Azaria Cunningham
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Dr. Azaria Cunningham is a postdoctoral research associate at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. As an interdisciplinary teacher educator rooted in critical STEM education, her research agenda focuses on examining the dynamic interplay between pre-service teachers and teacher educators learning experiences within authentic environments, specifically through teacher-driven mechanisms like real-time coaching, mentoring, and supervision practices. Informed by her background as a former middle school science educator and her extensive involvement in establishing school-university-community partnerships, she is dedicated to promoting justice and inclusivity by cultivating a sense of belonging within the field of education.
Dr. Cunningham earned a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction at Pennsylvania State University, where she wrote a dissertation entitled “Making the Invisible Visible: Examining Instructional Moves to Understand Pedagogical Reasoning During Real-Time Coaching in a University-Based Early Field Experience.”
pronouns: she/her
Education
PhD, Curriculum and Instruction, The Pennsylvania State University
MA, Higher Education, William Paterson University
BA, Integrated Mathematics and Science, Elementary Education (K-6) and 6-8 Middle School Science Specialization, William Paterson University
Selected Publications
Journal Article
Wolkenhauer, R., Rutten, L., Cunningham, A., & Yen, Y. C. (2022). Making an inquiry community the core of a PDS: Learning together across institutional boundaries and roles. School-University Partnerships, 15(1), 64–69.
Book Chapters
Cunningham, A., Sterling-Henward, A., Brown, M., & Jackson, M. Q. (2025). Power of process: Disrupting whiteness through an early childhood teacher educator critical community of practice. In K. Escayg, F. Faragó, & T. Husband (Eds.), Challenging whiteness, asserting anti-racism: The importance of early years education. Teachers College Press.
Cunningham, A. (2024). School as a site of resistance (Chapter 10). In L. Stotuenburg-Ocasio & Y. Yang (Eds.), Love is praxis: Lived experience-to-classroom lessons through the voices of disabled students, practitioners, mothers, and siblings. Lived Places Publishing.
Jackson, M. Q., & Cunningham, A. (2020). Parallel stories: Black women in a pandemic(s). In Corona chronicles: Necessary narratives in uncertain times (Chapter 26). DioPress Publishing.
Samuels, S., & Cunningham, A. (2020). Afro-Caribbean women partnership in the midst of a pandemic. In Corona chronicles: Necessary narratives in uncertain times (Chapter 30). DioPress Publishing.
Cunningham, A. (2018). The best PDS perk. In J. Hunzicker (Ed.), Teacher leadership in professional development schools (pp. 188–189). Emerald Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78743-403-520181013
Selected Presentations
Peters, C., Samuels, S., Cunningham, A., Gordon, D., Wilkerson, A., & Ball, J. (accepted). Cultivating hush harbors: Nobody’s coming to save us; we have to save ourselves. To be presented at the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Annual Conference, Denver, CO.
Jackson, J., Cunningham, A., Staples-Dixon, J., & Liang, D. (2025, April). Creating a triad of mediation to facilitate white teacher candidates' learning of race and racism. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.
Cunningham, A. (2025, April). Practicing the emotional freedom technique: How Black girls and women can heal race & gender injuries produced in schools and society. Paper presented at the AERA Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.
Cunningham, A., Jackson, J., & Liang, D. (2025, April). Challenging raciolinguistic ideologies through extraordinary pedagogies. Paper presented at the AERA Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.
Whittington, N., & Cunningham, A. (2025, April). Extraordinary literacies in digital spaces: Opportunities to (re)imagine Black girl magic. Paper presented at the AERA Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.
Ocasio-Stoutenburg, L., Sultana Mim, N., Cunningham, A., Yang, Y., Armendariz, K., Patenaude, D., Zinn, R., Herr, A., Spencer, J., Humprhis, R., Rodriguez, M., Grenada-Jeronimo, A., Stoutenburg, B., Kehoe, C., & Sledz, J. (2025, April). Love is praxis: Lived experience-to-classroom lessons through the voices of disabled students, practitioners, mothers, and siblings. Paper presented at the AERA Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.
Jackson, J., & Cunningham, A. (2024, February). Unmasking racial bias: The role of teacher educators. Poster presented at the AACTE 76th Annual Meeting Holmes Program Pre-Conference, Aurora, CO.
Stotuenburg-Ocasio, L., Cunningham, A., Armendariz, K., Mim, N., Rodriguez, M., Granada-Jeronimo, A., Stoutenburg, B., Patenaude, D., Spencer, J., Zinn, R., Kehoe, C., Herr, A., Sledz, J., Yang, Y., & Humphris, R. (2024, March). Spaces of be(long)ing: The family disability intersectionality collaborative. Paper presented at the College of Education Discovery Summit, State College, PA.
Cunningham, A., Jackson, J., Liang, D., & Dixon-Staples, J. (2024, April). Teacher educators as disruptors of coded racist stances. Paper presented at the AERA Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
Badjie-Byrd, J., Cunningham, A., Ahmadi, A., Nantha-Kumar, D., & Elibox, S. (2024, April). Exclusive inclusion of white space: Systemic racism experiences of students of color in higher education. Paper presented at the AERA Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
Lyu, S., Cunningham, A., Whittington, N., Wang, J., & Olgun-Baytas, M. (2024, April). Transformative identity formation: A collaborative autoethnographic exploration of womxn of color researchers' experiences in higher education. Paper presented at the AERA Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
Stotuenburg-Ocasio, L., Cunningham, A., Lopez, M., Theodore, S., Cummings, C., & Moore, S. (2024, April). Movement in our steps: A call to action from members of Black sororities. Paper presented at the AERA Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
Hamm, T., McCurdy, R., & Cunningham, A. (2023, June). Science sistering: Becoming science teachers through our science her-stories. Paper presented at the STEMNoire Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Tekavec, K., Yen, Y., Cunningham, A., & Wolkenhauer, R. (2023, March). Negotiating the scholarly teaching identity in our professional journeys as doctoral candidates: The role of inquiry community. Paper presented at the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) Annual Meeting, Jacksonville, FL.
Yen, Y., Cunningham, A., Tekavec, K., & Wolkenhauer, R. (2023, March). Finding community through inquiry engagement: A collaborative inquiry by three dissertation-stage teacher education doctoral candidates. Paper presented at the Clinical Fellows Symposium, ATE Annual Meeting, Jacksonville, FL.
Cunningham, A. (2023, April). Affirming Black girls in K–12 settings through intersectional analyses. Chaired SIG127 session at the AERA Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
McCausland, J. D., Liang, D., Cunningham, A., & Whittington, N. (2023, April). Pain, vulnerability, and joy in the learning of novice teacher educators. Paper presented at the AERA Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
Sterling-Henward, A., Cunningham, A., Brown, M., & Jackson, M. Q. (2023, April). Collaboratively unlearning whiteness in teacher education programs. Paper presented at the AERA Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
Cunningham, A. (2023, February). Critical CoP and coaching as a mechanism for dismantling hierarchies and raising critical awareness. Poster presented at the AACTE 75th Annual Meeting Holmes Program Pre-Conference, Indianapolis, IN.