University of Redlands
Ph.D., Urban Education, CUNY Graduate Center, 2017
M.A., Philosophy, CUNY Graduate Center, 2014
M.Ed, Adolescent Special Education, Long Island University (Brooklyn), 2008
B.A., Anthropology, Smith College, 2003
Contact :
Media Relations
North University Hall
128
P: 909.748.8861
E:
mikela_bjork@redlands.edu
Empathic listening and sharing of personal narratives are qualities that I believe to be paramount to effective and authentic (teacher) education. I am curious to know what your experiences are/were growing up; what challenges did you face and how do those challenges inform your identity as an educator/student/thinker?
My pedagogy centers around social justice and self-reflexivity, empowering students with the skill-set to recognize their own social location in their assumptions about their students’ (dis)abilities. As a teacher of pre and in-service special education teachers, I see my job as multifaceted; it is equally as important for my students to learn about best practices, special education policy, and universal design for learning, just as much as it is important for them to engage in self-reflexive practices, willing to remain alert to their own biases and privileges that inform their every day interactions with their students and colleagues.
I am driven by a constant desire to explore, question and unpack identity formation, through a sociological and anthropological lens, with a specific interest in how our past narratives and identities inform our present narratives and identities and how can these narratives, past and present, inform/ engage/ inspire our students?
Ph.D., Urban Education, CUNY Graduate Center, 2017
M.A., Philosophy, CUNY Graduate Center, 2014
M.Ed, Adolescent Special Education, Long Island University (Brooklyn), 2008
B.A., Anthropology, Smith College, 2003
Special Education
Inclusive Education
Social Justice
(Dis)ability Studies
Queer Studies
Gender and Education
Narrative Medicine
Addiction
Trauma
Public Health and Education Policy
Teacher Education
Bjork, M. (2019). Compulsory heterosexuality: Unsettling and undoing the hidden curriculum of heteronormativity In Unsettling Education: Searching for Ethical Footing in a time of Reform, Eds. Charest, B. & Sjostrom, K. New York: Peter Lang.
Bjork, M. (Anticipated winter 2020). Shaming Curricula: Special education and internalized otherness In Minding the Margins: Daring to Transform Inequities with Inclusion, Justice and Hope, Eds. Lalas, J. & Strikwerda, H. London: Emerald Publishing.
Bjork, M. (April, 2018). Unlearning what it means to be in special education. Retrieved from http://www.redlands.edu/bulldog-blog/2018/april-2018/unlearning-what-it-means-to-be-in-special-education/
Bjork, M. (2014). Troubling troubled: Subjectivity and the (mis)understanding of “troubled” girls. Italian Journal of Disability Studies, 4, 47-61.
American Educational Research Association (AERA)
www.expansiveheartconsulting.com
