Nicola A. McClung

Nicola McClung was a teacher in San Francisco public schools for eight years before earning her doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on critical literacies, gender and sexuality, and media literacy, examining how texts, images, and media shape identity and belonging for historically marginalized groups. Drawing on collaborative, strength-based frameworks, community-based literacies, queer theory, and disability justice, her work explores representation, meaning-making, co-authorship, and respect and care in relationships and learning contexts. She also engages critical quantitative methods to advance research that centers the strengths, assets, lived experiences, self-expression, and joy of communities impacted by injustice.

• Critical literacies
• Gender and sexuality
• Critical media literacy
• Strength-based frameworks
• Community-based research
• Disability justice
• Critical quantitative methods

• PhD, Human Development and Education, University of California, Berkeley
• MA, Human Development and Education, University of California, Berkeley
• Teaching Credential, Educational Specialist, San Francisco State University
• BA, Art, Grinnell College

• McClung, N., Clemons, A., Masuda, C., & Katznelson, N. (2025). Where’s the joy in QuantCrit? A systematic review centering strength-based research. Race Ethnicity and Education, 1–26.

• Pella, R. S., & McClung, N. A. (2023). Does yes mean yes? Differences in U.S. college students’ understanding of sexual consent. Sex Education, 24(3), 416–432.

• McClung, N. A., & Pearson, P. D. (2019). Reading comprehension trade-offs between shallow and deep orthographies: Seven alphabetic languages and two international literacy assessments. Written Language and Literacy. 22(1), 33-66.
• McClung, N. A., Neebe, D., Barry, E., Mere-Cook, Y., & Wang, Q. (2019). Choice matters: Equity and literacy achievement. Berkeley Review of Education. 8(2), 147-178.
• McClung, N.A. (2018). Learning to queer text: Epiphanies from a family critical literacy practice. Reading Teacher. 71(4), 401-410.
• Arya, D., McClung, N. A., Katznelson, N., & Scott, L. (2015). Language ideologies and literacy achievement: Six multilingual countries and two international assessments. International Journal of Multilingualism, 13(1), 40-60.