Jeanette Zambrano

Jeanette Zambrano is a PhD student in the Urban Education Policy program at the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education. Jeanette is interested in motivational processes and how aspects of the self, the context, and other people shape these processes. She uses quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, and synthesis approaches to understand the nature of motivation and to inform education practices that support it.

Some of Jeanette's current work includes: (1) exploring the potential integration of theories focused on support for motivation with multicultural theories in education; (2) synthesizing the research on the link between STEM identity and persistence and achievement outcomes (including the examination of how the relationship changes depending on key features of the study design and sample); and (3) examining the current state of teachers' use of engagement-relevant instructional practices using nationally-representative data collected in 2022.

• Patall, E. A., Kennedy, A. A. U., Yates, N., Zambrano, J., Lee, D., & Vite, A. (2022) The Relations Between Urban High School Science Students’ Agentic Mindset, Agentic Engagement, and Perceived Teacher Autonomy Support and Control. Journal of Contemporary Educational Psychology, 102097.
• Patall, E. A., Linnenbrink-Garcia, L., Lui, P., Zambrano, J., & Yates, N. (2022). Instructional practices that support adaptive motivation, engagement, and learning. In O’Donnell, A., Barnes N. C., J. Reeve (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Educational Psychology, New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Zambrano, J., Kennedy, A. A. U., Aguilera, C., Yates, N., & Patall, E. A. (2022). Students’ beliefs about agentic engagement: A phenomenological study in urban high school physical science and engineering classes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 114(5) 1028-1047.
• Patall, E. A., Zambrano, J., Kennedy, A. A. U., Yates, N., & Vallin, J. (2022). Promoting an Agentic Engagement Orientation: An Intervention in University Psychology and Physical Science Courses. Journal of Educational Psychology, 114(2) 368-392.
• Zambrano, J., Lee, G. A., Leal, C. C., & Thoman, D. B. (2020). Highlighting prosocial affordances of science in textbooks to promote science interest. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 19(3), ar24.
• Patall, E. A. & Zambrano, J. (2019). Facilitating student outcomes through autonomy support: Implications for practice and policy. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 6(2), 115-122.
• Thoman, D.B., Lee, G.A., Zambrano, J., Geerling, D. M., Smith, J.L., & Sansone, C. (2019). Social influences of interest: Conceptualizing group differences in education through a self-regulation of motivation model. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 22, 330-355.
• Jackson, M. C., Leal, C. C., Zambrano, J., & Thoman, D. B. (2018). Talking about science interests: The importance of social recognition when students talk about their interests in STEM. Social Psychology of Education, 22, 149-167.