Dr. Ashley Noel Metzger is a postdoctoral scholar at the School of Social Welfare at UC Berkeley. Her work is focused on the intersection of K-12 education and the mental health well-being of youth in the public education system. “I am really interested in how we can shift labels [and] narratives away from stigmatization into liberation for students,” she said.
Metzger works on the research and evaluation team for CalHOPE Student Support, an effort to build statewide infrastructure to promote thriving in California schools. “Some of the work that we do spans across the entire state of California. In fact, I'm working on creating a data set using publicly available California Education data,” she said.
“The relationships that they develop with their teachers and how it impacts familial life, that could have serious implications for future life outcomes,” she said. One of the labels her work focuses on is Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) which is a developmental disability that a lot of students are diagnosed with.
Her work hopes to achieve a practical outcome in classrooms where students can get the help needed to support their education. “How do we use research evidence to change these systems, perceptions that come along with these labels that we have. So we can create more equitable, friendlier and healthier schools,” Metzger further noted.
It is primarily a look into how educators influence the infrastructures which are needed to support the social and emotional learning in schools. Her training as a former teacher also helps build a unique understanding of classrooms and student experience, although that alone was not enough to much-needed change in the communities.
Metzer said that part of the reason she chose UC Berkeley to further her research was that she wanted to use her experience to conceptualize better frameworks to put to use. “I think research is super important and I love research, that's part of why I’m here but I think when we don't take it past that point”, she said. “It just stays in academic journals then we're losing something by not getting it to the people that could utilize it who could actually change or help change the system to create better outcomes.”