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Dr. Gray’s pedagogy draws together commitments to critical pedagogy, democratic education, and equitable education for all learners. Her fifteen years as a high school teacher in contested spaces—including an urban context, a public school located on Tribal lands of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, and an exurban community experiencing demographic change—inform her work in meaningful ways.

She teaches a variety of courses in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education:

• Learning and Teaching Principles and Practices: Secondary Social Sciences (TEAC 451W)
• Curriculum Principles and Practices: Secondary Social Science (TEAC 452W)
• Teaching Social Studies in the Elementary School (TEAC 307)
• Elementary Student Teaching Capstone Seminar (TEAC 403A)
• Multicultural Education (TEAC 330)
• School and Society (TEAC 331)
• Inquiry into Teaching and Learning (TEAC 800)
• Curriculum Inquiry (TEAC 801)
• Children’s Literature (TEAC 302)

Dr. Gray has also served as the faculty sponsor for the UNL chapter of the Nebraska Student Education Association’s Aspiring Educators (NSEA AE) and the Exploring Queer Teacher Identities (EQTI) organizations. Her work on the leadership team of the College of Education and Human Sciences Racial Literacy Roundtables and as a supporting member of the planning committee for the Nebraska Educators of Color Summit is an important extension of her philosophical commitments.

Dr. Gray’s research explores 1) exploring how young people who are newcomers to the United States construct citizen identities in social studies classes; 2) interrogating the policies and practices in institutionalized education contexts that dehumanize educators and students; and 3) theorizing the concept of space in educational anthropology. Her book, Learning to Hide: The English Learning Classroom as Sanctuary and Trap (Information Age Publishing, 2024), illuminates the citizenship-building experiences of high school students who have immigrant and migrant backgrounds.