Dr. Brenda J McMahon

Brenda J. McMahon began her tenure at Florida State University in the summer of 2008. Prior to her appointment she held positions at Nipissing University and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto in Canada. Her teaching and research are grounded in her experiences as a secondary school teacher and administrator.

Dr. McMahon’s comparative and international research focuses on student engagement, resilience, and the roles that race assumes within high schools. Her recent publications include:

McMahon, B. & Armstrong, D. (In Press). Unraveling the knots and strengthening the ties: Countering democratic racism. International Journal of Urban Educational Leadership;

McMahon, B. & Zyngier, D. (2009). Student engagement: Contested concepts in two continents. Research in Comparative and International Education 4(2), 164-181;

McMahon, B. (Oct. 2007). White educational administrators: Working towards antiracism and social justice. Journal of Educational Administration 45(6), 684-696;

McMahon, B. (2007). Resilience factors and processes: No longer at risk. Alberta Journal of Educational Research 53(2), 125-140;

Armstrong, D. & McMahon, B. (Eds.). (2006). Inclusion in urban educational environments: Addressing issues of diversity, equity, and social justice. This volume is part of the Issues in the Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice of Urban Education series for Information Age Publishing for which she is co-editor.

Dr. McMahon is co-editing a multinational collection called Engagement for equity: Beyond neoliberal agendas which is under contract for publication in 2010. She teaches graduate studies courses in organizational theory, educational leadership, equity and inclusion, ethics, and the assistant principalship.