- Assistant Teaching Professor
- Elementary Education
- Phone: 401.874.4149
- Email: rachel.silva@uri.edu
Biography
Dr. Rachel Silva is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Elementary Education at the University of Rhode Island, College of Education and is the current program coordinator of the Elementary Education program. Working as a Special Education teacher and Reading Specialist for seven years, Rachel supported students’ social emotional needs and literacy skills across public and private school settings. She also collaborated with fellow educators, administrators, and community members to develop curriculum and teacher professional development initiatives regarding inclusive education practices in the United States, Guyana, Bolivia, Greece, and Peru.
Research
Dr. Silva’s current research interests include examining how inclusive education is understood and embedded within teacher preparation in order to prepare the next generation of socially-just educators to meet the needs of all students across intersectional identities. She uses action research as well as qualitative methods of data collection (i.e., mind mapping, artifact elicitation) and analysis (i.e., illustration, poetic representation) to examine these complexities in teacher education.
Education
- Ph.D., Curriculum and Instruction: Teachers, Schools and Society, University of Florida, 2025
- M.Ed., Reading Specialist, Boston College, 2017
- B.A., Special Education/ Creative Writing, Lesley University, 2014
Selected Publications
Silva, R., Adams, A. (under review). A Cultural-Historical Approach to Mind Mapping: Charting Tensions and Opportunities for Teacher Educators Preparing Inclusive Educators.
Silva, R., Vescio, V. (under review). Equity, Inclusion, and UDL: Examining Teacher Educators’ Experiences, Understandings, and Pedagogy through Poetic Re-Presentations.
Silva, R., Beckett, B., Commeret, M., Weisberg, L., Samuels, H., Dana, N. F. (under review). The Intersection of Inquiry and Equity: Addressing Teacher Educators’ Tensions through Second-Order Inquiry
Weisberg, L., Beckett, B., Dana, N. F., Commeret, M., & Silva, R. (2024). Teacher candidates’ engagement in practitioner inquiry within an equity-centered initial teacher preparation program: Illuminating equity’s presence and pitfalls. Journal of Practitioner Research, 9(1).
Mathews, H. M., Weiss, M., McKenney, N., & Silva, R. (2024). Coherence in Special Education Teacher Preparation: Developing Sustainable Professional Identities. In McCray, E.D., Bettini, E.,Brownell, M.T., McLeskey, J., & Sindelar P. T. Handbook of Research on Special Education Teacher Preparation. Routledge.
Silva, R., Peterson, A., Coleman- King, C. (2023) Fostering Critical Reflection and Racial Identity Development through Explicit Instruction. The New Educator. https://doi.org/10.1080/1547688X.2023.2259945