John Nimmo

John Nimmo, EdD, Co-Director of Anti-Bias Leaders ECE, is Professor of Early Childhood Education, in the College of Education at Portland State University, Oregon, where he teaches graduate courses on equity, learning environments, social constructivism, and teacher research. From 2003 to 2013 he was Executive Director of the Child Study and Development Center, a laboratory center with over 100 children from infancy through kindergarten-age, and an Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of New Hampshire. Here he was the recipient of the Social Justice Award and the Excellence through Diversity Award. In addition to presenting nationally and internationally for 35 years, John has been a visiting scholar at universities in Ghana and Australia. Formerly he was a core faculty in teacher education and human development at Pacific Oaks College Northwest in Seattle and a member of the Culturally Relevant/Anti-Bias Leadership Taskforce and the Seattle Theater of Liberation. John’s publications include Loris Malaguzzi and the Teachers (with Carolyn Edwards & Lella Gandini),  Leading Anti-bias Early Childhood Programs: A Guide to Change for Change (with Louise-Derman-Sparks & Debbie LeeKeenan),  Emergent Curriculum (with Elizabeth Jones), and chapters in The Hundred Languages of Children, as well as many articles. His research includes collaborative learning in Reggio Emilia, Italy, young children’s participation in their community, the role of cultural navigators in refugee communities, and the development of an Indigenous framework for early childhood teacher education. John is a co-producer of the international video documentary on children’s rights, The Voices of Children through the World Forum Foundation and also the 2021 film Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action. He holds a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and was previously an early childhood and elementary teacher in his first home of Australia and in the United States. As a White cis-gender man with Scottish and German heritage, John views his role as the father of two now-adult children as critical to his vision for a more just world.

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