Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr

Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr serves as Associate Professor of Teaching and Department Associate Chair in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Education and Human Development. She earned her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota in 2016, an MA from Touro College in New York, an MS from City University of New York, and a BA from Northern Caribbean University in Jamaica. Her research interests converge at the intersection of collective memory work, elementary education, teacher education, experiences of being Black, and living queerly. As a teacher educator, her pedagogy centers on resistance to normativity and anti-oppressive practices. She has authored numerous publications addressing queer pedagogy, educational inclusivity, equity and social justice, reflective practices in teacher preparation, and feminist approaches to online pedagogy. Keitha-Gail identifies as a queer Black immigrant from Jamaica and lives in Minnesota with her partner and daughter.

Martin-Kerr's selected publications include 'Evaluating Jewish Children’s Literature: A Toolkit for Elementary Educators' with E. Nicosia (Social Education, 2025), 'Mentoring: Finding Joy in a Doctoral Program' (About Campus, 2024), 'Feminist Perspectives of Time Toward Collective Well-Being in Online Pedagogy' with S. R. Yoon and J. L. B. Miller (Distance Learning, 2024), 'A Post-intentional Phenomenological Study of a Queer Identified Youth in Jamaica' (Global Journal of Human-Social Science, 2023), 'Mentoring Uncertified Teachers in Guyana' with R. Pellew (Global Journal of Human-Social Science, 2023), 'Critical Post-Intentional Phenomenological Inquiry (crit-PIP): Why it Matters and What it Can Do' with M. D. Vagle et al. (Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2023), 'Developing Reflective Practice in Teacher Candidates through Program Coherence' with K. Allen et al. (Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 2018), and her doctoral dissertation 'Women Who Love Women in Jamaica' (University of Minnesota, 2016). She teaches courses including CI 8147 Critical Discourse Analysis, CI 3211 Introduction to Elementary Teaching, CI 8165 Queer and Feminist Theories: Collective Memory Work, CI 5426 Language Arts Instruction in Elementary Grades, and CI 5425 Reading Instruction in the Elementary Grades. In her leadership capacity, she co-leads the Jamaican Exchange in Teaching program and contributes to teacher education and equity in education research clusters.

Professional Email: kmartink@umn.edu