Founding Director, Borderlands Education Center
College of the Education, University of Arizona
Co-Founder, Bisbee Science, Exploration and Research Center
Dr. Etta Kralovec is an educational entrepreneur. In her 40 years as an educator, she has designed alternative schools in Laguna Beach; established new teacher education programs in Maine, Zimbabwe and Arizona; and new learning environments for high schools and colleges. Most recently, the Bisbee Science Lab.
She holds a doctorate in philosophy from Teachers College, Columbia University, from which she received a Distinguished Alumni Award. She also received a Distinguished Alumni Award from Lewis and Clark College, and an honorary degree from College of the Atlantic. Her books include, The End of Homework, Schools that Do Too Much and Identity In Metamorphosis
Kralovec is the Founding Director of the Borderlands Education Center and Professor Emerita of teacher education at the University of Arizona (UA). The Borderlands Education Center, (BEC) is an intellectual hub in the rural borderlands of southern Arizona, expanding learning and research opportunities for border teachers and communities. This is the first education center of its kind in the United States devoted to border educational issues. The BEC supports the professional development of diverse teachers supporting the learning of Latinx, Native, and multilingual students.
Kralovec was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 1997 to help establish a teacher education program at Africa University in Zimbabwe. Working closely with student editors, they co-authored the collection, Identity in Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Writings from Zimbabwe Students.
Under Kralovec’s direction, the UA M.Ed program has received over 5 million dollars in federal funds to prepare science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) teachers and teacher leaders for Title One schools in Arizona border communities. Her program was awarded the Peter Likins Inclusive Excellence Award from the University of Arizona. Kralovec’s work explores the roll of context in the preparation of teachers for schools in border communities. She has conducted comparative research on teacher education in Finland and on the Finnish/Russian border. Kralovec’s international work also includes video projects with high school students in Finland and Mexico.
In 2018, Kralovec became the Founding Director and Principal Investigator for the Bisbee Science Exploration and Research Center (BSERC) BSERC is dedicated to closing the opportunity gaps in informal STEM learning experiences along the Arizona/Mexico border and connecting the expertise at UA with border communities, by sponsoring Science Cafes, a mobile lab that over 5000 students a year in this rural area experience and Science Friday programs for local school children.
