Terrell R. Morton, Ph.D.
Associate 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 Associate 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 racially 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 and Black students. 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
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: 81398, Increasing Access to Health Equity Funding from Private Foundations among HBCS, HSIs, and MSIs, Co-Principal Investigator
Selected Publications
McCoy, W.N., Morton, T.R., White, A.M., & Butler, M. (2024). Focus groups as counterspaces for Black girls and Black women: A critical approach to research methods. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 78, #102298, 1-8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2024.102298
Nicolai, K. D., Morton, T. R., De La Torre, C., DeCuir-Gunby, J. T., & Koenka, A. C. (2024). Navigating growing pains: Tensions in integrating critical race theory in psychology and strategies for addressing them. Journal of Social Issues, 80(1), 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12602
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
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., 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
Board of Directors (2025 - 2028), NARST, A Global Organization for Improving Science Education Through Research
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
2024, Early Career Research Award, National Association of Research on Science Teaching
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
2020, "1,000 Inspiring Black Scientists in America”, Community of Scholars & Cell Mentor
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
Southeastern Association for Science Teacher Education 40th Annual Meeting
- September 27, 2025
- "Enabling STEM Futures: The Possibilities and Prevented Pitfalls of Using Afrofuturism to Situate AI in STEM"
Chicago Symposium Series on Excellence in Teaching Mathematics and Science: Research and Practice
- March 13, 2025
- "This Joy That I Have: Advancing Justice and Joy in STEM Education Research and Praxis."
University of British Columbia – Vancouver Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy Seminar
- March 7, 2024
- “There’s A Stranger in My House: A CRT-PVEST Analysis of STEM Education”
- https://edcp.educ.ubc.ca/a-crt-pvest-analysis-of-stem-education/
Lawrence Technical University, IDEA Factory
- February 21, 2023
- “Seeking Justice and Joy: Facilitating Institutional Cultural Change in an Era of Anti-Blackness”
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBYNX_2N-WA
University of Southern Mississippi, Center for STEM Education 2022 STEMed Speaker Series
- April 14, 2022
- “Critical Perspectives of Blackness in STEM Education”
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMgZ0nZNmbs
National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Presidential Webinar Series
- October 6, 2021
- “Countering & Rejecting the Master Narrative: Black Student Engagement in Postsecondary STEM”
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aEJ9dIlzHM
California State University, COAST and CSUPERB Collaboration
- April 28th, 2021
- “A Conversation on Power, Structural Racism, and Perceptions of Normality in STEM Through a Lens of Critical Race Theory”
- https://www2.calstate.edu/impact-of-the-csu/research/coast/Pages/DEI_Webcasts.aspx
South X Southwest EDU Annual Conference
- March 2021
- “From HBCU to PhD: Social Capital & Student Success”
- Co-Presenters: Brittan J. Patrick, Langston Clark, & ReAnna S. Roby
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO5yMmkrPrY&t=2s
2021 Assessment and Teaching Conference, University of Pittsburgh
- February 12, 2021
- “It Is More Than Just Good Instructional Strategies: Ideologies and Praxes of Inclusive Teaching in Postsecondary STEM”
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_6Ocp6PXUo
Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research, Seminar Series
- October 21, 2020
- “But is it really ‘just’ science?: Engaging Critical Race Theory to Unpack Racial Oppression with Implications for Black Student Engagement”
- https://saberbio.wildapricot.org/Diversity_Inclusion
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 Spencer Foundation and was previously funded by the National Science Foundation (EHR Racial Equity) and encompasses the following research awards:
Re-Envisioning Culture Network: https://qubeshub.org/community/groups/recnetwork
The REC Network is a group of diverse individuals across institutions of higher education, STEM careers, K-12 education, Black cultural spaces, the arts, and the larger community who strive to enhance the STEM experiences and outcomes of Black undergraduate students in the biological sciences. Through various activities and events, the REC Network strives to address the issue of retaining Black students in undergraduate biology by proposing and enacting strategies that transform the culture of undergraduate biology (i.e., the norms, values, beliefs, ideologies, and practices) rather than focusing on strategies to transform Black students.