Kaia A. Tollefson

Kaia Tollefson’s career in education began in Kodiak, Alaska, in 1983. She was a middle school teacher there for nine years and worked in administration for the next five—first as a curriculum and staff development coordinator and then as an elementary school principal. She discovered a passion for teacher education while pursuing her doctoral degree in language, literacy, and sociocultural studies, awarded by the University of New Mexico in 2004. Her most recent experience in teaching children was in 2002, when she returned to the classroom to teach fifth grade. One of her professional goals is to find ways to refresh and reground her roots in the public schools, never getting too far away from knowing what it means to be a classroom teacher. She is currently an assistant professor of education at California State University Channel Islands, working in teacher education, coaching a Critical Friends Group, and exploring the relationship between the concept of voice and the processes of teaching and learning.