Ph.D. Students

Summary of Expertise

As an educator, researcher and former clinical therapist, Dr. Kim Vachon has a long history of commitment and dedication to social justice in education and creating liberatory environments for youth. In Spring of 2023, she completed her doctorate in Education with a designated emphasis in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz after successfully defending her dissertation entitled “Barriers to developing antiracist teachers:The role of policy, pedagogy, and practice.” Her research interests include examining how education policy provides affordances and constraints for what teacher candidates learn about race and racism in teacher education programs and how teacher candidates engage with antiracist teaching frameworks both in and beyond their teacher preparation experiences. 

Research Interests

Teacher education, education policy, Critical Whiteness Studies, Critical Race Theory, race and racism, qualitative research methods, document analysis.

Biography, Education and Training

Ph.D., Education with a designated emphasis in Sociology, 2023

University of California- Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA

Master of Arts, Counseling Psychology, 2013

Adler School of Professional Psychology, Chicago, IL

Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, 2009

Lawrence University, Appleton, WI

Bachelor of Music, Choral/General Music Education, 2009

Lawrence University, Appleton, WI

Honors, Awards and Grants

GOLD Fellow at UC Center Sacramento

California Teacher Education Research and Improvement Network (CTERIN) and Educating Teacher Educators (ETE) Fellow (2018-Present)

UCSC Services and Transfer And Re-entry Students Scholar (2018-2019)

Regents Fellowship: University of California – Santa Cruz (2017-2018)

Selected Publications

Vachon, K. (2022). The racialization of self and others: Exploring criticality in pre-service teacher self-reflections, Issues in Teacher Education (31)1, 35-56

Teaching Interests

Introduction to Teaching

Social and Cultural Foundations

Urban Education