Michelle L. DeJohnette

Michelle DeJohnette is an Assistant Professor of anti-racism and equity in Early Childhood Studies at Cal Poly Pomona. 

She brings her experience as a former foster youth, former early childhood facility owner/director for 25 years, and first-generation college graduate to her research and teaching. Dr. DeJohnette’s work centers the need to prepare critically conscious early childhood educators using anti-racist and social justice frameworks. Her research interests are critical theories, culturally responsible pedagogy, anti-racist education, and issues of equity in early childhood education.

Program Director, CEIS Afrofuturism Initiative 

Host, The Blackboard Podcast

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Bryan, N., DeJohnette, M., & Johnson, P. (2024). They can play, but…: Investigating teachers’ use of exclusionary discipline practices as anti-black misandric restrictions of black boyhood play in early childhood classrooms. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 47, 100840. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcsi.2024.100840 

DeJohnette, M., Harper, M., Porter, N., Romero, E., Ledford, T., & Stephens, C. (2022) Child family community: The socialization of diverse children. OER Commons (Remix).  

Wood, J. L., Abdi, M., Essien, I. R., Harris III, F., & DeJohnette, M. (2019). When they teach us: The education of Black children in San Diego. San Diego, CA: Community College Equity Assessment Lab 

Book Chapters

Haywood-Bird, E., & DeJohnette, M. (accepted). The Pedagogies of “Good Trouble”: Teaching Educators to be Everyday Disruptors. In Best Teacher Practices for Scripted Curricula (forthcoming 2026).

Bryan, N. & DeJohnette, M. (in press). Using black playcrit to identify the anti-black misandric restrictions of black boyhood play in early childhood classrooms. In Luna, S., Wright, B., & Tesar, M (Eds.). The bloomsbury handbook of critical perspectives in early childhood education. Bloomsbury

Fry Brown, R.L., Flowers, A., Hilton, A.A., & DeJohnette, M. (2018). Beyond respectable: Why earn an advanced degree from an historically Black college and university. In T.F. Boykin, A.A. Hilton, & R.T. Palmer (Eds.). Professional education at Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Past trends and future outcomes. New York, NY: Routledge