Simona Goldin

Simona Goldin is a Research Associate Professor at the Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina.

Dr. Goldin has studied ways to transform the preparation of beginning teachers to teach in more racially just and equitable ways, and has elaborated the teaching practices that bridge children’s work in schools on academic content with their home and community-based experiences.

Dr. Goldin’s most recent work has looked at the ways that innovations are weaponized against the very communities they are meant to support. For example, she has elaborated a frame for systemically trauma-informed teaching practice that interrupts the deficit framing of children and their communities. With colleagues, she has designed and studied innovative instructional resources and unique opportunities–namely, home visits, performance assessments, and new pedagogies of teacher education. Across each of these has been the focus on supporting novice teachers’ capabilities to develop instructionally rich, respectful relationships with families.

With her colleagues, Goldin has presented and written widely about this research, including in Urban Education, the Elementary School Journal, and the American Journal of Education. Goldin is a co-PI on a Spencer Foundation funded grant entitled “Race, Sense-Making, and Practice in the Co-Construction of Family-School Relations,” and is currently PI on a Gates funded project, “Evaluation of Innovative Staffing Models and Technical Assistance.”

Goldin serves as co-chair of the Equity in Schools Project Team on the UNC Commission on History, Race, and a Way Forward.

Goldin is also a Faculty Fellow at UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, and a Teaching Fellow, IAAR-SLATE (Student Learning to Advance Truth and Equity).

Dr. Goldin holds a master’s degree in management and urban policy analysis from the New School University, and a Ph.D. in educational studies from the University of Michigan.