Carlos Casanova
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Phone: 602-543-2916
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Farmer (ED) 444 B Tempe, AZ 85287-8009
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Mail code: 3151Campus: Tempe
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Carlos R. Casanova is an assistant professor of education in the Education Studies program in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. His research interests include social issues and social justice education. Specifically, Casanova explores the socio-political context of community-based organizations or afterschool education programs. Casanova’s research focuses on the learning and critical development that takes place as Latinx youth participate in conscious rising and culturally relevant program activities. Casanova's teaching experiences include undergraduate courses in sociological theory, social problems, and social justice education.
Throughout his own schooling experience in a working-class community in Southeastern Michigan, Casanova did not see Latinx teachers, and the school curriculum was not culturally responsive or inclusive. As a result, Casanova became actively involved in community based organizations, working as an urban community educator in Michigan, the historic Mexican-American westside of San Antonio, Texas and Des Moines, Iowa. Casanova has worked with community members and youth of color, particularly Latina/o/x and Chicanx youth, in both nationally-affiliated and grassroots community youth based organizations since 2005.
Ph.D. Education, Social and Cultrual Studies of Education, Iowa State University 2019
Certificate in Education for Social Justice, Iowa State University 2017
M.S. Sociology, The University of Texas at San Antonio 2013
B.S. Sociology and Family Studies, Western Michigan University 2007
Education Major: History, Jackson Community College 2004
Casanova's interdisciplinary research draws from critical frameworks and qualitative methodologies such as youth participatory action research, critical ethnography, and testimonios. His areas of research include social justice education and critical education for sustainable development.
Guiding Research Questions:
- How can youth participatory action research create equitable and empowering opportunities for Latinx students?
- How can liberating pedagogies develop critical consciousness and support wellbeing of Latinx youth who are engages in critical action to challenge inequities in education
Current Projects:
One of Casanova's current qualitative research projects explores the ways Latinx youth continue to navigate heightened historical trauma shaped by Trump Era’s political rhetoric, policies, politics, and practices. This study shows how Movimiento La Libertad (MLL), a community-based youth program in Iowa, functions as an agency of transformational resistance (ATR) that nurtures Latinx youth wellbeing through pedagogy, curriculum, and co-conspirators. The study conceptualizes wellbeing as multidimensional—rooted in meaningful connections, belonging, liberation, and joy. Findings illustrate that a liberating pedagogy of praxis, co-developed curriculum, and co-conspirators collectively nurture Latinx youth wellbeing through humanizing relationships, validating lived experiences, and political agency. The study contributes to scholarship by expanding conceptualizations of wellbeing beyond individualistic frameworks to collective, relational, and justice-oriented dimensions. The study highlights ATRs as spaces where Latinx youth resist oppression, cultivate healing, and imagine liberatory futures.
In a second project, Casanova uses frameworks of LatCrit theory and Agencies of Transformational Resistance to explore the educational experiences of two Iowa Latina youth through their expression of written poetry. Poems were created in a grassroots community youth-based after-school program. They shed light on Latina youth experiences of white supremacy and institutional racism embedded in the pedagogy, curricula, and social practices of their public high school. The study also draws attention to the power of poetry to unveil Latina youth agency. This research can be used to inform both researchers and educators about the social injustice the growing Iowa Latinx student populations encounter in school, to both understand their experiences and move towards authentic allyship to engage in collective resistance to dismantle white supremacy and institutional racism in education.
In a third project, Casanova examines the challenges and affordances of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) in a graduate-level research methods course. Conducted at a large Hispanic-Serving Institution in the Southwestern United States, the course brought together eight doctoral students, one junior professor, and an undergraduate student club to explore challenges and affordances related to shared power, relational accountability, and collective inquiry when co-creating and co-facilitating a YPAR project. Data came from doctoral student written reflections, analyzed through an inductive dialogical collaborative approach informed by Freirean dialogue. Findings highlight key affordances, including democratic participation, relational solidarity, and professional growth, while also underscoring challenges, such as power imbalances, institutional constraints, inconsistent participation, and tensions over project pacing. This paper contributes to scholarship on YPAR by offering insights into how participatory, humanizing approaches to education research methods can prepare graduate students for equitable, justice-oriented inquiry.
Alvarez, E. G., & Casanova, C. R. (2025). “Can We Unborder?”: Nurturing Border Identity Development Through Student Powered Pedagogy. Journal of Latinos and Education, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2025.2501980.
Carmichael, J., Casanova, R. C., Parnell, J., King, J., Cashion, M., & McGhee, R. (2025). An Exploration of Teacher Sense-making Around Whiteness During a Critical Professional Development Course. AERA Open.
Casanova, R.C. & Alvarez, E. (2024). A Collective Dreaming Process: Reimagining Youth Space to Facilitate Latinx Youth Critical Consciousness Towards Educational Injustice and Anti-Immigrant Politics. Chapter 12 in Special Issue “Repertoires of Racial Resistance: Pedagogical Dreaming in Transborder Educational Spaces.” Edited by Miguel N Abad and Gilberto Q. Conchas.
Ashley D. Domínguez & Carlos R. Casanova (2024): What is my truth and who decides?: exploring viable social identity scripts and performances with latina/x artivists in an arts-based youth participatory action research troupe, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, DOI: 10.1080/09518398.2024.2416718
Casanova, C. R. (2024). Exploring Program Process at Movimiento La Libertad: Examining Nuances of Youth Programs That Develop Latinx Critical Consciousness Toward Educational Injustice and Anti-Immigrant Politics. Journal of Latinos and Education, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2024.2346541
Casanova, C. R., Gómez, R. F., Domínguez, A. D., & Cammarota, J. (2024). Exploring the Multidimensions of Wellbeing that Latinx Youth Experienced When they Engaged in Critical Action Toward Anti-Immigrant Politics. Youth & Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X241233303
Casanova, C. R. (2023). The Development of Latinx Youth Critical Consciousness in an Afterschool Program: Insights From Latinx Youth Critical Reflection and Critical Action Toward Educational Injustice. Youth & Society, 56(2), 327-350. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X231171609
Casanova, Carlos R., and Ashley D. Domínguez. 2023. “Countering Racist Nativism Through a Liberating Pedagogy of Praxis.” Anthropology & Education Quarterly 55 (1): 43–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/aeq.12476.
Casanova, C.R., Silver, J., & Dominguez, A.D. (2023). Social Protest as a Liberating Pedagogy of Praxis: Insights from Latina Youth Critical Action Toward Anti-Immigrant Politics. Social Justice (San Francisco, Calif.), 49(1-2), 135–157.
Casanova, C.R., King, A. J., & Fischer, D. (2023). Exploring the role of intentions and expectations in continuing professional development in sustainability education,Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 128, 104-115, ISSN 0742-051X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.10411
Domínguez, A. D., & Casanova, C. R. (2023). School Leader Lotería: How School Educators Respond to Latinx Student Performances of (Their) Lived Experiences With Racism in School. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/19427751231175926
Ross, L., Chapman, K. P., Dorn, S., & Casanova, C. R. (2023). Opting Out of Standardized Tests at the Secondary Level—A Geographic Analysis of Colorado. AERA Open, 9. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584231169735
Ross, L., Casanova, C. R. Chapman, K. P., & Dorn, S. (2023) 1 in 4 Colorado 11th-graders skipped their state’s standardized test - geography and income help explain why. The Conversation.
Fisher, D., King, S., & Casanova, C.,R. (2023). I Can't Get No Satisfaction. In Teaching and Learning Sustainable Consumption, A Guidebook. Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003018537-52
King, S., & Casanova, C.,R. (2021). Pedagogies for Cultivating Critical Consciousness: Principles for Teaching and Learning to Engage with Racial Equity, Social Justice, and Sustainability. In No Sustainability Without Justice: An Anthology on Racial Equity and Social Justice. Vol. 2., pp. 56-62. The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. https://www.aashe.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/RESJ-2021-Anthology-Es…
Casanova, C. R., & Cammarota, J.(2019) “You trying to make me feel stupid or something?”: Countering dehumanization of Latin@ youth through a liberating pedagogy of praxis, Journal of Latinos and Education, 18:4,363-375, DOI: 10.1080/15348431.2018.1426466
Casanova, C. R. (2019). A critical ethnographic study of the resistance of Midwest Latinx youth: Towards a politics of immigration and education (Doctoral dissertation, Iowa State University). Proquests. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2296120306?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromop…;
Courses
2026 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| LSE 303 | Human Dev Learner Capabilities |
| LSE 303 | Human Dev Learner Capabilities |
| DCI 691 | Seminar |
2025 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| DCI 792 | Research |
| DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
2025 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| DCI 792 | Research |
| DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
| LSE 303 | Human Dev Learner Capabilities |
| LSE 303 | Human Dev Learner Capabilities |
2024 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| DCI 792 | Research |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
| DCI 691 | Seminar |
2024 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| DCI 792 | Research |
| DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
2023 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| TEL 493 | Honors Thesis |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
| LSE 303 | Human Dev Learner Capabilities |
| LSE 303 | Human Dev Learner Capabilities |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
2023 Summer
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| LSE 303 | Human Dev Learner Capabilities |
| LSE 303 | Human Dev Learner Capabilities |
2023 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| TEL 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
| LSE 303 | Human Dev Learner Capabilities |
2022 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
| LSE 303 | Human Dev Learner Capabilities |
| LSE 303 | Human Dev Learner Capabilities |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
2022 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
2021 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
| LSE 303 | Human Dev Learner Capabilities |
| LSE 303 | Human Dev Learner Capabilities |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
2021 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
| EDU 301 | Why Education? |
2024. Adrian Public Schools Educational Foundation & Alumni Association. Outstanding Alumni Award Class 2021.
2024. Honorable Mention for the Emerging Scholar Award for the American Education Research Association (AERA) Grassroots Community and Youth Organizing special interests group (SIG)
2024. Nominated for the Arizona State University Faculty Women's Association Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award.
2023. Arizona State University Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Excellence in Community Engagement Award.
2021. Nominated for the Arizona State University Faculty Women's Association Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award.
2016. Award of Excellence for Outstanding Oral Presentation in Social Sciences and Humanities. Iowa State University Graduate College 10th Annual GMAP Research Symposium. Ames, IA.
American Educational Research Association, Member (2018 - Present)
2025. Review of Educational Research, Reviewer.
2024. Teachers College Record, Reviewer.
2024. Journal of Youth Development, Reviewer.
2023. Journal of Youth & Society, Reviewer.
2021. Journal of Latinos and Education, Reviewer.
2021. The Urban Review, Reviewer.
2022. American Educational Research Association, Division B Proposal Reviewer.
2021-2023. Arizona State University, Doctoral Admission Committee Member (P2021-2023).
2020-2022. Arizona State University, Educational Studies Department Evaluation Committee Member.