Nasir, Nailah Suad

Nasir, Nailah Suad Assistant Professor of Education

"It is time for the field to counter the assumption that minority students are asking for something extra—above and beyond what “regular” students need. Ironically, it may be in the recognition that minority students need what all students need (teachers that believe in them and support them, classrooms that are personally and academically engaging, learning environments where they are respected and valued, and educational institutions where excellence is encouraged and required) that respect for diversity and equity is to be found. This work cautions us to realize how far we are from addressing those needs in most places."

- from "When Culture is Not in the Students and Learning is not in the Head," 2004.

Dr. Nasir's research is centrally concerned with both the theoretical and practical implications of understanding the relation between culture, learning, and development. Specifically, her research centers around three interrelated strands: 1) The relation between individual thinking, learning, and development and the cultural settings within which they occur, 2) The role of identity in mediating that relationship between culture and learning/development, and 3) The school performance and learning of minority students in urban schools, both in general and specifically in mathematics. She has studied learning and development in out-of-school contexts like basketball and dominoes, as well as both public and Muslim schools.  
*  PhD (Psychological Studies in Education/Human Development), University of California, Los Angeles, 2000;
*  BA (Psychology and Social Welfare), University of California, Berkeley, 1993.  
*  Research Assistant, LAUSD Assessment Project (1996-1997);
*  Elementary School Teacher, Warren Lane School, Inglewood, CA (1998);
*  Research Assistant (1999).  
*  Since 2000.
*  Assistant Professor of Education (2000 - ).
  *  Current research explores the nature of teaching and learning in sports settings (i.e. track and basketball), links between out-of-school mathematical practices and achievement in school math for minority students, moral identity development in religious schools, academic and racial identities for successful and unsuccessfal urban high school students, and racial disparities in mathematics participation and achievement.  
*  Principles of Learning for Teaching;
*  Adolescent Development;
*  Cognitive Development;
*  Cultural Psychology;
*  Race, Culture, and Identities in Urban Schools;
*  Psychological Studies Intro Seminar...  
*  BOOKS
*  Nasir, N. & Cobb, P. (Eds.) (forthcoming). Diversity, Equity, and Access to Mathematical Ideas. Book to be published by Teachers College Press, 2005.
*  JOURNAL ARTICLES
*  Nasir, N. (2004). “Halal-ing” the child: Reframing identities of opposition in an urban Muslim school. Harvard Educational Review, 74(2), 153-174.
*  Nasir, N. (forthcoming). Individual cognitive structuring and the sociocultural context: Strategy shifts in the game of dominoes. To appear in Journal of the Learning Sciences.
*  Nasir, N. & Saxe, G. (2003). Ethnic and academic identities: A cultural practice perspective on emerging tensions and their management in the lives of minority students. Educational Researcher, v32 (5), 14-18.
*  Nasir, N. & Kirshner, B. (2003). The cultural construction of moral and civic identities. Applied Developmental Science, v7(3), 138-147.
*  Nasir, N. & Cobb, P. (editors) (2002) Diversity, Equity, and Mathematical Learning. Special Issue of Mathematical Thinking and Learning, v4(2&3).
*  Nasir, N. (2002). Identity, goals, and learning: Mathematics in cultural practice. In N. Nasir and P. Cobb (Eds.) Mathematical Thinking and Learning, v4(2&3), 213-248.
*  Saxe, G., Gearhart, M., Nasir, N. (2001). Enhancing students’ understanding of mathematics: A study of three contrasting approaches to professional support. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 4(1), 55-79.
*  Nasir, N. (2000). “Points Ain’t Everything”: Emergent goals and average and percent understandings in the play of basketball among African-American students. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 31(3), 283-305.
*  Gearhart, M., Saxe, G., Seltzer, M., Schlackman, J., Ching, C., Nasir, N., Fall, R., Bennett, T., Rhine, S., & Sloan, T. (1999). Opportunities to learn fractions in elementary mathematics classrooms. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 30 (3), 286-315.
*  BOOK CHAPTERS
*  Schwartz, D. & Nasir, N. (2003). Transfer of Learning. Encyclopedia of Education (2nd Ed)., 4, 1449-1452.
*  Schwartz, D., Martin, T. & Nasir, N. (forthcoming). Designs for knowledge evolution: Integrative cognitive research and the development of prescriptive learning theories. To appear in P. Gardenfors & P. Johansson (Eds.), Cognition, Education, and Communication Technology. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
*  Saxe, G., Nasir, N*. , Fall, R., & Howard, S. (1995). Culture and children’s mathematical thinking. In R. Sternberg and T. Ben-Zeev (Eds.) The Nature of Mathematical Thinking. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Pgs 119-144.
*  BOOK REVIEWS
*  Nasir, N. (2004). When culture is not in the students, and learning is not in the head: An essay review of Ogbu’s “Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb.” Human Development.  
*  Member, American Educational Research Association;
*  Member, Society for Research in Child Development;
*  Faculty Affiliate, Stanford Center on Adolescence;
*  Faculty Affiliate, Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity;
*  Faculty Affiliate, John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Communities;
*  Faculty Researcher, The Center for LIFE: Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (collaboration between Stanford and the University of Washington, PI’s John Bransford & Roy Pea, funded by NSF).  
*  Phone: [phone]
*  Email: [e-mail]