As an activist and public scholar, I work to build communities of praxis where knowledge and theory merge with practice and action. Guided both by the students in front of me and the multiple worlds in which we all move, my teaching and research examines the urgency of now and the intersections of child development, identity, racial justice, and activism. In the classroom, I work with my students to build an environment where voices are heard, where identities are valued, and where we immerse ourselves in projects and topics that matter. My research explores how young children, families, and educators can understand identity and justice and learn to disrupt and transform systems of oppression.

Two of the communities most central to this praxis are the Philly Children’s Movement and the “Talking with Kids” projects.  As a co-founder and core member of the Philly Children’s Movement, I work with educators and parents to discover what we can learn, question, and interrupt in support of racial justice. PCM is an intergenerational, Black-led, youth-centered collective formed in service of the Black Lives Matter movement. PCM organizes with families and educators throughout Philadelphia, across the region, and both across and outside of U.S. borders. I am deeply grateful to the many Swarthmore College students and alums who have helped to shape PCM over the last decade as summer interns, workshop facilitators, core members, and project coordinators.

While bringing students from Swarthmore into PCM has been transformative for the collective, I also sought to bring more of my work in the community onto campus. Just before the pandemic, students in my Teaching Diverse Young Learners course identified a need for parents, teachers, and caregivers of young children in their field placement to build knowledge and skills for talking with young children about aspects of identity. In working to meet this need, my students and I co-created a workshop on “Talking with Kids about Identity.” During the workshop, students read children’s books about race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and disability to teachers and parents. My students also created guidelines, materials, and role-play scenarios. The workshop was so well received, we turned it into a six-part series organized by a crew of educators and parent planners and presenters. This collaborative PreK-university partnership stretched across several local school districts, received both internal and external funding, and now continues on under the care of the Philly Children’s Movement. 

The “Talking with Kids” series also sparked a collaborative research project with Dr. Ryan Lei at Haverford College and Dr. Barbara Thelamour here in the Psychology Department at Swarthmore. Our research team has conducted a multi-year, multi-phase mixed-methods study examining the role of children’s picture books in addressing race, racism, and racial literacy. In phase one of our study, we examined 148 children’s picture books to explore how racial ideologies and systems are represented in children’s books about race. In phase 2 of our study, we recruited families to read one of the selected children’s books to study how white parents reading books about race with their children might impact parent:child conversations and children’s racial attitudes. 

As a teacher-educator for over 25 years, I have had the honor of working with students and colleagues who care deeply about the connections between education and justice. This work has been both inspiring and humbling, as we continue to learn and unlearn what’s needed to build the more just world that we imagine. Working with pre-service, in-service, and student teachers keeps me connected to the preK-12th grade students that lie at the heart of my work. It also challenges me to rethink with whom, why, and how we grow the current and next generations of educators. This rethinking has led to collaborative and critical work with both Dr. Chanelle Wilson (Bryn Mawr College) in co-constructing a teacher activist pipeline, and Dr. Edwin Mayorga, (Swarthmore College) in theorizing Collective Racial Literacy Development in teacher education. I am profoundly grateful for these opportunities and eager to connect with others who share similar research, educational, and organizing goals. 

Recent Publications:
Mayorga, E. & Bradley, J. (forthcoming, 2026). “What Happens When you Mandate a Revolution?” In Cole-Mallott, D.M., Curci, J. & Poxon, L. (Eds.),  Transformative Teacher Education: Disrupting Pedagogy, Practice, and Ideology to Forge Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Education. Emerald Publishing.

Bradley, J. & Dieterich, P. (2024).  “Mutual Aid as Project & Practice: A Pandemic Collaboration Between an Elementary School Teacher and Pre-service Teaching Professor”. Schools: Studies in Education, Spring issue. 

Bradley, J. & Mayorga, E. (2023). “Doubling Down: Collective Racial Literacy Development”. Pennsylvania Teacher Educator, (22)1 pp. 11-27.  

Bradley, J. (2023). “Children are Powerful: The Role of Play in the Black Lives Matter Movement, in Jarrett, O.,  Stenhouse, V., Sutterby, J. & Patte, M. (Eds.), Play & Social Justice: Equity, Advocacy & Opportunity. New York: Peter Lang Publisher. 

Mayorga, E. & Bradley, J. (2023). Critical Race Theory & Abolition: Disrupting Racial Policy Whiplash in Teacher Education. Thresholds in Education (46) pp. 126-138.

Education: 
Ph.D., in Urban Education from Temple University 
C.A.S. in Disability Studies from Syracuse University  
M.Ed. in Early Childhood Curriculum & Instruction from Loyola College 
B.A. in Political Science from Loyola College

Swarthmore Courses:
EDUC 014 Pedagogy and Power: Introduction to Education
EDUC 018 Critical Perspectives: Educational Activism
EDUC 024 Special Education: Adolescents with Special Needs
EDUC 026 Special Education: Issues & Practice 
EDUC 042 Teaching Diverse Young Learners
EDUC 092 Curriculum & Methods Seminar
EDUC 093 Practice Teaching

Websites:
PhillyChildrensMovement.org