irene h. yoon (she/her) is a scholar-educator with the formal title of associate professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Utah (academic CV).
dr. yoon’s research and practice are all about dignity and radical love in the lives of real schools, real educators, and real students.
Her research responds to questions like:
- how are learning environments for marginalized students made and transformed? what kinds of talk and stories are used or told around the building?
- why does it matter how (mostly) middle-class white women teachers learn and work in racially diverse schools?
- how do leaders and teachers share their learning in ways that do or do not emphasize equity and justice?
- how do school leaders (formal and informal) try to move forward and manage uncertainty in a coherent direction toward equity and belonging?
- what does “inclusion” look like and feel like for students of color with emotional and behavioral disability labels? how do we recognize “inclusion” in classrooms, on the playground, in the hallways, in the curricular materials, and at faculty meetings, at student pickup/dropoff, family nights, etc.?
Her research has expanded understanding of “whiteness-at-work,” “middle-class white womanhood” in teacher collaboration, storytelling, racialized humor, hauntings, and transgenerational trauma in K-12 schools.
dr. yoon cares about and prioritizes Black, Indigenous, and students of color, disabled students and students with disability labels, LGBTQ+ students, undocumented students, and students who have experienced trauma and systemic violence.
dr. yoon cares about and prioritizes Black, Indigenous, and students of color, disabled students and students with disability labels, LGBTQ+ students, undocumented students, and students who have experienced trauma and systemic violence.
dr. yoon also cares deeply that educators and school staff have opportunities to learn, reflect, grow in their craft, connect with colleagues, and laugh–while they expand their capacity and passion for history-conscious, anti-oppressive education.
For specific publications, visit the research access or other writings pages (updated as regularly as possible).
dr. yoon’s professional training began in teacher learning and school/instructional improvement. In addition to research, she has built partnerships and provided technical assistance with teams of schools, districts, universities, funders, and state agencies. These partnerships have focused on designing and implementing policies and programs for equitable and inclusive schooling and the quality of teachers’ learning experiences. For more on her approach to partnerships, please visit the school support page.
dr. yoon earned her Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Washington Seattle, and has a B.A. in English from Williams College (Massachusetts). She is a disabled Korean American woman of color and a proud daughter of immigrants, an educator, both insider and outsider, neither/nor, and in-between. She is an avid reader, foodie, and hiker, and hails from the great state of New Jersey.