Andrea Gabbadon
Visiting Assistant Professor - Part Time
Educational Studies
Contact
An educator-activist and public scholar, my career has spanned classroom teaching, school leadership, and large-scale professional learning design, with a focus on culturally sustaining education and educator workforce development. My work is grounded in my experience as a turnaround school leader, where I recruited and trained staff to surpass literacy achievement goals and reshape school culture. I specialize in helping educators examine their own cultural lens, interrupt deficit narratives, and implement culturally affirming instructional practices.
My book, Support and Retain Educators of Color, has been adopted by entire districts, including over 700 school administrators in Philadelphia, to anchor equity-focused instructional change. I currently design and lead a regional teacher retention initiative in the 8th largest school district in the country, which has increased teacher belonging (98%), empowerment (94%), and retention (+10%). I have partnered with a range of organizations and school systems on issues of educator diversity and retention, including the School District of Philadelphia, Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Profound Gentlemen, the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania, among others.
I previously taught at Swarthmore as a Visiting Assistant Professor from 2022 to 2023 and have supervised Swarthmore students in the field. I am excited to return to the department for the 2026-27 school year.
Selected Publications
Gabbadon, A. T. (2025). "Drops in a racist bucket": Black women educators reveal gaps in equity-focused professional learning. Reclaiming Space. (In press)
Gabbadon, A. T. (2025). How bias shapes who gets to teach. Educational Leadership, 82(8).
Gabbadon, A. T. (2025). Want to retain teachers? Try these strategies. Education Week.
Gabbadon, A. T., & Brooks, W. (2023). "The classroom is a reflection of the real world": Black women urban teachers' activist pedagogy and leadership. Urban Education.
Curci, J. D., Johnson, J. M., Gabbadon, A. T., & Wetzel-Ulrich, E. (2022). Expanding the pipeline to teach: Recruiting future teachers of color through a dual enrollment program. The Urban Review.
