Erica Caasi
Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Erica Caasi is a clinical assistant professor in the Language & Literacy Education Department at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. She prepares future educators and partners alongside practicing teachers and schools to support culturally responsive and community-engaged literacy practices. Her scholarly work explores representation in literature for youth and investigates how narrative can function as a medium for both connection and disruption. Through partnerships with teachers and school leaders, she fosters critical engagement in literacy teaching and learning.
Before joining BU Wheelock, Dr. Caasi held several roles in both K–12 and higher education. She served as a K–5 district instructional specialist in Denver Public Schools, where she coached school leaders and supported district-wide curriculum implementation. She also served as an adjunct faculty member at Metropolitan State University of Denver where she taught instructional methods for early childhood literacy to practicing and aspiring educators. Furthermore, Dr. Caasi has contributed as a researcher to a multi-year research–practice partnership focused on teacher-centered professional development.
Dr. Caasi has taught 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades in the Bay Area, the Maryland/DC region, and the Denver metropolitan area. A former competitive powerlifter who has competed at local and national levels, she now serves as a youth sports coach and advocate, promoting physical fitness and well-being among young people.
pronouns: she/her
Recent News
Education
PhD, Literacy Studies & Teacher Learning, Research and Practice, University of Colorado Boulder
MAT, Elementary Education Multiple Subject Concentration, University of Southern California
BA, Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara
Selected Publications
Caasi, E. & Glenn, W. J. (2025). (Re)inscribing ideologies: Examining ideological positioning of Black women athletes in nonfiction for children and young adults. Children's Literature Association Quarterly, 49(4), 340-363.
Caasi, E. (2024). The body as pedagogy: Exploring literacies of the body in children’s literature. Language Arts, 102(1), 20-32.
Caasi, E., Yerkes, E., & Dutro, E. (2023). Movement between content and process in teachers’ collective sensemaking about discussions of gender and sexuality in elementary classrooms. Teaching and Teacher Education, 126, 104011.
Glenn, W. J., & Caasi, E. (2022). Gendered assumptions in the framing of fitness in sports nonfiction for young adult readers. Children's Literature in Education, 53(1), 76-96.
Caasi, E., & Dutro, E. with Simpson, T., Torres, F., & Venet, A. S. (September 2022). Reimagining our responsive pedagogical toolbox: Lessons learned from online and blended learning. Language Arts, 100(1), 59–62.
Caasi, E., & Dutro, E. with Campano, G., Handsfield, L. J. Luong, Q., Sykes, Z., Toliver, S.R., Patricia Valente, P., & Wan, C. (July 2022). The many shapes and possibilities of learning with and in community: Connecting across literacy educators and contexts of collaboration. Language Arts, 99(6), 421-425.
Selected Presentations
Dutro, E., & Caasi, E. (April, 2025). Unsettling discussions: Teachers’ shared practice toward disrupting assumptions about classroom talk [Paper presentation]. American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.
Dutro, E., & Caasi, E. (April, 2025). Listening to the friendly ghosts: Embracing the past to move within the present in RPPs [Paper presentation]. American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.
Stillman, J., Staley, S., Bohl, E., Caasi, E., & Hedrick-Shaw, D. (April, 2023). Learning to “sit in the messiness”: Leveraging critical and queer pedagogies in teacher educator development [Paper presentation]. American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.