Janine Bempechat
Clinical Professor Emerita
Dr. Janine Bempechat is a clinical professor merita at BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. She is a developmental psychologist with a deep interest in the socialization of achievement. She studies family, cultural, and school influences in the development of student motivation and academic achievement in low-income children and youth, both nationally and cross-nationally. A former National Academic of Education Spencer Fellow, her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation.
Dr. Bempechat is the author of Against the Odds: How At-Risk Students Exceed Expectations and Getting Our Kids Back on Track: Educating Children for the Future. She is co-editor, with Margarita Jimenez-Silva, of Latinx Experiences in US Schools: Voices of Students, Teachers, Teacher Educators, and Education Allies in Challenging Sociopolitical Times and co-editor, with Helen Haste, of Civic Concepts and Civic Culture: Challenges for American Education.
Recent News
- Four BU Wheelock Faculty to Retire
- How Latinx Students and Educators are Responding to Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric
In the Media
Education
EdD, Harvard University
EdM, Harvard University
BA, McGill University
Selected Publications
Jimenez-Silva, M. & Bempechat, J. (Eds.) (2021). Latinx experiences in U.S. schools: Voices of students, teachers, teacher educators, and education allies in challenging sociopolitical times. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Roman & Littlefield.
Bempechat, J., Cheung, A., & Li, J. (2021). A qualitative analysis of educational messaging: Case studies of four low-income Chinese American youth. Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research, 15, 173-190.
Haste, H. & Bempechat, J. (2021). The new civics: Signposts for education, research and policy. In H. Haste & J. Bempechat (Eds.). New civics: Challenge and change in civic education. Teachers College Record.
Bempechat, J. (2019). The case for (quality) homework: Why it improves learning, and how parents can help. Education Next, 19(1), 66-73.
Bempechat, J., Ronfard, S., and Li, J. Relations among cultural learning beliefs, self-regulated learning, and academic achievement for low-income Chinese American adolescents. Child Development, 89(3), 851-861.
Selected Presentations
Bempechat, J., Jimenez-Silva, M., & Villegas-Reimers, E. (2021). Preparing teachers to navigate conflict when equity is at stake: Teacher educators’ beliefs about homework-related practices. Paper presented at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association, April, 2021.
Bempechat, J., Dobbs, C.M., Leider, C.M, Villegas-Reimers, E., & Jimenez-Silva, M. (2020). Homework and inequality: Ethical dilemmas for teachers. Paper presented (virtually) at the annual conference of the Association for Moral Education, October 16, 2020.
Villegas-Reimers, E., Bempechat, J., Montecillo Leider, C., & Jimenez-Silva, M. (2019). Latinx’ experiences in U.S. schools: Voices of students, teachers, teacher educators, and education allies in the current socio-political climate. Symposium presented at the annual Harvard Graduate School of Education Alumni of Color Conference (AOCC), Cambridge, MA, February 28-29.
Bempechat, J. Jimenez-Silva, M., Miranda, B., Baca, E., Rodgers, B, & Santa-Ramirez, S. (2018). Preparing teachers to engage with families around homework. Paper presented at the 19th International Network on School, Family, and Community Partnerships (INET), New York, April.
Bempechat, J., Cheung, A., & Li, J. (2017). A Foucauldian discourse analysis of educational messaging in four Chinese American families. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for the Study of Human Development, October, Providence, RI.
Bempechat, J., Jimenez-Silva, M., Li, J., & Holloway, S.D. (2017). "Classes where “Kids learn/don’t learn a lot:” A study of Mexican American adolescents’ voices. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, April, San Antonio, TX, 2017.