Dr. Molly McManus

Molly McManus

( She/Her/Hers )
Assistant Professor
Faculty Advisor
Email: mollymcmanus@sfsu.edu

Molly E. McManus began her career in education as a bilingual early elementary school teacher in Oakland and San Francisco. In the classroom, she developed a deep respect for the sophisticated knowledge and capabilities that young Latinx children from immigrant families demonstrate when offered culturally sustaining, agentic learning opportunities. Molly earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and completed a post-doctoral research fellowship with the Agency and Young Children Research Collective at the University of Texas at Austin. Her scholarship centers the perspectives of young children of color and focuses on the cultural nature of learning and development. Originally from the Bay Area, Molly is thrilled to join the CAD faculty at SF State and continue working alongside children, families, and educators towards more equitable early childhood education for marginalized communities.

Educational Background

Agency and Young Children Research Collective Post-Doctoral Fellowship

Ph.D. Educational Psychology, University of Texas at Austin

M.A. Educational Psychology, University of Texas at Austin

B.S. Liberal Studies, California Polytechnic State University

Publications

McManus, M.E. & Suizzo, M.-A. (2020) What do mothers in poverty need to support their young children? Parent, school, and policy perspectives. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal.

Payne, K.A., Adair, J.K., Colegrove, K.S.S., Lee, S., Falkner, A., McManus, M.E., Sachdeva, S. (2020). Reconceptualizing civic education for young children: Recognizing embodied civic action. Education, Citizenship, and Social Justice, 15(1), 35-46.

McManus, M.E., Payne, K., Lee, S., Sachdeva, S., Falkner, A., Colegrove, K.S.S. & Adair, J. K. (2019). Expanding video-cued multivocal ethnography for activist research in the Civic Action and Learning with Young Children study. Anthropology and Education, 50(3), 348-355.

Suizzo, M.-A., Tedford, E. & McManus, M.E. (2019). Parental socialization beliefs and long-term goals for young children among three generations of Mexican American mothers. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 28(10), 2813-2825.

Adair, J.K., Colegrove, K.S.S. & McManus, M.E. (2018). Troubling messages: Agency and learning in the early schooling experiences of children of Latina/o immigrants. Teachers College Record, 120(6), 1-40.

Adair, J.K., Colegrove, K.S.S. & McManus, M.E. (2017). How the ‘Word Gap’ argument negatively impacts young children of Latinx immigrants’ conceptualizations of learning. Harvard Educational Review. 87(3), 309-334.