Kristin McIlhagga
Associate Director, Center for Educating Critically
Dr. Kristin McIlhagga is the associate director of the Center for Educating Critically at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. Dr. McIlhagga’s research focuses on anti-oppression pedagogies in K–12 and postsecondary classrooms. She draws on culturally and historically responsive pedagogies, intersectionality, and critical whiteness studies to consider ways that educators can actively counter explicit and implicit oppressive practices inherent in formal education systems.
Before coming to Boston University, Dr. McIlhagga was an assistant professor at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, where she taught courses in both the teacher education and reading programs. While at Oakland, her work focused on the intersections of language arts methods, children’s literature, and social justice education. She has also been a faculty member at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, where she worked in partnership with Teach Detroit. This residential program for students seeking initial licensure offers classes embedded within Detroit schools, providing simultaneous coursework and practice-based experiences.
Pronouns: she/her
Education
PhD, Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education, Michigan State University
MEd, Instruction and Curriculum, Grand Valley State University
BA, Music, Grand Valley State University
Selected Publications
McIlhagga, K.K.A. (2020). Now what? Shifting your shelves. In Ochoa, J. (Ed.) Already readers and writers: Honoring students’ right to read and write in the middle grade classroom (pp. 102-106). Champaign, IL: NCTE.
McIlhagga, K.K.A. (2017). Crafting agency through intimacy and empathy: A rhetorical analysis of the reading agency lecture. In Sommers, J.M. (Ed.) Critical insights: Neil Gaiman (pp. 195-209).
Ipswich, MA: Salem Press. Jiménez, L. M. and McIlhagga, K.K.A., (2013). Books for young readers: Strategic selection of children’s and young adult literature. Journal of Education, 193(3)
Selected Presentations
McIlhagga, K.K.A. (2019). I could relate to her religion: Problematizing children’s literature for empathy. Children’s Literature Association, Annual Conference, Indianapolis, IN.
McIlhagga, K.K.A. Heise, J. and Bruner, T. (2018). Necessary conversations: Racially diverse Books and white teachers. The National Council of Teachers of English, Annual Meeting, Houston, TX.
McIlhagga, K.K.A. (2018). The Emperor has no race: Willful blindness as response to children’s literature. Children’s Literature Association, Annual Conference, San Antonio, TX.
McIlhagga, K.K.A. (2017). Reclaiming children's literature in teacher education curriculum: Teacher as coach, critic & curator. The National Council of Teachers of English, Annual Meeting, St. Louis, MO.