Christina Dutra Rodefeld

I am a fifth year doctoral candidate at CUNY Hunter College’s EdD program in Instructional Leadership. I was born in New York but grew up in a slightly nomadic family, moving from Florida, to England, and finally selling on Long Island. As an alumna of the New York City Teaching Fellows, I’ve been working as a secondary bilingual special education teacher in District 4 public schools since 2011.

After living through a 2021 cancer diagnosis and (successful!) treatment, I returned to teaching and sensed that something had changed in my practice. Among other changes, I felt I was perceiving my students’ actions differently. That feeling ultimately led to my deep interest in the effects of trauma on various school stakeholders, especially teachers. This is reflected in my dissertation topic and central question: What is the relationship between educators’ trauma histories and how they attribute their students’ disruptive behaviors?

When not working on my degree, I enjoy reading Agatha Christie mysteries, crocheting, hiking, and taking long walks through the northern parts of Central Park. I am an avid traveler and love to sail with a great manicure. I also enjoy to honing my vegetarian cooking skills with my husband and spoiling my two adorable cats.

Related Professional Experience

I have been working as a bilingual special education teacher in public secondary schools in East Harlem’s District 4 since 2011. In this time I have taught in a variety of settings, including Integrated Co-teaching, Self-contained, and SETSS. I have also worked on the special education compliance side, participating in the IEP development process, coordinating high school transitional services, and establishing work-based learning programming. I currently work in a middle school in East Harlem, focusing mainly on 6th and 7th grade academic and advisory classes.

• B.A., New York University, 2009 – Majors in Spanish Language and Literature & Italian Language and Literature; Minor in Psychology
• M.A., New York University, 2010 – Spanish Language and Linguistics (completed at NYU campus in Madrid, Spain)
• M.S.Ed., CUNY City College, 2013 – Secondary Special Education with Bilingual Extension (Spanish)
• Doctoral Candidate, CUNY Hunter College – Instructional Leadership

As a researcher-practitioner, I am interested in understanding how we as educators bring our personal stories and experiences into the classroom and how they impact our professional practices. I am especially interested in how educators of different backgrounds attribute the causes and motivations behind their students’ behaviors.

My doctoral research investigates the relationship between educators’ trauma histories and how they make casual attributions for their students’ disruptive behaviors.