Adai Tefera

Adai Tefera, PhD
Assistant Professor
Disability and Psychoeducational Studies Department, The University of Arizona

Dr. Adai Tefera (she/her/hers) is currently an assistant professor in the Disability and Psychoeducational Studies Department at the University of Arizona College of Education. She received her doctorate in education with an emphasis in urban schooling and public policy from UCLA and was a postdoctoral scholar at Arizona State University’s Equity Alliance. Dr. Tefera has worked in schools, both in after-school and summer programs, and served as an education fellow with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

Dr. Tefera uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine how federal and state educational policies aimed at improving equity among students at the intersections of race, disability, language, and other social categories are enacted, interrupted, and resisted by students, families, educators, and leaders. Her recent work explores how historical, sociocultural, and spatial contexts mediate how education stakeholders respond to citations for racial disproportionality in the identification and disciplining of learners with disabilities. Her work has been included in journals such as Review of Research in Education, Sociology of Education, Teachers College Record, and Urban Education.