Ph.D. Student Profiles

Kathryn Habib is a doctoral student in Culture, Curriculum and Teacher Education, studying under Dionne Cross Francis, Ph.D. Her research focuses on preservice elementary teachers’ mathematics identities and the role of initial teacher education in preparing preservice elementary teachers to teach mathematics effectively. She is a former middle school math and second grade teacher.

Publications and Presentations

• Hong, J., Cross Francis, D., Haskins, C., Chong, K., Habib, K., Pinheiro, W., Noon, S., & Dickinson, J. (2023) Wellbeing under threat: Multiply marginalized and underrepresented teachers’ intersecting identities. Teachers and Teaching, 1-21.
• Cross Francis, D., Park Rogers, M., Kaur Bharaj, P., Habib, K., Hinden, A., Yeldell, J., Phillips. A., & Gatza. A. (under review). Developing climate literacy. In D. Cross Francis, M. Park Rogers, A. M. Gatza, K. Engebretson & R. Hudson (Eds.), Math in Action: Tasks for Building Mathematical Literacy, Grades 3-5. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
• Cross Francis, D., Kaur Bharaj, P., Habib, K., Hinden, A., & Gustaveson, A. (2023, June 10-15). Holistic Individualized Coaching: Foregrounding Teachers’ Psychological And Affective Attributes To Support Teacher Learning. Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference for the Learning Sciences (ICLS). Montreal, Canada.
• Cross Francis, D., Habib, K., Gustaveson, A., Kaur Bharaj, P., Hinden, A. (2023, October 1-4). Holistic individualized coaching: Foregrounding teachers’ psychological and affective attributes to support teacher learning. Paper presented at the PME-NA Conference. Reno, Nevada, United States.
• Kaur Bharaj, P., Cross Francis, D., Habib, K., Hinden, A., Gustaveson, A., (2023, October 1-4). Exhausted, drained, and apathetic: An emerging coach’s emotional trajectory during her first year. Paper presented at the PME-NA Conference. Reno, Nevada, United States.
• Cross Francis, D., Kaur Bharaj, P., Habib, K., Gustaveson, A., Hinden, A. & Hong, J. (2023). Multidirectional shifts in elementary teachers’ math teacher identity: Understanding the role of instructional coaching. In Michal Ayalon, Boris Koichu, Roza Leikin, Laurie Rubel & Michal Tabach (Eds.). Proceeding of the 46th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Vol. 2, pg. 203-210. University of Haifa, Israel: PME
• Cross Francis, D., Kaur Bharaj, P., Habib, K., Hinden, A., Gustaveson, A. (2023, June 10-15). Holistic Individualized Coaching: Foregrounding Teachers’ Psychological And Affective Attributes To Support Teacher Learning. Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference for the Learning Sciences (ICLS). Montreal, Canada

Nannan Fan is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on science teacher education, socio-scientific issue-based curriculum development, and scientific models and modeling, with an emphasis on enhancing science teachers’ confidence and instructional skills in scientific and socio-scientific argumentation.

Publications

• Fan, N., Kirk, E., Zhu, M., Sadler, T. (2026). Resources shaping science teachers’ design and implementation of scientific argumentation instruction: A systematic review. Education Sciences, 16(10), 1673. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci16101673
• Fan, N., Sadler, T. D., Kirk, E. A., Ke, L., Elsner, J. N., & Lesnefsky, R. R. (2025). Socio-scientific system modeling: Helping undergraduates perceive complexity of socio-scientific issues. Journal of College Science Teaching, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/0047231X.2025.2513315
• Fan, N., Lesnefsky, R. R., & Sadler, T. D. (2025). Using the adapted science talk-writing heuristic (STWH) to scaffold students’ socio-scientific argumentation. The Science Teacher, 92(4), 24–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/00368555.2025.2500936
• Lesnefsky, R., Lee, H., Xu, Z., Fan, N., Dalyot, K., Fortus, D., & Sadler, D. (2025). Future of food: Cultured meat for environmental and social justice. In: Steele, D., Mercier, A.K. (eds) Justice-Oriented Science Teaching and Learning. Springer Texts in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-76297-0_22 (Book Chapter)
• Xu, Z., Lesnefsky, R. R., Sadler, T. D., Fan, N., Lee, H., & Fortus, D. (2026). From personal data to global insights: Data practices in Grand Challenges-themed science classes. Science Scope, 49(4), 27-35. https://doi.org/10.1080/08872376.2026.2679971

Anna Gustaveson is a doctoral student in the Ph.D. in Education's Culture, Curriculum, and Teacher Education concentration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She studies systemic narratives in math, particularly as they relate to gender, race, ethnicity, language, and culture, as well as teachers’ beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning and student competency. Her work seeks to understand common deficit and anti-deficit narratives and practices from which teachers draw when planning and implementing math instruction, with the aim of supporting more teachers in taking up anti-deficit narratives and practices in their classrooms.

Publications and Presentations

• Cross Francis, D., Gustaveson, A., Yu, B. & Kaur Bharaj, P. (in press). The evolution of teachers’ math-related beliefs research. In H. Fives & M. G. Gill (Eds.), International handbook of research on teachers’ beliefs (2nd ed.). Routledge.
• Gustaveson, A., Cross Francis, D. (2025). Reframing deficit elementary math narratives through reflections and actions in L. DeMartino & L. Fetman (Eds.), Demystifying social justice education: Moving from trendy to transformative equity and justice practices in schools, (pp. 159-184). Myers Education Press.
• Gustaveson, A., & Donnelly, M. (2024). The “task” at hand: LLMs and low-Floor, high-ceiling math tasks. AMTE Connections, 34(1).

Anna is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Culture, Curriculum, and Teacher Education concentration, currently working on her dissertation proposal. Her research foci are mathematics coaching, professional development, and teacher efficacy. Anna works closely with Dionne Cross Francis, Ph.D., and her research team.

Publications

• Cross Francis, D., Bharaj, P. K., & Hinden, A. (2021). “First Teachers Talk, Talk, now they Listen, Listen”: Ghanaian Teachers' Professional Readiness for Mathematics Reform. In Olanoff, D., Johnson, K., & Spitzer, S. (2021). Proceedings of the forty-third annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, (pp.813-818). Philadelphia, PA.
• Cross Francis, D., Bharaj, P. K., & Hinden, A. (in-press). Exploring Ghanaian Primary Teachers’ Readiness for National Curricula and Pedagogical Reform. In Research on Education in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East.
• Bharaj, P. K., Hinden, A., & Cross Francis, D. (2021). The Role of Teacher Self-Regulation in Developing Students’ Social-Emotional Competencies. Times Magazine Studying and Self-Regulated Learning SIG AERA, 4(3), 3. Ryan, J, Cooper, J., Bolick, C.M., Callahan, C. (in press). Those Who Can, Teach. 15th ed. Cengage.

Presentations

• Unpacking the work of an effective mathematics coach: Attending to teachers' attributes.” Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators Conference. New Orleans, Louisiana. February 2023.
• Cross Francis, D., Bharaj, P. K., & Hinden, A. (2021). “First Teachers Talk, Talk, now they Listen, Listen”: Ghanaian Teachers' Professional Readiness for Mathematics Reform. In Olanoff, D., Johnson, K., & Spitzer, S. (2021). Proceedings of the forty-third annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, (pp.813-818). Philadelphia, PA.
• Cross Francis, D., Park Rogers, M., Kaur Bharaj, P., Habib, K., Hinden, A., Yeldell, J., Phillips. A., & Gatza. A. (under review). Developing climate literacy. D. Cross Francis, M. Park Rogers, A. M. Gatza, K. Engebretson & R. Hudson (Eds.), Math in action: Tasks for building mathematical literacy, grades 3-5. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Ross is a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She does research at the intersection of social justice, ecojustice, and teacher education. She engages her background as a public school art teacher through arts-based learning and research methods in her research and teaching.

Publications

• Ross, N. (2021). My Octopus Teacher, posthumanism, and posthuman education: A pedagogical conceptualization. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 36(2), 1-15.
• Ross, N. (2020). Anthropocentric tendencies in environmental education: a critical discourse analysis of nature- based learning. Ethics and Education, 15(3), 355-370.

Presentations

• Ross, N. (2024, December). Presentation. The finite game of humanism and the infinite potential of critical posthumanism: Places for possibility in education. Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA). Christchurch, NZ.
• Ross, N. (2024, November). Presentation. A diffractive analysis with critical posthumanism: Implications for teacher education. American Educational Studies Association (AESA). Greenville, SC.

Wang's overarching research interest is to facilitate intercultural communications, especially in higher educational settings. She is passionate about interdisciplinary work and completed a Graduate Certificate in Computational Linguistics at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her dissertation used the exploratory mixed method to investigate student engagement for a diverse population in Asian Studies courses.

Presentations

• “What ChatGPT Will Bring to Us: a Systematic Review of Papers on ChatGPT in Education”, AERA, 2024
• “Learning Language but Not Only Language – A Case Study on COIL in International Settings”, ACE, 2023
• “Language as the Carrier of Culture: A Critical Look at the Chinese Language Teaching Materials”, NABE, 2023
• “Facilitating Cultural Exchanges in Cultural Courses in Humanities”, NCARE, 2021
• “Issues of and Adjustment Strategies for International Asian Students”, NCARE, 2019

Originally from Flint, Mich., Wilson is a fourth-year doctoral candidate at the UNC School of Education in the Culture, Curriculum, and Teacher Education concentration. Wilson is passionate about increasing equity in higher education, seeking to use critical methodologies to expand opportunities of joy for minoritized students and staff. Wilson is also a Licensed Master Social Worker who specializes in providing support to adults struggling with trauma, substance use disorders, depression, anxiety, and autism spectrum disorders.

Publications

• Lindsay, C. A., Wilson, S., Kumar, J., Byers, T., & Gershenson, S. (2024). How Teachers Learn Racial Competency: The Role of Peers and Contexts. EdWorkingPaper No. 24-968. Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University.

Presentations

• Wilson, S., Byers, T., Lindsay, C. A., Ohito, E. (2024). “What’s going on?”: Understanding the recruitment and retention of black male teachers. Poster presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
• Wilson, S. & Nummelin, S. (2023). “Girl Lemme Tell You...”: Examining the Reification of White Supremacist Logics in Critically Aligned Degree Programs. Poster presented at the Critical Race Studies in Education Annual Meeting (Virtual).
• Smith, K., Tyskowski, T., Wilson, S., Abelson, J., Liberzon, I., Hampstead, B.M., Duval, E.R. (2021, March). Assessing the Relationships between Hippocampal Volume, Spatial Navigation Performance and Symptom Severity in Individuals with PTSD. Poster presented at the Anxiety and Depression Association of America Annual Meeting (Virtual due to COVID-19 Pandemic).
• Smith, K., Hampstead, B.M., Joshi, S.A., John, R.A., Goldberg, S., Wilson, S., Duval, E.R. (2020, April). Spatial Navigation Performance associated with PTSD and Trauma Type. Poster presented at the University of Michigan Undergraduate Psychology Research Forum, Ann Arbor, MI.
• Wilson, S. (2017). Improving Social Service Systems in Ghana. Poster presented at the Global Social Work Symposium at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.