Alison Black

In her decade as a classroom educator, Alison Black worked in a variety of roles, communities, and classrooms throughout San Diego county: special education instructional aide, CAHSEE small group and individual instructor for juniors and seniors, 8th-grade sheltered EL, history/social sciences, humanities, and language arts, and board member/curriculum development leader for BeREALStudents, a San Diego non-profit whose mission is to empower youth through cultivating connectedness and school community with student-led initiatives.  

Alison is a lifelong educator - particularly focused on social and emotional learning, social networks and relational phenomena in education, child and early adolescent development, nature-based learning, play-based learning, project-based learning, anti-bias education, linguistically- and culturally-responsive pedagogy. Dr. Black remains dedicated to finding ways to make schools more inclusive and supportive for all youth, especially Military-Connected (highly mobile) youth, multilingual youth, and other vulnerable populations through research, teacher education, and professional development.

Alison has research experience with a range of theory, design, and methodologies, including social network analysis, ethnographic, and mixed methods research. She has teaching experience in early childhood, elementary, and secondary levels in a variety of San Diego County school districts among diverse communities. She has experience partnering with education and community nonprofits for creating progressive (often nature-based) educational experiences, leading curriculum development and review, related research briefs, and proposals. She currently teaches university courses, does education consulting with local non-profits, and mentors students at various undergraduate and graduate levels, primarily aspiring educators.

University of California, San Diego, BA,  2005

University of California, San Diego, M.Ed. 2009

University of California, San Diego, Ed.D. 2016

Multiple Subject Teaching Credential, 2009

English Single Subject Teaching Credential, 2010

Social Studies Single Subject Teaching Credential, 2010

California Administrative Services Credential (Certificate of Eligibility)

Scholarly Journal Publications:

Black, A. and West, G. (2023). Predict Who Your Friends Are?. Front. Young Minds. 11:820289. doi: 10.3389/frym.2022.820289 

Book Chapters:

Black, A. (2016). Facilitating cognitive and social-emotional growth: Empathy and prosocial behavior in Osanloo, A. (Ed.), Creating and negotiating collaborative spaces for socially just anti-bullying interventions and innovations for k-12 schools.  Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Other Publications:

Black, A. (2023). Friendship Matters: Military Kids and Their School-based Friendships. On the Move (p. 6-7): https://issuu.com/militarychild/docs/2023-107_otm_final_issuu?fr=xKAE9_zU1NQ 

Black, A. (2019, November 8). How we can honor veterans by serving active-duty families. San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved from https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/story/2019-11-07/commentary-how-we-can-honor-veterans-by-serving-active-duty-families 

Featured in: 

Neebe, D., and Roberts, J. (2015). Power up: Making the shift to 1:1 teaching and learning. Portland,  ME:  Stenhouse Publishers. 

Reising, A. (2011). Inquiring knowledge: Reflections on inquiry-based teaching. San Diego, CA: San Diego County  Office of Education

Editorial Reviewer:

• Hamel, N. (2022). Social participation of students with a migrant background - a comparative analysis of the beginning and end of a school year in German primary schools. Frontiers in Education: Sec. Language, Culture and Diversity. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.764514
• Served as editorial reviewer for Journal of Adolescent Research (2023)
• Served as editorial reviewer for Frontiers in Education (2021-2022)
• Served as reviewer for the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA) (2020)
• Served as reviewer for the AERA 2019, (2016-2018)

Refereed Conference Proceedings:

Black, A. & Warstadt, M. (2024, Apr). It's Who You Know. Society for Research on Adolescents (ARA) Annual Meeting, Chicago, Il.

Van Es, E., Black, A., Toma-Berge, S., Sullivan, & L., Salasin, E. (2024, Mar). Improving Teacher Education Through Collaborative Research and Design. CCTE Annual SPAN Meeting, Sacramento, CA.

Black, A. (2023, Jun). Friendship Matters: How Military-Connected Youth Can Foster Support Networks in Schools. Military Child Education Coalition Annual Global Training Summit, Washington D.C.

Black, A. (2022, Apr). Diving Into Holes: A Social Network Framework for Data-driven Improvement. In E. van Es (Chair), Investigating the promise of network improvement communities to improve teacher preparation research and practice. AERA Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA. 

West, G. & Black, A. M. (2020, Apr 17-21). Predicting Friendship and Advice-Seeking Behaviors of Military Connected Adolescents: A Social Network Analysis. AERA Annual Meeting San Francisco, CA http://tinyurl.com/r8zyrx5 (Conference Canceled due to COVID-19).

Black, A., & West, G. (2020, March). Predicting Friendship and Advice-Seeking Behaviors of Military Connected Adolescents: a Social Network Analysis (Practical Applications of Mixed and Multimethod Research). Paper to be presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescents, San Diego, California (Conference Canceled). 

Black, A. (2019, April). Friends are Like Flowers: How Military-Connected Adolescents in Civilian Schools Cultivate Social Networks. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Toronto, Canada. 

Black, A. (2019, April). The Kids Are Alright: Eliciting Feedback in the Mixed Methods Research Process. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Toronto, Canada. 

Black, A. (2019, March).  Friendship-Making: How Military-Connected Youth Cultivate Social Networks. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), Baltimore, Maryland.

Black, A. (2018, November). Resiliency Networks: the Friendships and Support Networks of Military-Connected Adolescents. Paper presented at the second annual meeting of the North American Social Networks (NASN) of the International Network for Social Network Analysis, Washington D.C. 

Warstadt, M., Black, A. (2018, November). Sharing Social Justice Beliefs: The Role of Social Networks in a Cohort-Based Teacher Preparation Program. Paper presented at the second annual meeting of the North American Social Networks (NASN) of the International Network for Social Network Analysis, Washington D.C. 

Black, A. (2016, April). Military-connected adolescents in civilian schools: How underserved youth find support. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Washington, D.C.

Black A. (2016, April). Teaching for impact: Innovative strategies for today’s standards, sponsored by the Education Studies Department and the Center for Research on Educational Equity, Assessment and Teaching Excellence (CREATE).

Black, A. (2014, April). Facilitating cognitive and social-emotional growth in the middle school classroom:    An evaluation of the Empathy Integrated curriculum.  Paper presented at the annual meeting of the  American Educational Research Association, Philadelphia, PA.

Professional Development Presentations:

Project Preschool: 3 Pillars of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. 21st Annual Early Years Conference - Power to the Professional: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. San Diego, CA. (March, 2023).

Friendship Matters: Cultivating Support Networks in Civilian Schools (Distinguished Lecture). Military Child Education Coalition Global Training Summit, Washington D.C., (July, 2023)

Nature Stories. Anti-Racist Professional Learning Communities (ARPLC) with UCSD’s Early Childhood Education Center. (July, 2023)

Tips from the Faculty Success Program: Writing and Work-Life Balance (Brown Bag) (2020)

The Center for Engaged Teaching, UCSD (2016-2018)

• Tools for Teaching and Research Communications (presenter)
• Project-Based Learning and Creation Apps (presenter)
• Participating in Effective Teaching (presenter)
• Course Design Studio (participant)