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
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
Selected Recent Journal Articles Publications:
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