Rebeca Burciaga, PhD

Rebeca Burciaga

Professor, Educational Leadership

Faculty Executive Director, Institute for Emancipatory Education

Dr. Rebeca Burciaga is the Faculty Executive Director of the Institute for Emancipatory Education and a Professor of Educational Leadership & Chicana and Chicano Studies. Her research is nested in the nepantla (borderlands) of Education and Chicana/o Studies and focuses on the schooling experiences of Chicanx and Latinx students, families, communities, educators, and leaders. Her current project focuses on culturally sustaining approaches to school leadership. Dr. Burciaga’s areas of expertise include qualitative methodologies (testimonio & ethnography), critical theories (critical race theory & Chicana feminist theory), and critical pedagogies. Her research has been supported by highly competitive funding including the Spencer Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.

Education

  • Ph.D., Social Sciences and Comparative Education with an emphasis in Race and Ethnic Studies, UCLA
  • Ed.M., Administration, Planning, and Social Policy, Harvard Graduate School of Education
  • B.A., Latin American and Latina/o Studies, UC Santa Cruz

Recent Publications

  • Covarrubias, A., Lara, A., Nava, P., Burciaga, R. (2022). Critical Race Quantitative Intersectionality: A Toiling Movement-Building Paradigm that Refuses to “Let the Numbers Speak for Themselves.” In M. Lynn, A.D. Dixson (Eds.), Handbook of Critical Race Theory in Education.

  • Burciaga, R. & Tavares, A. (2021). Coraje y Amor: Bilingual Bicoastal Leadership from Preschool to the Professoriate. In M. A. Martinez, & S. Méndez – Morse (Eds.), Latinas Leading Schools. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

  • Burciaga, R., & Lattimer, H. (2020, Fall). Innovative programs: Emancipatory school leadership: San Jose State University educational leadership MA program. UCEA Review, 61(3). http://www.ucea.org/resource/ucea-review/

  • Covarrubias, A., Nava, P., Lara, A., Burciaga, R., & Solorzano, D.G. (2018). Expanding educational pipelines: Critical race quantitative intersectionality as a transactional methodology. In J. DeCuir-Gunby, T. Chapman, & P.A. Schultz (Eds.), Understanding critical race research

  • Methods and Methodologies: Lessons from the field. New York: Routledge. Burciaga, R., & Kohli, R. (2018). Disrupting whitestream measures of teacher quality: The community cultural wealth of teachers of color. Multicultural Perspectives, 20:1, 5-12.

Recent Presentations

  • Burciaga, R. (2021, October). Testimonio in research. Invited lecture in Dr. Ella María Díaz’s class at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

  • Burciaga, R. (2021, April). Testimonio as Methodology and Epistemology. Invited lecture in Dr. G. Reyes’s EdD class at CSU East Bay, Hayward, CA.

  • Burciaga, R. (2021, March). Emancipatory School Leadership: La Educación Nace En La Cuna. Invited lecture for the Center for Educational Leadership at Trinity University, San Antonio, TX.
  • Burciaga, R. (2021, March). Invited Panelist, Preparing School Leaders: Prioritizing Justice and Equity. California State University. CSU School Leadership Programs, Webinar Sponsored by the California State University’s Office of the Chancellor, Long Beach, CA.

  • Burciaga, R., Martinez, M., Mendez-Morse, S., Bagula, F., Tavares, A., & Medina, J. (2021, March). Latinas Leading Schools. The Emancipatory Education Speaker Series, San José State University, Connie L. Lurie College of Education, San José, CA.

Noteworthy Grants and Awards

  • 2020 | Faculty Research Fellow, Latinx Education Research Center, Santa Clara University
  • 2020 | Innovative Program Selection: Emancipatory School Leadership Program, University, Council of Education Administration (UCEA)
  • 2018 - Present | San José State University, Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity (RSCA) Award
  • 2015 William J. Davis Award, presented by the Editorial Board of the Educational Administration Quarterly for the most outstanding paper published in the journal during the preceding volume year: López, G.R., & Burciaga, R. (2014). The troublesome legacy of Brown v. Board of Education. Educational Administration Quarterly, 50(5), 796–811

Online Resources

  • Dr. Rebeca Burciaga presented "Testimonio as an Emancipatory Pedagogy" at the Fall 2020 Lurie College Faculty Research Symposium. Watch the full recording above - Dr. Burciaga begins speaking at 31:12.
  • Burciaga, R. (Host). (2020, June 12). Mujer Divina/The Divine Feminine: How To Reclaim Your Power as A Mujer (womxn) Within the Latinx Community [Spartan Sabiduría Podcast]. Retrieved from
    sjsu.edu/chicanxlatinxssc/resources/podcast

Areas of Research Interest

  • Leadership
  • Chicana
  • Latina
  • Hispanic
  • Ethnic studies
  • Testimonio
  • Qualitative Research 

Personality Playlist

Listen to Rebeca's playlist below and access all of the personality playlists on our Lurie College of Education Spotify account