Date of Award
2025
Degree Type
Restricted to Claremont Colleges Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Education, MA
Program
School of Educational Studies
Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair
Samara Suafo’a
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2025 Cynthia AY Rivera
Subject Categories
Education | Teacher Education and Professional Development
Abstract
This capstone explores the deeply personal and professional connections between teacher identity, equitable pedagogy, and classroom design in secondary education. Grounded in the frameworks of Critical Social Justice (CSJ), culturally responsive teaching, and reflection, this work investigates how an educators' lived experiences and positionalities shape the instructional choices they make and the learning environments they create. Through analysis of ethnographic artifacts, including classroom ecology, caregiver and administrator interviews, and student-centered reflections, this study highlights the powerful role of self-awareness in developing inclusive and justice-driven classrooms. Findings suggest that teachers who engage in sustained reflection and focus on building relationships are better equipped to design learning spaces that affirm students’ identities, cultivate trust, and challenge the subtractive deep structures of schooling. This capstone ultimately calls for a pedagogy rooted in authenticity, relational care, and critical consciousness, where my identity is not separate from my teaching, but central to it.
ISBN
9798291598566
Recommended Citation
Rivera, Cynthia Ann Yukiko. (2025). The Teacher I Am, The Classroom I Build: Exploring the Intersections of Identity, Equity, and Pedagogy in the Secondary Classroom. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 1074. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/1074.
