Marie L. Tanaka

Marie L. Tanaka is a fourth-year doctoral student in the School Psychology program at the University of Arizona. Her research interests include teacher perceptions of and classroom practices with adolescent immigrant students. Marie hopes to examine educational inequities through the use of critical theories, particularly Critical Race Theory. Additionally, she is committed to advancing the field of school psychology by improving the problematic and oppressive practices within graduate training programs; it is not by chance that psychology as a field is predominantly white, and that school psychology in particular is additionally majority female and monolingual. One of Marie’s “side” projects uses Participatory Action Research (PAR) to better understand and improve the experiences of school psychology graduate students who identify as women of color. In collaboration with other graduate students--one of whom is also an ICQCM scholar! Marie is also working on a study that examines school psychology graduate program climates. Ultimately, Marie envisions research that is liberating, collaborative, and creates change among school-university-community partnerships.