Eric Alvarez
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Mail code: 1811Campus: Tempe
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Student Information
Graduate StudentLearning, Literacies and Technologies
MaryLouFulton College for Teac
Eric G. Alvarez is a PhD candidate in the Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation at Arizona State University. He is a veteran public school educator with over 20 years of experience in Title 1 schools. His teaching has primarily focused on Social Studies and Civics Education.
Alvarez will defend his dissertation in March 2027, with research centered on pedagogy that fosters joy, cultural-historical understanding, and critical civic identity development among Latinx youth. He holds an M.A. in American History from Pace University and a B.S. from New Mexico State University.
His work as an educator and pedagogue is founded on humanizing and culturally sustaining approaches. He has developed his own strength-, wisdom-, and asset-based framework, student-powered pedagogy (SPP), based on his experience in K-12 classrooms. Civic engagement among youth is central to his work. He works with the Civic Learning Institute, an initiative of the Democratic Knowledge Project (DKP) based at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard, and alongside organizations such as the Center for Civic Education and the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education.
His research lies at the intersection of civics education, youth development, pedagogy, and student-powered learning among Latinx youth. He has publications in the Journal of Latinos and Education, AERA Open, and has been featured in the Empathetic Classroom. He has presented his work at the American Educational Research Association (AERA), National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Annual Conference, and College and University Faculty Assembly (CUFA). Additionally, he has been invited to speak at Georgetown University’s Civic Education Research Lab & Center for Civic Education; the University of Bridgeport, College of Science & Society; the Arizona Bar Foundation; the West Virginia Civics Education Foundation We The People Summer Institute; and the Prescott College Education Department Colloquium.
Carrillo, J. F., Alvarez, E., & Long, C. (2026). From Bowling Alone to Hoopin’: Education, Basketball, and Critical Community Mapping in Latinx Communities. Journal of Latinos and Education, 1–10. https://doi-org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/10.1080/15348431.2026.2658674
Alvarez, E. G., & Casanova, C. R. (2025). “Can We Unborder?”: Nurturing Border Identity Development Through Student Powered Pedagogy. Journal of Latinos and Education, 25(1), 156-169.
Casanova, C.R., Alvarez, E. (2024). A Collective Dreaming Process: Reimagining Youth Space to Facilitate Latinx Youth Critical Consciousness Towards Educational Injustice and Anti-Immigrant Politics. In Conchas, G. Q., & Abad, M. N. (Eds.). Repertoires of Racial Resistance: Pedagogical Dreaming in Transborder Educational Spaces. Meyers Education Press. pp. 219-233
Pruyn, M., Alvarez, E., et. al. (2006). Critical Multicultural Social Studies: A Dialogue from the Borderlands. In Race, Ethnicity and Education. Eds. Ross, E. W. & Ooka Pang, V. Westport, Ct. Praeger Publishers.
Haworth, R., Alvarez, E., Carroll-Miranda, J. (2006). Hip Hop and Education. In Contemporary Youth Culture. Eds. Steinberg, S. & Parmar, P. & Richard, B. Westport, CT. Greenwood Press.
Manuscripts Under Revision and Review
Fathalizadeh, R., Alvarez, E. (Submitted). Reimagining Hip Hop Aesthetics in Educational Research in Practice. Urban Education. Submitted for Review February 2026.
Alvarez, E. G., Casanova, C., Cruz Valenzuela, R. (In review). Pláticas as Catalysts for Reclaiming Chicano History and Identity. Journal of Latinos and Education. Submitted for Review August 2026.
Fathalizadeh, R., Alvarez, E. (Submitted). Thinking with pedagogy: Toward more relational and humanizing educational inquiry. In Special Issue "Dear Science: Livingness, Politics and Rethinking ‘Algorithmic’ Reasoning(s) in Educational Research Methodologies" in Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology. In publication August 2026.
Casanova, C., Alvarez, E., Ayirah, F., Brown, K., Fathalizadeh, R., German, C., Oster, N.,
Parnell, J., Yuhas, B. “The process was transformative and a persistent challenge”: Doctoral student reflections on transformative and challenging experiences from a youth participatory action research seminar and project. Educational Action Research.
Courses
2025 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
Education 301: Why Education? (Spring 2025) ASU Ed Studies Dept.