Campus Directory

Pronouns he, him, his, his, himself

Division Social Sciences Division

Department/College/Unit Education Department

Title Associate Professor of Learning Sciences and Technology

Affiliation Faculty

Other UCSC Campus Affiliation Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas
Community Studies Program

Areas of Expertise Ethnography
Language and Linguistics
Discrimination and Inequality
Science and Technology
Teacher Education
Activism
Marxism

Web Site

Primary Office Location McHenry Library
3159

Office Hours for Students/ Office Hours by appointment

Mail Stop Education Department

Biography, Education and Training

Ph.D. Language, Reading, & Culture

University of Arizona, 2015

Advisor: Norma González

M.A. Language, Reading, & Culture

University of Arizona, 2007

Advisor: Luis Moll

B.A. History & Latin American Studies (dual degree)

University of Arizona, 2003

Summary of Expertise

Topics: learning sciences, digital literacy, urban education, student marginalization, BIPOC and immigrant students, critical sociocultural theory, decolonial Marxism, abolition, activism/social movements, Southeast Asia

Methodologies: ethnography, design-based research, critical (mediated/technocultural) discourse analysis, youth participatory action research

Research Interests

A former secondary school literature and digital literacy teacher, my research critically examines the nexus of literacy, technological change, and abolition for marginalized students. In particular, I examine and seek to transform the uptake of digital media in diverse classroom and community ecologies, taking into account the politics of technology and its place within broader material realities of racialization, schooling, and neoliberal discourses of education reform. Primarily I do this through ethnographic design work, but also in pioneering critical digital discourse analysis and participatory methods. I am committed to harnessing technology for abolitionist social transformation, especially through collaborating with marginalized communities. I joined UCSC in 2020 after five years with Singapore's Nanyang Technological University and two years at Arizona State's Center for Games and Impact.

Selected Publications

2022 Pandya, J.Z., Mora, R.A., Alford, J., Golden, N.A. & de Roock, R.S. (Eds.). The critical literacies handbook. Routledge.

2022 Coles, J.A., de Roock, R.S., Malone, H.L.S, Musser, A. Critical literacy and abolition. In J.Z. Pandya, R.A. Mora, J. Alford, N.A. Golden, & R.S. de Roock (Eds.). The Critical Literacies Handbook. New York, NY: Routledge.

2022 Aguilera, E. & de Rook, R.S. Datafication, educational platforms, and proceduralized ideologies. In L. Pangrazio & J. Sefton-Green (Eds.) Learning to live with datafication: educational case studies and initiatives from around the world. Routledge.

2022 de Roock, R. S., de Leon Espeña, D. M., & Raj Lawrence, S. Toward equity innovations: lower tracked students and classroom digital media use in Singapore. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 1-15.

2022 Aguilera, E. & de Roock, R.S. Learning through video games: Critical perspectives. In G. Noblit (ed). Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. NY: Oxford University Press USA.

2021 de Roock, R.S. & Garcia, A. Civic dimensions of critical digital literacies pedagogies. Pedagogies: An International Journal special issue “Critical Literacies in a Digital Age.”

2021 de Roock, R.S. On the material consequences of (digital) literacy: digital writing and the limits of agency and affordances. Theory into Practice special issue “Reconceptualizing Digital Writing.”

2019 de Roock, R.S. Digital selves, material bodies, and participant research tools: towards material discursive video ethnography. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2019.1669926.

2019 de Roock, R.S. & Baildon, M. SkillsFuture, STEM learning, and the design of neoliberal citizenship in Singapore. In Special Issue “STEM learning: For whom and toward what ends?” Cognition & Instruction. 37(3): 285-305. DOI: 10.1080/07370008.2019.1624545

2019 de Roock, R.S. Literacidad y aprendizaje de lenguas / Literacy and language learning [Editor of Special Issue]. Revista Nebrija de Lingüística Aplicada a la Enseñanza de Lenguas (RNAEL). 13(26).

2018 de Roock, R.S. & Espeña, D. Constructing underachievement: the discursive life of Singapore in US federal education policy. For special issue “Broadening and deepening the dialogue about 'low achievers'”, Asian Pacific Journal of Education, 38(3): 303-318. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2018.1505600

Courses EDUC 237: Qualitative Research Methods
EDUC 10: Intro to Learning
EDUC 140: Language, Diversity, and Education
EDUC 166: Technology and Education