Hi, I’m Kristidel McGregor, a teacher and educational researcher. I think, study, and write about school bathrooms (and other material spaces and things that affect teaching and learning).
I also write about how to do this kind of research: what theoretical framing and methods make sense if I’m trying to understand students’ and teachers’ experiences of a material place, particularly when that place is taboo?
Additionally, I teach classes for people who want to be teachers. We learn together about how socio-cultural and historical contexts influence the teaching and learning that happens in schools. We consider how to design curriculum and instruction that supports all students, using tools like culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy with a focus on teaching for equity and justice.
Research Interests
School Bathrooms
Bathroom research isn’t all I do, but it’s the thing that seems to get the most attention. My current project is studying how the material things and spaces of schools, specifically bathrooms, affect teaching and learning. I’ve written about what lack of access to bathrooms means for teachers, and my current project looks at how bathrooms have influenced learning historically in the United States, as well as at my current field site.
Research Methodology
I also write about how to do this kind of research: what theoretical framing and methods make sense if I’m trying to understand students’ and teachers’ experiences of a material place, particularly when that place is taboo? I draw on feminist phenomenologists (Alcoff, de Beauvoir, Mann, Marion Young) and feminist new materialists (Alaimo, Barad, Bennet, Haraway, Puar) to imagine a methodology that takes seriously how matter comes to matter.
English Writing Methods
I also study how material things, in this case books and text, affect pre-service teachers’ sense of themselves as effective writers. Writing is difficult to teach well, particularly if the teacher doesn’t see themselves as an expert writer. In my writing methods class, pre-service teachers engage in sustained interactions with mentor texts, both to inform their own writing and while planning writing instruction for their student teaching. I’m hoping to see if forming a relationship with mentor texts will influence whether teachers see themselves as writers.
About Me
I grew up in Alaska, where I learned a lot about a lot of things, but didn’t quite manage to finish high school. I returned to school in my 20s, and my freshman English professor suggested I work in the writing center. I was surprised to discover that I enjoy teaching, and have an aptitude for it. I earned a BA in English (2001) and an MAT (2002) from Southern Oregon University, and returned to my home state to teach.
While in Alaska, I taught at West Anchorage High School, helped revise district curriculum, helped write a smaller learning communities grant, and received a grant to become a teacher technology leader. I left the classroom to manage Project APpeal, an Advanced Placement Initiative Program grant. This multi-million dollar US Dept. of Education grant was designed to bring the opportunity to take AP classes to more students across Alaska. I worked with schools ranging from the smallest one-room school in the Alaskan bush to the large urban high schools in downtown Anchorage, and I learned a lot about how teaching and learning can happen across such different settings.
After the grant ended, I left Alaska and went back into the classroom, this time in Florida. I served as an English teacher and an Instructional Coach, helping content-area teachers infuse literacy instruction into their lessons. Working in Florida schools taught me a lot about how educational opportunity intersects with issues of race, class, and gender, and ultimately raised new questions in my mind about teaching and learning. Finally, in 2015, those questions led me back to Oregon, where I study in the University of Oregon’s Critical and Sociocultural Studies in Education program, and teach in the Education Studies department, and in the UOTeach masters and licensure program. I am a PhD candidate, and I anticipate defending my dissertation in spring of 2020.
“Sharp Edge Diffraction” by das_miller is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
“China Landscape” by leslie emile is licensed under CC0 1.0
All others copyright Kristidel McGregor
Kristidel McGregor 