Marquita D. Foster, Ph.D.

Dr. Marquita D. Foster is a lecturer in the EdD in Learning and Organizational Change in the Baylor School of Education. Dr. Foster earned a B.A. in English from the University of Texas at Austin, a master’s in educational leadership from Lamar University, and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of North Texas.

Dr. Foster’s areas of teaching include issues in diversity, instructional design, and qualitative research. Her teaching philosophy speaks to acknowledging uncomfortable space and recognizes that discomfort in K-16 education protects individuals from learning difficult histories and developing a historical understanding of diversity and cultural instructional approaches. She is a member of the American Educational Research Association, National Association of Multicultural Education and is on the Board of Directors for the National Council of Teachers of English, Early Childhood Education Assembly.

Dr. Foster’s primary research interests include Black feminist epistemologies, Black childhood from the antebellum era to the present, the principles of resistance and critical caring within the Black Teaching Tradition, and more recently, Black and Indigenous methodologies that center storytelling, freedom dreams, and narrative (re)mapping. Dr. Foster's publications focus on urban elementary education and Blackness as a disruptive pedagogy to affirm Black students’ humanity and academic potential. She is currently working on a paper that explores the critical caring and othermothering practices of Black professors in higher education online doctoral programs. Dr. Foster enjoys researching and publishing with her students, research participants, and colleagues.

Research Interests

• Afrofuturism
• Black Girlhood and Childhood
• Black Feminist Epistemologies
• Geographies of Resistance
• Othermothering in Education
• Urban Education

Select Publications

• Bank Street Occasional Paper Series, Issue 43, p. 10-21 | 2020
  “Looking for trouble and causing trauma”
• The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Critical Perspectives on Mental Health | 01/23/2021
  “Socio-emotional learning”
• Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education, Vol. 6, Issue 1, p. 27-66 | 2021
  “Unpolicing childhood: Cultural approaches to disciplinary violence in the elementary setting”
  with co-author Catherine Smith
• Teaching Difficult Histories in Difficult Times, p. 55-67 | February 11, 2022
  “Step by courageous step: A preservice teacher’s understanding of the story of Ona Judge”
  with co-authors Dr. Amanda E Vickery, University of North Texas, and Shalicia Hobby, University of North Texas
• Social Studies Research and Practice, Vol. DOI 10.1108/SSRP-10-2022-0025 | December 29, 2022
  “Re)constructing performative anti-racist education courses: From the experiences of Black feminist graduate assistants”
  with co-author Danelle Adeniji, University of North Texas.

Select Presentations

• 27th International Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education Conference | November 19, 2019, Las Cruces, NM
  “The Precarity of Care: mothers, othermothers, and toddlers at the borders of consciousness”
  with Dr. Tran Templeton, University of North Texas, and Dr. Suzie Verdin, University of North Texas
• Annual American Educational Research Association Meeting | April 5, 2019, Toronto, Canada
  “The revolution will not be standardized: The Black Panther Party education movement’s embodiment of critical pedagogy”
• Annual American Educational Research Association Meeting | 04/07/2019, Toronto, Canada
  “First world applications of social justice education and critical pedagogy: Misconceptions of Paulo Freire’
• 16th Annual American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies Conference | 2017, San Antonio
  “Will work for food: The lack of ethics and the crisis of hunger in America’s public schools”
• 24th Annual American Association for Teaching and Curriculum Conference | 10/07/2017, Denver
  “Bad for education? Alternatively certified teachers”