Marquita D. Foster, PhD

Professional Summary

Dr. Marquita D. Foster is a Lecturer in Baylor's Moody School of Education’s Professional Online Learning Unit and faculty advisor in the EdD in Learning and Organizational Change program. Dr. Foster earned a B.A. in English from the University of Texas at Austin, a master's in educational leadership from Lamar University, and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of North Texas.

Dr. Foster's areas of teaching include issues in diversity, instructional design, qualitative research, Problem of Practice courses. Her teaching philosophy speaks to acknowledging uncomfortable space and recognizes that discomfort in K-20 education protects individuals from learning difficult histories and developing a historical understanding of diversity and cultural instructional approaches. She is a member of the American Educational Research Association, National Association of Multicultural Education, and Black Women's Studies Association.

Dr. Foster's primary research interests include Black feminist epistemologies, Black childhood from the antebellum era to the present, the principles of resistance and critical caring within the Black Teaching Tradition, Black and Indigenous methodologies that center storytelling, freedom dreams, and narrative (re)mapping. Dr. Foster's dissertation focused on urban elementary education and Blackness as a disruptive pedagogy to affirm Black students' humanity and academic potential. Her publications explore the critical caring and othermothering practices of Black professors, intersectionality crises of Black graduate students, and Afrofuturist reframings of doctoral education. Dr. Foster enjoys researching and publishing with her students, research participants, and colleagues.

Education

• PhD, Social Studies Education, Curriculum and Instruction, University of North Texas (2021)
• MEd, Educational Leadership, Lamar University (2009)
• BA, English, University of Texas at Austin (1994)

Research Interests

• Afrofuturism
• Black Childhood (Antebellum to Present)
• Black Feminist Epistemology
• Black and Indigenous Methodologies: Counternarratives, Freedom Dreams, Narrative (Re)mapping, (Re)membering and Storytelling
• Geographies of Resistance in K-12 Education and Social Institutions
• Othermothering in K-20 Education
• Resistance and Critical Caring in the Black Teaching Tradition
• Traditional Qualitative Research Methodologies

Select Publications

Foster, M. D., Pickens, A.*, & Cooley, I.* (2025). A Black gaze, a freedom dream and the Afrofuture: A Black feminist reframing of the EdD Landscape. Impacting Education, 10(3), 84-93. https://doi.org/10.5195/ie.2025.502 

Foster, M.D., Coleman, B.*, Cooley, I.*, Francis, A.*, Stevens, J.*, Brown, J.*, Pickens, A.*, Hunt Williams, A.*, & Bacchus, S.* (2024). From kitchen tables to Black spaces: Where Black women graduate students work against intersectionality crisis. In D. Mitchell, J. Marie & P. Carver (Eds.), Intersectionality & Higher Education: Theory, research, and praxis (3rd ed., pp. 197-210). Peter Lang.

Adeniji, D., & Foster, M. (2023). (Re)constructing performative anti-racist education courses: From the experiences of Black feminist graduate assistants. Social Studies Research and Practice, 18(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1108/SSRP-10-2022-0025 

Foster, M.D., & Smith, C. (2022). Unpolicing childhood: Cultural approaches to anti-child Disciplinary violence in the elementary setting. Special Issue – Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education, 6(1), 27-66. https://doi.org/10.58948/2834-8257.1002 

Foster, M.D. (2020). Looking for trouble and causing trauma. Bank Street Occasional Paper Series (43), 10-21. https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1352 

* Indicates student co-author.

Select Presentations

Foster, M.D. (2021, April ). Disrupting Black girl: A critical analysis of the social construction of Black girl as a fact of Blackness. Virtual Presentation at the Federation of North Texas Area Universities Graduate Research Symposium, Representing the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas.

Templeton, T., Verdin, A., Foster, M.D., & de los Rios, C.  (2019, November). The precarity of care: Mothers, othermothers, and toddlers at the borders of consciousness. Panel Session at the 27th International Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education Conference, Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Foster, M.D. (2019, April). The revolution will not be standardized: The Black Panther Party education movement’s embodiment of critical pedagogy. Paper Session at the 2019 Annual American Educational Research Education Association Meeting, Toronto, Canada.

Foster, M.D. (2019, April). First world applications of social justice education and critical pedagogy: Misconceptions of Paulo Freire. Round Table Session at the 2019 Annual American Educational Research Education Association Meeting, Toronto, Canada