Dr. Thomas is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education with experience coordinating graduate programs in the School of Teacher Preparation, Administration, and Leadership. Before beginning her work in higher education, she worked in toddler, preschool, and elementary classrooms for 15 years. Dr. Thomas’ research emphasizes culturally sustaining and antiracist social education in early childhood classrooms and community spaces. She often employs community-based participatory action research and arts-based methodologies.
Early Childhood Education
School of Teacher Preparation, Administration, and Leadership
Selected Publications:
Neville, M., Thomas, R. K., Kenney, R., Rodriguez-Ponce, A., & Kenney, L. (2026). “The Rio Grande was originally known as Rio Bravo”: Multiliteracies in a 4th-grade ELA and social studies project. The Reading Teacher, 80(3), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.70100
Thomas, R. K. (2022). Pedagogy to deconstruct anti-Blackness: Three conversations with white children about a racial slur. Multicultural Perspectives, 24(1), 44-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2022.2028152
Wang, W., Thomas, R. K., & Cahill, B. (2022). Katy transforms storytime: Culturally sustaining pedagogy in the community. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy (online first), 1-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984221124185
Thomas, R. K. (2021). Poetic juxtaposition: A method for connecting data, theory, and everyday texts. Qualitative Inquiry, 27(5), 626-636. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800420948080
Thomas, R. K. (2019). Identifying your skin is too dark as put-down: Enacting whiteness as hidden curriculum through a bullying prevention program. Curriculum Inquiry, 49(5), 573-592. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2019.1687258
Teaching:
Full CV:
