Dr. Lucía Cárdenas Curiel

CLS Affiliation: CLS Affiliated Faculty

Position Title: Assistant Professor 

College and Department: College of Education and Department of Teacher Education 

Areas of Expertise: curriculum and instruction; diverse learners and educational equity; elementary education; literacy education; teacher education, learning, and policy; teaching English as a second language 

How do you keep yourself centered? 

Self care is a priority to be able to have work-life balance. When I was a doctoral student, I ran. Training gives you strength and routine, as well as resilience. Keep in contact with your friends those in and outside academia. Exercise has been my main outlet (when I am not injured) and sleep. Sleep is key to being able to focus. 

What advice/tips/consejos would you give students in terms of navigating school? 

Don't compare yourself to others, everyone has a different journey. Also, the joy is in the journey. We tend to focus on the finish line and forget to enjoy "el camino". Listen, always listen, to your mentors and then make your individual decisions. 

When not teaching, doing research, and/or preparing coursework, what do you like to do for fun or relaxation? 

I love reading fiction novels, watching telenovelas, and hiking. 

What (or who) inspires you? 

My daughter.  She is the one that makes me laugh, centers me, y me dice las cosas como son. She motivates me. She advises me. She also inspires the work that I do. I love watching her develop her bilingualism. 

What classes do you generally teach? 

Doctoral Level: 

Humanizing Research-Decolonizing Qualitative Inquiry (TE 939G)         

ELL/ESL Research and Practice: K-12 (TE 904) 

Masters Level:

Teachers as Teacher Educators (TE 872) 

Undergraduate Field Experience in Teacher Education- TESOL (TE 494)

Immigrants Language and Culture (TE 352) 

Anything else you would like to share with students and the CLS community?

I ran twice the NYC marathon. I used to be a tap dance teacher. I taught at a Jewish Orthodox school in NYC. I value our social justice oriented value in our department. I bring flour tortillas from my hometown and freeze them. Those are the only ones that I like. I have met Kevin Bacon, so if you know me you are in the six degrees of Kevin Bacon. I love all kinds of dancing. 

To learn more about Dr. Cárdenas Curiel, visit MSU’s website at https://www.education.msu.edu/search/Formview.aspx?email=luciac%40msu.edu 

 

Picture descriptions: 

1) My working companion, Chibea, our pandemic adopted dog! He has been the best therapy. 

2) Last year, on my daughters school field trip, I found some historical reading textbooks I had been researching for a manuscript I published this year about historical bilingual reading textbooks from the 19th century. https://www.meridianhistoricalvillage.org/ 

3) My beautiful daughter showing you the beautiful mountains on a hike at our hometown Monterrey, Mexico. December 2019.