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Nzinga, Kalonji

Assistant Professor

Positions

Research Areas research areas

Research

research overview

  • Dr. Kalonji Nzinga is a cultural psychologist exploring how millennials and post-millennials develop their ethical worldviews. Using methods of validated psychological instruments, clinical interviews, and ethnographic observation he studies how young people come to understand moral concepts like authenticity, loyalty and justice as they grow up. His research illuminates the polycultural process where young people encounter moral discourses from various traditions; in the form of sacred texts and traditional myths, but also in episodes of Law & Order, rap verses, and the comment threads of Twitter posts. From these interactions with ideology, young people craft their own hybridized ethical perspectives. His research has informed the design of various learning environments, multimedia arts exhibitions, and is published in the Journal of Cognition & Culture and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

keywords

  • cultural psychology,

Publications

selected publications

Teaching

courses taught

  • EDUC 4112 - Adolescent Development and Learning for Teachers
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2020 / Spring 2021 / Fall 2021 / Spring 2022 / Spring 2023 / Spring 2024
    Examines current theory and research about adolescent learning and development and explore implications for secondary teaching. Topics include human diversity as a resource for learning, adversity and agency, connecting instruction to students' everyday lives, and the role of belonging and relationships in positive youth development. This course is appropriate for masters degree students. Degree credit not granted for this course and EDUC 5112.
  • EDUC 6318 - Psychological Foundations of Education
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2023 / Fall 2024
    Introduces students to theoretical and empirical contributions of educational and developmental psychology and the learning sciences emphasizing applications to educational practices. Topics include learning, development, cognitive processes, social and cultural context, motivation, assessment and individual differences.
  • EDUC 8348 - Human Development in Cultural, Historical, and Sociopolitical Contexts
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2022 / Fall 2024
    This course takes a critical approach to exploring the moral, sociopolitical, and bio-psychosocial dimensions of human development. It will introduce students to different theories and methods for studying human development across the lifespan. Many traditional approaches to developmental research treat development in Western Educated Industrialized Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) contexts as normative for all populations. This course will focus on approaches that reject the notion that processes of human development are universal, examining the ways that social, cultural and geographic environments and histories shape development and life trajectories. Recommended prerequisite: EDUC 6318 or EDUC 8210 or instructor consent.
  • EDUC 8358 - Critical Introduction to Learning Theory and Practice, Part 1
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2020
    This course introduces historical and contemporary perspectives in the learning sciences. Areas of scholarship explored include cognition, behaviorism, and sociocultural approaches. Special attention is paid to the linked histories of these traditions in order to broadly explore what concepts are foundational for critical understanding of cultural, historical, social, embodied, and political aspects of learning. The course explores critiques of relevant fields while also exploring how new ideas and movements are generative for moving research and development toward liberatory aims. Recommended prerequisite: EDUC 6318 or EDUC 8210.
  • PSYC 4114 - Adolescent Development and Learning for Teachers
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2020 / Spring 2021
    Examines current theory and research about adolescent learning and development and explore implications for secondary teaching. Topics include human diversity as a resource for learning, adversity and agency, connecting instruction to students' everyday lives, and the role of belonging and relationships in positive youth development. This course is appropriate for masters degree students. Same as EDUC 4112 and EDUC 5112.

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