Rate My Professor Candace Thompson

Dr. Candace Thompson serves as Department Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Instructional Technology, Foundations, and Secondary Education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington's Watson College of Education. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Foundations of Education from the University of South Carolina, earned in 2008. Her academic interests center on critical multicultural education within teacher preparation programs and fostering cultural competency and critical consciousness among pre-service teachers through school- and community-based service learning experiences. Thompson integrates these foci into her teaching of social foundations and multicultural education courses for both undergraduate and graduate students, immersing them in local urban elementary and middle schools to connect theory with practice and critically examine issues of diversity, equity, access, and the teacher's role in education.

Thompson's career at UNCW has progressed from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor, with additional leadership roles including Interim Associate Dean of Engagement, Professional Learning, and Scholarship. Her research output includes peer-reviewed articles and books, such as 'Degree Progress of Women Doctoral Students: Factors that Constrain, Facilitate, and Differentiate' (2004, The Review of Higher Education), 'Flying the Plane While We Build It: A Case Study of an Early College High School' (2011, The High School Journal), 'Teaching in the Borderland: Critical Practices in Foundations Courses' (2012, Teaching Education), 'More Mirrors in the Classroom: Using Urban Children’s Literature to Increase Literacy' (2016, Bloomsbury Publishing), 'To Virgo or Not to Virgo: Examining the Closure and Reopening of a Neighborhood School in a Predominantly African American Community' (2014, Equity & Excellence in Education), and 'Motherscholaring: A Collective Poetic Autoethnographic Inquiry' (2023, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education). She has also contributed to discussions on professional development schools, including a 2025 publication in PDS Partners on UNCW's partnership with Isaac Bear Early College and Southeast Area Technical High School. Her work has influenced teacher education practices emphasizing urban contexts and social justice.