Letitia Basford
Letitia Basford teaches in the School of Education at Hamline University. She received her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota's Second Languages and Cultures Education Program and her MA in Special Education from San Francisco State University in California. Her teaching and research interests focus on students’ equitable access to education, with a focus on culturally responsive and reform-based pedagogy. Her research on the experiences of Somali and Hmong youth in schools has been published in several journals including the Review of Research in Education, Journal of School Choice, Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Asian Advancement as well as in the book Proud to be Different: Ethnocentric Niche Charter Schools in the U.S., published by Rowman & Littlefield. Her current research on the school-to-prison-pipeline is published in the following books, both published by Peter Lang Publishing: Six Lenses for Anti-Oppressive Education and From Education to Incarceration: Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline.
Teaching is at the foundation of Professor Basford's work at Hamline University. She chose a career in higher education because she believes it is the most basic and obvious place for work in social justice. Professor Basford is dedicated to working toward anti-oppressive education and wishes to inspire the same passion in her students. Thus, in all of her classes at Hamline, she focuses considerable energy on increasing awareness of the realities and inequities that many youth face in schools and society. These teaching goals align with the University’s goal of becoming an exemplar in the integration of diversity to achieve and sustain an inclusive community.