Fieldwork in my own neighborhoods, on how kids and families find space, language, and support.
A field study of three immigrant-founded coffee shops on Ocean Avenue. I used Ray Oldenburg's idea of the third place, the spots outside home and work where people gather, talk, and become regulars, to look at how each shop works as a neighborhood anchor.
I spent time in each shop taking field notes, built an annotated bibliography, and presented the findings to my class.
Where can a kid in San Francisco spend unsupervised time that doesn't cost money, and what has disappeared over the last few decades?
This project takes the third place idea from my Ocean Avenue study and asks it about children and teens. Adults have cafes, bars, and barbershops. Kids mostly have school, home, and whatever adults schedule for them. I want to map what's left in my part of the city and hear from parents and kids about where they actually go.
It sits where my two interests meet: sociology and children's liberation.
I want to understand how kids and teens become strong readers and critical thinkers, and who gets taught to read well. Three threads pull me most:
Home languages run through all of it. I believe English learners should be a priority, and that honoring a child's home language and valuing bilingualism serves them better than a narrow push on English. I'm also interested in programs where parents grow their own education alongside their kids.
This semester I'm running two small studies: one built on three in-depth interviews, and one built on an original survey. Both end in a short paper that ties my data to outside research.
