Biography:

My research is connected to two specific areas -- the exploration of educational inequality rooted in various forms of systemic oppression and the democratic engagement of families and community members in the life of schools and district governance. My work engages multiple methodological approaches with a focus on research that explores the possibilities of educational equity for historically marginalized populations. I am particularly interested in the ways race, social class, and community based resources shape educational opportunities for students, families, and the implications for their local neighborhood schools.

Recent Publications:

Welton, A. D. & Freelon, R. (2019) A critical examination of the educational leadership standards: A community organizing perspective., In A. B. Danzig & W. R. Black (Eds.), Who Controls the Preparation of Education Administrators? (pp. 187 - 218). Information Age.

Freelon, R. (2018). Transformational resistance and parent leadership: Black parents in a school district decision-making process. Urban Education, 0042085918801886.

Bertrand, M., Freelon, R., & Rogers, J. (2018). Elementary principals’ social construction of parents of color and working class parents: Disrupting or reproducing conflicting and deficit orientations of education policy?. education policy analysis archives, 26, 102.

Welton, A. D., & Freelon, R. (2018). Community organizing as educational leadership: Lessons from Chicago on the politics of racial justice. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 13(1), 79-104.

Freelon, R., Bertrand, M., & Rogers, J. (2012). Overburdened and underfunded: California Public Schools amidst the great recession. Multidisciplinary Journal of Educational Research, 2(2), 152-176.

Rogers, J., Freelon, R., & Terriquez, V. (2012). Enlisting collective help: Urban principals’ encouragement of parent participation in school decision-making. In S. Auerbach (Ed.), School leadership for authentic family and community partnerships (pp. 65-87). Routledge.

Education:

Ph.D. in Education (Urban Schooling), University of California, Los Angeles, 2014