Lindsay Griendling

Dr. Lindsay Griendling is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, jointly appointed to the Divisions of Special Education and Educational Psychology & Methodology. Her research is centered upon supporting more effective communication within K-12 special education systems to mitigate negative schooling experiences and promote more positive outcomes among students with dis/abilities from traditionally marginalized racial and ethnic backgrounds. Intersectionality, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and community cultural wealth serve as theoretical and practical bases for her work; and with a firm belief in making research evidence both applicable and accessible to the communities that she seeks impact, Dr. Griendling utilizes a diverse range of methodological approaches to address her research questions. By supporting school staff’s understanding of students’ multi-faceted identities and implementation of culturally sustaining pedagogy within their everyday classroom practice — and by involving students with intersectional identities and their families in this process — Dr. Griendling aims to improve home-school collaboration and thereby promote school environments where multiply marginalized youth feel safe, supported, and sustained in their personal and collective ways of knowing and being.

Prior to attaining her PhD, Dr. Griendling served as a middle school special educator in urban, suburban, and rural public-school systems for seven years. These professional experiences provided her with a first-hand view of how special education policy and practice are translated differently across contexts, which motivates her research interests and endeavors today. Some of Dr. Griendling’s current projects include:

• Defining what culturally sustaining pedagogy looks like in practice alongside Black students with dis/abilities, their families, and the school staff who serve them;
• Exploring how parents’ personal experiences with racism during K-12 schooling and availability of social capital within their current community contexts may interact and impact responses to their children’s schooling experiences; and
• Examining longitudinal changes in the use of exclusionary consequences among various racial and ethnic groups of students with dis/abilities in the United States.