as an informal advisory board to hold us accountable to our goal to design, research and reimagine teacher education to support social justice education across all grade levels.
A critical advisor merges two concepts, a critical friend with an advisor of a social justice movement.
According to the Glossary of Education Reform, a critical friend is “someone who is encouraging and supportive, but who also provides honest and often candid feedback that may be uncomfortable or difficult to hear. In short, a critical friend is someone who agrees to speak truthfully, but constructively, about weaknesses, problems, and emotionally charged issues. The Center for Equity and Justice in Teacher Education will support the systemic transformation of education such as the Civil Rights Movement served as a catalyst for change in the social order of our nation.
“During his time as an active civil rights leader, roughly from 1955 until 1968, Martin Luther King surrounded himself with a dedicated group of advisors who helped him strategize, marched with him and who was at his side at his death.” (Ernie Suggs, AJC, “The King Generation is nearly gone; who is stepping up?”)
A Center for Equity and Justice in Teacher Education (CEJTE) Critical Advisor is someone who will:
- Provide honest and truthful feedback on issues of racial justice and educational equity to the CEJTE
- Attend meetings and engage in dialogue about educational equity and social justice issues
- Engage in community building through restorative and contemplative practices
Brian Williams
Clinical Professor of Early Childhood and Elementary Education at Georgia State University
Heidi Goodwin
7th/8th Grade Language and Literature Teacher at Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School
Melanie Acosta
Assistant Professor of Curriculum, Culture and Educational Inquiry at Florida Atlantic University
Alyssa Dunn, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Teacher Education at Michigan State University
