Rossella Santagata is a Professor at the UC Irvine School of Education. She is a founding faculty and current director of the Center for Research on Teacher Development and Professional Practice. She holds a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from UCLA with a minor in discourse analysis.
Professor Santagata is an educational researcher, studying math and science teaching and learning. She is a leading scholar in the use of video technologies to study learning interactions and to foster teacher professional competence. She works in partnership with schools and local non-profit educational agencies to solve persistent problems of practice, particularly those affecting educational settings that serve minoritized students.
Her research aims to identify settings, participation structures, and practices that support ambitious learning experiences for both educators and students, providing equitable spaces for learners to express themselves in ways that feel authentic and meaningful. Her current projects involve close collaborations with school leaders, teachers, teacher educators, families, and community members to foster culturally sustaining and justice oriented mathematics and science learning. She partners with mathematicians, environmental engineers, and AI experts to answer questions that require interdisciplinary understanding.
She utilizes participatory and design-based approaches, including both mixed-methods and qualitative analyses.
Professor Santagata is highly committed to issues of equity, diversity, and inclusiveness. This commitment is evident in her research, teaching, and service. She directed the UC-HBCU Summer Education Research Internship Program funded by the UC Office of the President (UCOP); she served as the Equity Advisor for the School of Education through the UCI ADVANCE program and as the DECADE (Diverse Educational Community and Doctoral Experience) Faculty Mentor; and was a member of the Faculty Engagement Council for the UCOP Diversity and Engagement Division. In 2020, she received the Faculty Mentorship Award for Inclusive Excellence.
Current projects include (for more details see “Projects” page):
Reducing Inequalities in Students’ Opportunities to Learn Mathematics through Adaptive Teacher Professional Development
Dr.Santagata’s research team (co-PI: Adriana Villavicencio) is partnering with a local school district to design and study adaptive mathematics professional development for elementary school teachers centered on Cognitively Guided Instruction and culturally responsive, asset-based teaching. This is a three-year project (2022-25) funded by the WT Grant Foundation.
Noticing in Mathematics for Student Success (NIMS²): A Video-Annotation Curriculum to Enhance Instructors’ Understanding of Student Thinking in Proof-Transition Courses
In this project (Co-PIs: Alessandra Pantano & Roberto Pelayo), Dr. Santagata’s research team partners with faculty in the UCI Department of Mathematics to design a video-supported curriculum for college instructional teams to develop their noticing competencies. This is a three-year project (2021-24) funded by the National Science Foundation, IUSE program.
Equity-Centered Design of Conversational Agents for Inclusive Science Communication Education in High Schools
In collaboration with Ha Nguyen (Utah State University) and Sara Ludovise (Orange County Department of Education), this project will develop an AI-guided science curriculum for learning and practicing inclusive science communication about marine biodiversity and climate change. This is a three-year project (2023-26) funded by the National Science Foundation, ITEST program.
Fostering Systems Thinking in High School Environmental Engineering through Engagement of Coastal Communities
This project will will develop an inclusive curriculum to equip the next generation of environmental engineers with the necessary skills to analyze complex natural and social systems, collaborate with diverse communities and develop creative solutions. The project benefits from the collaborative work of an interdisciplinary team comprising co-PIs Hosun Kang, School of Education associate professor, Jennifer Long, education & outreach coordinator for the Center for Environmental Biology, and Sara Ludovise of the Orange County of Department of Education; and collaborators Symone Gyles, School of Education assistant professor, and Brett Sanders, The Henry Samueli School of Engineering professor. This three-year project (2023-26) is funded bythe National Science Foundation, DRK12 program.
Her prior research includes a longitudinal study of teacher preparation, “Learning to Learn from Mathematics Teaching,” funded by an NSF Career award. She continues to be involved in international projects on the use of video for teacher professional growth.
For more details about her background, see: CV October 2023
Rossella Santagata
Professor
3200 Education Building
949/824-0434
r.santagata@uci.edu
Key Research Areas
Teacher learning, video in teacher preparation and professional development, teaching and learning in STEM, equity and diversity, research-practice partnerships, and cross-cultural studies of classroom teaching
Education
Laurea in Developmental and Education Psychology, Universita` di Padova, Italy (1993)
Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, Minor in Discourse Analysis, University of California, Los Angeles (2002)