Skip to content Skip to main navigation Report an accessibility issue

Samara Madrid Akpovo

Associate Professor, Director of the Intercultural and Classroom Culture Research Lab

Biography

Samara Madrid Akpovo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Her research has focused on the intercultural and emotional lives of adults and children in early childhood classrooms using collaborative ethnographic methods and discourse analysis. Her research also examines teachers’ intercultural and global competence during virtual exchange programs (Collaborative Online Learning Across Borders) and international field experiences in Nepal.

(Currently accepting new graduate students)

Visit Collaborative Online Learning Across Borders (COLAB) here

Research

  • Peer culture and school cultures of classroom life
  • Cross-cultural and collaborative ethnography
  • Emotional lives of children and adults in diverse classroom contexts
  • Intercultural and global understandings of teaching and learning

 

Grants Funded

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Choice Neighborhood Grant, Transforming Western Heights, Parents and Caregivers as Educational Partners Collaborative, 2023- present, (199,515)

  • Samara Madrid Akpovo as Principal Investigator with Knoxville Community Action Committee (CAC) as Sponsor of “People Plan.”

Tennessee Opportunity Pilot Initiative: Planning Partnership: Low-income families and wrap-around services in the East Knoxville Community: Listening Sessions using a Family-led Research Framework, 2022 (75,613.99).

  • Samara Madrid Akpovo as Principal Investigator on UTK subcontract with Knoxville Community Development Center (KCDC), Knoxville Community Action Committee (CAC), & Knoxville Knox-County Head Start.

Online and Hybrid Teaching Support Awards Program, The University of Tennessee, Teaching & Learning Innovation Center, 2020 - (2,250).

 Global Catalyst Program, UTK Center for International Education, The University of Tennessee, 2019 - (29,997).

  • In collaboration with The University of Auckland, New Zealand, The University of Melbourne, Australia and The University of Wyoming, USA.

Office of Community Engagement and Outreach 2019-20 Incentive Grant Funding, The University of Tennessee, 2019 - (1,983.47).

  • In collaboration with Sarah Neessen, Head Start Teacher, Knoxville-Knox County Head Start.

Teaching Support Awards Program, The University of Tennessee, Teaching & Learning Innovation Center, 2019 - (3,279.84).

 Faculty Senate Research Council Summer Graduate Research Assistantship, The University of Tennessee, Office of Research and Engagement, 2018 - (3,600)

Education

  • Ph.D., Teaching and Learning: Early Childhood Education, The Ohio State University, 2007
  • M.A., Psychology, San Jose State University, 2000
  • B.A., Psychology, University of Hawaii-Hilo, 1998

Curriculum Vitae

Awards and Recognitions

  • Global Engagement Champion, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Center for Global Engagement, June 2021
  • Longview Foundation, Global Teaching Mentor, 2020-2021
  • Frances Speight Clark Faculty Enrichment and Development Award, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, 2020

Publications

Select Journal Articles (2020 to present)

*Indicates graduate student or classroom teacher 

Madrid Akpovo, S., Kambutu, J. Thapa, S., Nganga, L., & *Mwangi, A (under review). Datafication or high-stakes standardized testing? Exploring the effects of World Bank, neocolonial, and neoliberal educational policies in the Global South. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood.

Nganga, L., Sisson, J., Thapa, S., Kambutu, J. Madrid Akpovo, S.,  & *Mwangi, A (revise and resubmit). A collaborative cross-cultural approach to compare the 2022 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) standards with national early childhood policies in Australia, Kenya, and Nepal. International Journal of Early Years

*Sorrells, C., & Madrid Akpovo, S. (2024). Ethic of care and agonist conflict in the toddler classroom. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. https://doi.org/10.1177/146394912412292

*Sorrells, C., & Madrid Akpovo, S. (2024). Time for slow care: Bringing slow pedagogy into conversation with care in the infant/toddler classroom. Policy Futures in Education, https://doi.org/10.1177/147821032412

 Nganga, L., Madrid Akpovo, S., Kambutu, J., Thapa, S. & *Mwangi, A. (2023). Educational policies in early childhood education programs in Kenya and Nepal: Challenging unjust binary mindset around curricula policies. Policy Futures in Education, https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103231176587

*Sorrells, C., Madrid Akpovo, S., & *Leclerc, M. (2023). The infant/toddler teacher as willful subject: A critical narrative analysis of gendered discursive regimes in US-based early care and education. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491221148754

Thapa, S., & Nganga, L., & Madrid Akpovo, S. (2022). Early childhood teachers’ understandings of children’s emotional lives Nepal and Kenya: A majority world perspective. Early Education and Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2022.2054258

 *Sorrells, C. & Madrid Akpovo, S. (2022) “You can hold two things to be true at the same time”: The emotional duality of early childhood teachers’ experiences during COVID-19. Journal of Research in Childhood Education DOI:10.1080/02568543.2022.2044415

Madrid Akpovo, S., *Neessen, S., Nganga, L., & *Sorrells, C. (2021). Staying with discomfort: Early childhood teachers’ emotional themes to children’s peer culture aggression. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491211042376

Arndt, S., Madrid Akpovo, S., Tesar, M., Han, T. K., *Huang, F. & *Halladay, M. (2021). Collaborative Online Learning Across Borders (COLAB): Examining the intercultural understandings of preservice-teachers’ using a virtual cross-cultural university-based program. Journal of Research in Childhood Education. DOI: 10.1080/02568543.2021.1880994

Thapa, S., & Madrid Akpovo, S. (2020). Cultural humility in an intercultural mentor-mentee relationship: Overcoming emotional “borders and borderlands” of Nepal-mentors and US-mentees. Asia Pacific Journal of Education. DOI/pdf/10.1080/02188791.2020.1848798?needAccess=true

 Madrid Akpovo, S., Thapa, S., & *Halladay, M. (2020). Learning to see teaching as a cultural activity: US preservice-teachers’ significant experiences with Nepali mentor-teachers during an international field experience. Journal of Research in Childhood Education,34(1), 59-7, DOI: 10.1080/02568543.2019.1692107

Nganga, L., Madrid Akpovo, S., Kambutu, J., & Thapa, S. (in press). Educational policies in early childhood programs in Kenya and Nepal: Challenging unjust binary mindset around curricula policies and practices. Policy Futures in Education. 

*Sorrells, C., Madrid Akpovo, S., & *Leclerc, M. (2023). The infant/toddler teacher as willful subject: A critical narrative analysis of gendered discursive regimes in US-based early care and education. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491221148754

Thapa, S., & Nganga, L., & Madrid Akpovo, S. (2022). Early childhood teachers’ understandings of children’s emotional lives Nepal and Kenya: A majority world perspective. Early Education and Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2022.2054258 

*Sorrells, C. & Madrid Akpovo, S. (2022) “You can hold two things to be true at the same time”: The emotional duality of early childhood teachers’ experiences during COVID-19. Journal of Research in Childhood Education DOI:10.1080/02568543.2022.2044415 

Madrid Akpovo, S., *Neessen, S., Nganga, L., & *Sorrells, C. (2021). Staying with discomfort: Early childhood teachers’ emotional themes to children’s peer culture aggression. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491211042376 

Arndt, S., Madrid Akpovo, S., Tesar, M., Han, T. K., *Huang, F. & *Halladay, M. (2021). Collaborative Online Learning Across Borders (COLAB): Examining the intercultural understandings of preservice-teachers’ using a virtual cross-cultural university-based program. Journal of Research in Childhood Education. DOI: 10.1080/02568543.2021.1880994

Madrid Akpovo, S., Thapa, S., & *Halladay, M. (2020). Learning to see teaching as a cultural activity: US preservice-teachers’ significant experiences with Nepali mentor-teachers during an international field experience. Journal of Research in Childhood Education,34(1), 59-7, DOI: 10.1080/02568543.2019.1692107 

Thapa, S., & Madrid Akpovo, S. (2020). Cultural humility in an intercultural mentor-mentee relationship: Overcoming Emotional “borders and borderlands” of Nepal-mentors and US-mentees. Asia Pacific Journal of Education. DOI/pdf/10.1080/02188791.2020.1848798?needAccess=true 

 Lash, M., Madrid Akpovo, S. & Cushner, K. (2020). Developing the intercultural competency of early childhood preservice teachers: Preparing teachers for diverse classrooms. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education. DOI.org/10.1080/10901027.2020.1832631 

Nganga, L., Madrid Akpovo, S., Thapa, S., & *Mwangi, A. (2020). How neocolonialism and globalization affects the early childhood workforce in Nepal and Kenya. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, DOI: 10.1177/1463949120929471 

Kambutu, J., Madrid Akpovo, S., Nganga, L., Thapa, S., & *Mwangi, A. (2020). Privatization of early childhood education (ECE): Implications for social justice in Kenya and Nepal. Policy Futures in Education,  DOI:10.1177/1478210320922111 

Nganga, L., Madrid Akpovo, S., & Kambutu, J. (2020). Culturally inclusive and contextually appropriate practices: Rethinking perspectives, practices, polices, and experiences in early childhood education programs. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 34(1), 2-5, DOI: 10.1080/02568543.2019.1697153 

Select Books (2018 to present)

Madrid Akpovo, S., Moran, M.J., Brookshire, R. (2018). Collaborative cross-cultural research methodologies in early care and education contexts. New York, NY: Routledge Press.  

Select Book Chapters (2020 to present)

Madrid Akpovo, S., Nganga, L., *Abou-Zied, N., & *McBride, R. (forthcoming). Cross-cultural early childhoods. In Marek Tesar (Ed) The Encyclopedia of Social Justice in Early Childhoods and Childhood Studies.  

Thapa, S., Nganga, L., Kambutu, J., & Madrid Akpovo, S. (in press). Changing global contexts and impacts of neocolonialism in schooling. In Douglas Bourn (Ed.) Global Education on Social Justice Education. 

Nganga, L., Thapa, S., Kambutu, J., & Madrid Akpovo, S. (2022). Special needs children in Majority-World communities: Policies and practices in Kenya and Nepal. In P. Wood (ED) Policy, Provision and Practice for Special Educational Needs and Disability: Perspectives across countries.  

Young, D., Madrid Akpovo, S., & Thapa, S. (2020). Culturally responsive awareness and competence curriculum in early childhood pre-service teachers. In I. Jones and M. Lin. (Eds),Critical issues in early childhood teacher education: A US perspective. New York, NY: Information Age Publishing. 

Madrid Akpovo, S., *Baldwin, & *Belbase, S. (2020). International field experiences: An ethnographic case study of one Minority-World student’s development of intercultural empathy and sensitivity. Critical issues in early childhood teacher education: An international perspective. New York, NY:  Information Age Publishing. 


Contact Information

The flagship campus of the University of Tennessee System and partner in the Tennessee Transfer Pathway.