Terrell R. Morton, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Identity and Justice in STEM Education
Educational Psychology
Contact
Building & Room:
3230 ETMSW
Address:
1040 W Harrison St, Chicago, IL 60607, USA
Office Phone:
Email:
CV Link:
Related Sites:
About
Dr. Terrell R. Morton is an Assistant Professor of Identity and Justice in STEM Education in the Department of Educational Psychology in the College of Education. Dr. Morton graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a M.S. in Neuroscience from the University of Miami, and a Ph.D. in Education concentration Learning Sciences and Psychological Studies from UNC Chapel-Hill. Dr. Morton identifies as a Scholar-Activist! His research and work focus on identity as it informs the persistence and engagement of racialized and minoritized students in STEM postsecondary education. He draws from critical race theory, phenomenology, and human development to ascertain Black students’ consciousness and how it manifests in their various embodiments and actions that facilitate their STEM postsecondary engagements.
As a scholar-activist, Dr. Morton works to transform the positioning and understanding of Blackness in mainstream education, specifically STEM, seeking justice and joy for Black women, Black students, and other minoritized individuals given the social-cultural-political-historical positioning of their identities. He advocates for identity, justice, and joy to be fundamental for education. He also works to transform STEM learning environments, creating spaces that are recognized and understood as extensions of students’ identity rather than sites of oppression that perpetuate hostility and exclusion.
Selected Grants
National Science Foundation: 2140901, Collaborative Research: EHR Racial Equity: Examining Blackness in Postsecondary STEM Education through a Multidimensional-Multiplicative Lens. Education and Human Resources Directorate, $8,826,392, Principal Investigator
National Science Foundation: 2217343, RCN-UBE: Deepening and Expanding the Mission and Outcomes of the Re-Envisioning Culture Network. Division of Biological Infrastructure, $500,000, Principal Investigator
National Science Foundation: 2100823, Community for Advancing Discovery Research in Education (CADRE): Expanding the Reach and Impact of Innovations in STEM Education. DRL – Discovery Research K-12, $3,307,943, Co-Principal Investigator
National Science Foundation: 2020709, Louis Stokes Regional Center of Excellence for the Study of STEM Interventions. Division of Human Resources Development, $1,000,000, Co-Principal Investigator
Selected Publications
McGee, E.O., Morton, T.R., Frierson, W., & White, D.T. (2023). Accelerating racial activism in STEM higher education by institutionalizing an equity ethic. Teachers College Record, 125 (9), 108-139. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/01614681231216518
Roby, R.S., Udoh, E., Williams, M.R., Hunter, A.E., Wardin, A.M., Miles, M.L., & Morton, T.R. (2022). #SayHerName: Anchoring Black feminist epistemologies at the crux of postsecondary STEM culture. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 28(3), 83-99. DOI: 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2022036607
Ortiz, N.A., & Morton, T.R. (2022). Empowering Black mathematics students through a framework of communalism and collective Black identity. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 15(1), 54-77. https://journals.tdl.org/jume/index.php/JUME/article/view/428
Morton, T.R., Miles, M.L, Roby, R.S., & Ortiz, N.A. (2022). “All we wanna do is be free”: Advocating for Black liberation in and through K-12 science education. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 33(2), 131-153. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2021.2008096
Morton, T.R. (2022). Critical race theory and STEM education. In P.G. Price (Ed.). Oxford Encyclopedia of Race and Education. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1614
Morton, T. R. (2021). A phenomenological and ecological perspective on the influence of undergraduate research experiences on Black women’s persistence in STEM at an HBCU. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 14(4), 530–543. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000183
Morton, T.R., Gee, D.S., & Woodson, A.N. (2019). Being vs. becoming: Transcending STEM identity development through afropessimism, moving towards a Black X consciousness in STEM. The Journal of Negro Education, 88(3), 327-342. DOI: 10.7709/jnegroeducation.88.3.0327
Morton, T.R., & Parsons, E.C. (2018). #BlackGirlMagic: The identity conceptualization of Black women in undergraduate STEM education. Science Education, 102(6), 1363-1393. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21477
Professional Leadership
Chair (2023 - 2026), American Educational Research Association, Equity and Inclusion Council
Member (2023 - 2026), American Educational Reseach Association, Social Justice Council
Monitoring Editor (2021 - 2024), Cell Biology Education-Life Sciences Education
Editorial Board (2021 - 2024), Journal of Research in Science Teaching
Notable Honors
2021, Ernest D. Morrell Emerging Scholar, Comparative & International Education Society, African Diaspora Special Interest Group
2020, Omega Man of the Year, Epsilon Delta Chapter, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc
Education
Ph.D. Education - Learning Science and Psychological Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel-Hill (Chapel-Hill, NC)
M.S. Neuroscience, University of Miami (Miami, FL)
B.S. Chemistry, North Carolina A&T State University (Greensboro, NC)
Professional Memberships
Comparative and International Education Society
Association for the Study of Higher Education
National Association for Research on Science Teaching
American Psychological Association
American Educational Research Association
Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity, Inc.
Selected Presentations
Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research, Seminar Series
- October 21, 2020
- Provided a talk titled “But is it really ‘just’ science?: Engaging Critical Race Theory to Unpack Racial Oppression with Implications for Black Student Engagement” as part of SABER’s A Call to Action: Striving for Racial Justice in Academic Biology seminar series [635 national attendees + additional viewers through recording].
- Link to view: https://saberbio.wildapricot.org/Diversity_Inclusion
2021 Assessment and Teaching Conference, University of Pittsburgh
- February 12, 2021
- Lead Keynote address titled “It Is More Than Just Good Instructional Strategies: Ideologies and Praxes ofInclusive Teaching in Postsecondary STEM” delivered to approximately 150 administrators, faculty, andstaff at the University of Pittsburgh.
- Link to view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_6Ocp6PXUo
Patrick, B.J., Clark, L, Roby, R.S., & Morton, T.R. (2021, March). From HBCU to PhD: Social capital & student success. Presentation at South X Southwest EDU annual conference, Virtual.
• Link to view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO5yMmkrPrY&t=2s
California State University, COAST and CSUPERB Collaboration
- April 28th, 2021
- Provided a presentation titled “A Conversation on Power, Structural Racism, and Perceptions of Normality in STEM Through a Lens of Critical Race Theory” to approximately 230 administrators, faculty, staff, students, and other collaborators of the CSU system and beyond.
- Link to view: https://www2.calstate.edu/impact-of-the-csu/research/coast/Pages/DEI_Webcasts.aspx
National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Presidential Webinar Series
- October 6, 2021
- Provided a presentation titled “Countering & Rejecting the Master Narrative: Black Student Engagement in Postsecondary STEM” that was part of the inaugural NARST Presidential Webinar Series “Disrupting the Image of Who Can Be a Scientists: What Does Inclusions Look Like? What Should Inclusions Look Like?” provided to 185 members of NARST and the broader, global science education community.
- Link to view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aEJ9dIlzHM
University of Southern Mississippi, Center for STEM Education 2022 STEMed Speaker Series
- April 14, 2022
- Provided a presentation titled, “Critical Perspectives of Blackness in STEM Education” to approximately 24 administrators, faculty, and graduate students at USM.
- Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMgZ0nZNmbs
Lawrence Technical University, IDEA Factory
- February 21, 2023
- Provided a presentation titled “Seeking Justice and Joy: Facilitating Institutional Cultural Change in an Era of Anti-Blackness” to approximately 125 administrators, faculty, staff, and students as Lawrence Technical University, Oberlin College, Albion College, University of Michigan, and the greater Detroit, MI community.
- Link to view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBYNX_2N-WA
Research Currently in Progress
Black epiSTEMologies: https://www.blackepistemologies.com/
Black epiSTEMologies is a multi-institutional collaborative research project seeking to develop theories, research methods and tools (e.g., qualitative protocols, quantitative instruments), and forms of knowledge that expand the field of STEM education’s conceptual understandings of and implications for racial equity in STEM for Black students. Black epiSTEMologies is funded by the National Science Foundation (EHR Racial Equity) and encompasses the following research awards:
UIC & TSU: 2243109 GSU: 2140902 American Uni: 2140903 UT- Austin: 2140904 NC A&T: 2140905.