Beverly S. Faircloth, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, where she coordinates the Middle Grades Teacher Education program and founded/coordinates the M.Ed. Concentration in Learning Sciences. Her research explores the intersection of identity, culture, and voice as the foundation for an empowering sense of belonging among minoritized/underrepresented adolescents. Such individuals are too often positioned as outsiders, without important forms of power and authority, because of who they are & the cultural assets they do/don’t bring), resulting in a sense of invisibility rather than belonging. Faircloth’s contributions to this struggle suggest the role of positive/respected cultural identity, empowering individuals /groups to negotiate oppressive structures, & promoting social change by altering systems & processes that contribute to marginalization/invisibility. These notions coalesce under the term Rightful Presence (Squire & Darling, 2013; Vrasti & Dayal, 2016) which emerged from critical justice studies of borderland and refugee communities. Rightful Presence is not about pursuing inclusion into an already established order; rather, it seeks to assert a new measure of justice even if that means undoing the order we currently exist in and benefit from. Her coedited volume, Resisting Barriers to Belonging (Rowan and Littlefield, 2021), brings together similar critical lenses on belonging. Her work has also resulted in a new survey (Belonging 6) designed to capture this complex model of belonging.
For two decades, Dr. Faircloth has partnered with teachers, adolescents, diverse schools and communities to co-construct transformational spaces of belonging, engagement, and agency. The Belonging Project is her 15-year partnership with diverse, middle/high schools, to affirm and amplify students’ voices in the struggle for belonging. The Community Voices summer writing camp for immigrant and refugee youth, and a long-term community partnership with a refugee neighborhood (Science Fridays) each serve as spaces of discourse, advocacy, and learning among this richly diverse and growing community.
Prior to pursuing doctoral work, Bev taught middle school and served as a curriculum facilitator in North Carolina schools, always puzzling over how to empower and engage students in their own education. In her spare time, she enjoys hanging out with friends, reading, a little surfing and rock climbing, and trying to keep up with her husband, three daughters, two grandchildren, and her very hard-headed rescue dog.