For Stephanie M. Curenton, an education and human development associate professor at BU’s Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, studying the strengths and needs of children of color has always been at the heart of her research agenda.
That agenda got a boost last year with a Policy Fellowship from the National Black Child Development Institute. The inaugural, two-year fellowship will give Curenton the opportunity to further her research developing culturally competent teaching practices.
“The fellowship will really help me craft my policy skills, which will...prepare me to be an even stronger leader within BU and nationally.” —Stephanie M. Curenton
Curenton studies the social, cognitive, and language development of low-income and racially minoritized children within various ecological contexts, such as parent-child interactions, early childhood education programs, early childhood workforce programs, and related state and federal policies.
For the fellowship, Curenton will work specifically on expanding the Assessing Classroom Sociocultural Equity Scale project (ACSES), which centers around the development of a classroom observation tool that can measure and provide feedback to teachers about how to deliver equitable sociocultural instruction.
“The fellowship will really help me craft my policy skills, which will bring even greater real-world policy knowledge to my BU classes and prepare me to be an even stronger leader within BU and nationally.”