Noor Ali

Noor Ali is a Ph.D. student in Education Studies at the University of California, San Diego, focused on the intersection of sociocultural perspectives, teacher bias, and young children’s social-emotional development. Born and raised in El Paso, Texas, Noor is a first-generation college graduate and proud daughter of Iraqi immigrants. Noor’s cultural upbringing and five years of teaching experience in elementary classrooms on the U.S.-Mexico border and university-affiliated preschools have shaped her enduring commitment to creating inclusive and culturally responsive early education environments.

Noor’s research and teaching span several institutions, including the University of Texas at Austin, San Diego State University, and UC San Diego. She has worked on many projects, including examining pretend play before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, teacher-child co-regulation, neurobiological mechanisms of psychopathology, and culturally responsive early learning environments, as well as advocacy and research on the sleep and social development of delinquency-involved Latinx adolescents on the border.

Noor has mentored more than a dozen undergraduate pre-service teachers through classroom inquiry and critical reflection, fostering their development as equity-minded, culturally responsive educators. As a trauma-informed care and resilience-certified educator, Noor brings a healing-centered, developmentally responsive lens to her practice with both children and educators.Through her work, she aims to bridge research and practice to create more just, joyful, and developmentally grounded educational spaces.

Curriculum Vita

The University of Texas at Austin
Master of Education
Curriculum and Instruction, Program Area: Early Childhood Education.
May 2023

The University of Texas at El Paso
Bachelor of Education
Applied Learning and Development, Concentration: Education and Community Studies
December 2020

Noor’s research interests are deeply rooted in her classroom experiences and longstanding curiosity to understand how young children’s social-emotional development is shaped by their cultural context, teacher perceptions, and the language used in learning environments. She explores how anti-bias and anti-racist pedagogies can nurture children’s emotional regulation, well-being, and identity formation.

Noor believes that children’s development is influenced by many interconnected factors, including how classrooms are managed, the types of play encouraged, and the quality of relationships between families, and teachers. She views these elements as essential parts of a supportive learning community, grounded in the idea that it takes a village to nurture a child’s growth. Committed to both children and educators, Noor also focuses on developing practices that help teachers manage the demands of early childhood education while sustaining their well-being.

Through her research, she aims to support teachers in becoming more reflective and empowered while working toward sustainable models of early education that affirm children’s dentities, foster healing, and expand the possibilities for human development in the earliest years of life.

This section is actively evolving as part of my academic and professional development and will
be updated with forthcoming recognitions and distinctions.