Colleen M. Kollasch 

Colleen M. Kollasch, Ph.D., holds a doctorate in Teaching and Learning (Language, Literacy, and Social Studies Education) from the University of Iowa and is a former public school social studies teacher with over twenty years of full-time K–12 classroom experience. Her work as a teacher educator is rooted in the belief that teaching is a relational, intellectual, and emotional practice, and she prepares preservice teachers to build reflective, justice-oriented, and culturally responsive instructional practice through dialogue, identity work, and equity-centered inquiry.

Her scholarship investigates how social studies teachers address the contextual, emotional, curricular, and pedagogical complexities of teaching contested histories, with a particular focus on LGBTQ+ history. She analyzes how these instructional decisions influence students' sense of belonging and civic learning. Her dissertation examines the influence of institutional, political, geographic, and personal factors on high school teachers' sensemaking, risk-taking, and emotional engagement when determining whether to include LGBTQ+ history in their curricula. She has extended this work through published research on the representation and silencing of LGBTQ+ history in Advanced Placement textbooks, the development of a framework for critical emotional engagement in history education, and ongoing projects on digital resources that facilitate inquiry-based, teacher-driven LGBTQ+ history curricula. Her broader research agenda conceptualizes curriculum as a site of power, representation, and possibility across diverse contexts. This includes an analysis of the representation of Hinduism and gender in U.S. world history textbooks, which addresses a gap in scholarship regarding Hindu American student experiences and religious diversity in K–12 curricula. Additionally, she has conducted a collaborative autoethnographic study of how U.S. social studies teacher educators navigated identity, power, and pedagogy during an international professional development program in Namibia. This work explores the emotional and epistemic tensions inherent in global citizenship education and examines the potential of place-based approaches to foster inclusive, democratic teaching. Collectively, these projects demonstrate a sustained commitment to understanding how teachers and curricula negotiate contested knowledge, representation, and emotion in both local and global educational contexts.

Social Studies Education, Curriculum Analysis, Teacher Decision-Making and Sensemaking, Global Education, Teacher Agency, Emotional and Contextual Dimensions of Teaching, Preservice Teacher Education

• Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning (Language, Literacy, and Social Studies Education), 2026 — University of Iowa
• M.A.E. in Educational Psychology, 2013 — University of Northern Iowa
• B.A. in History and Secondary Education, 2000 — Saint Mary's College

• Visiting Assistant Professor, School of Teaching and Learning, University of Florida, 2026–Present
• CUFA Graduate Forum Executive Council, Vice Communications Chair (2024-present)

• National Technology Leadership Initiative (NTLI) Fellowship Award, College, and University Faculty Assembly (CUFA), 2025.
• Fulbright-Hays Program, Namibia, Summer 2025
• Graduate Student Research Award, University of Iowa ($1,000), Spring 2025
• Graduate Research Award Runner-Up, University of Iowa, Spring 2025
• Certificate in K–12 Equity and Inclusion, University of Iowa, 2023
• Outstanding Paper Presentation, University of Illinois Graduate Student Conference, Spring 2023
• Herb Kohl Foundation Teacher Fellowship, Wisconsin, Spring 2017
• Reviewer for Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy (2025-present)