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.

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

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

(*Denotes graduate student or teacher practitioner) 

Link to Books

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

Madrid, S., Fernie, D., & Kantor, R. (Eds). (2015). Reframing the emotional world of early childhood classrooms. New York: Routledge.

Selected Recent Journal Articles Publications:

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

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 

Madrid Akpovo, S., & Nganga, L. (2018). Minority-World professionals in majority-world contexts: How do international field experiences promote intercultural competence or reinforce ethnocentrism? Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood,19(2), 1-7. DOI: 10.1177/1463949118778024

Madrid Akpovo, S., Nganga, L., & *Acharya, D. (2018). Minority-World preservice teachers' understanding of contextually appropriate practice while working in Majority-World communities. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 32(2), 202-218. DOI: 10.1080/02568543.2017.1419321