About

Niral Shah is an associate professor of Learning Sciences & Human Development at the University of Washington College of Education. His research explores the social, political, and emotional dimensions of human learning, with current interests including how people learn to practice anti-racism in their work and personal lives, and how forces like artificial intelligence will shape education and societal inequity. His prior work has focused on race and racism in STEM education, specifically examining how racial narratives about STEM ability influence students’ identities and participation in classrooms. Shah is a co-developer of the EQUIP classroom observation tool, which supports teachers and educational leaders in identifying and mitigating implicit bias in classrooms. His academic background includes a Ph.D. in Education from the University of California, Berkeley, with additional degrees in Education and a B.S. in Economics and a B.A.S. in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania. He has been recognized as a National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellow and Postdoctoral Fellow, with his work funded by prominent organizations such as the Institute of Education Sciences, Spencer Foundation, and the National Science Foundation. His research has been published in top educational journals and cited in major media outlets, reflecting his significant contributions to understanding equity, race, and identity in education.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Mathematics education
• Pedagogy
• Gender studies
• World Wide Web
• Medical education
• Medicine
• Geography

Selected publications

• Equity-Focused Coaching: Negotiating Teachers’ Interpretations of Racialized and Gendered Participation Patterns

  Journal of Teacher Education · 2026-03-12

  articleOpen access

  Equity-focused coaching—coaching that centers racism, patriarchy, and other oppressive systems—is a promising approach to supporting teachers in expanding learning opportunities for minoritized students. However, despite its known challenges, details of equity-focused coaching remain underexamined. This article presents an analysis of 27 equity-focused coaching sessions with ten secondary physics teachers, which incorporated classroom videos and EQUIP analytics. The analysis applied theoretical constructs from conversation analysis: attribution of responsibility and attribution of knowledge in interaction. Findings show that whereas coaches tended to explain inequitable patterns in terms of broader social patterns, teachers tended to base their interpretations on the perceived deficits of minoritized students. The turn-by-turn analysis illustrates fine-grained details of discursive moves coaches leveraged to successfully facilitate shifts in teachers’ interpretative orientations. These findings highlight that steering coaching conversations toward equity-focused interpretations is an essential element of equity-focused coaching, and such work comprises subtle and skillful discursive moves.

  PublisherDOI

• The ‘one chatbot per child’ model for AI in classrooms conflicts with what research shows: Learning is a social process

  2025-12-15

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Equity in practice: Assigning competence to shape STEM student participation

  PLoS ONE · 2024-04-17 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Improving equity in undergraduate STEM is a national imperative. Although there is a rapidly growing body of research in this area, there is still a need to generate empirical evidence for equitable teaching techniques. We ground our work in Complex Instruction, an extensively researched pedagogical approach based on sociological theories and the malleability of status. This approach has been applied primarily in K-12 classrooms. In this manuscript, we explore the application of one strategy from Complex Instruction-assigning competence-to undergraduate STEM classrooms. We provide an analysis of three instructors' implementation of assigning competence and track the impact on student participation. This work makes a unique contribution to the field, as the first study that directly documents changes in student participation resulting from assigning competence in undergraduate STEM.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Analyzing the Connectivity of Combined Statistical Areas in Different Census Regions Using ArcGIS

  International Supply Chain Technology Journal · 2023-09-19 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  The study aims to analyze the spatial relationship between critical infrastructure and socioeconomic regions in Texas cities, identify areas at risk, and develop effective emergency response strategies. It also focuses on analyzing the connectivity of Combined Statistical Areas (CSAs) in different census regions through various modes of transportation, identify areas that require infrastructure upgrades, and inform policy decisions aimed at improving transportation infrastructure and increasing connectivity. The goal is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the complex relationship between critical infrastructure, emergency response, and transportation infrastructure in Texas cities, and inform policy decisions aimed at addressing disparities and improving connectivity.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Racial Justice Amidst the Dangers of Computing Creep: A Dialogue

  TechTrends · 2023-02-25 · 13 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• When Only White Students Talk: EQUIP-ing Prospective Teachers to Notice Inequitable Participation

  Mathematics Teacher Educator · 2023 · 8 citations

  • Political Science
  • Mathematics education
  • Pedagogy

  We introduce a teacher learning practice called EQUIP-ing , which aims to foster sociopolitical noticing by leveraging EQUIP, an equity-oriented classroom observation tool. We detail our iterations of EQUIP-ing to a field-based Number Talk experience in a secondary mathematics methods course with 25 White prospective teachers (PTs). We offer empirical accounts of how EQUIP-ing empowered PTs to connect their teaching practices with racialized and gendered patterns of student participation; as a result, PTs began to reconsider taken-for-granted practices. However, we also found that PTs demonstrated potentially detrimental ways of attributing marginalizing patterns to minoritized students without actionable plans to redress the inequity. We conclude by inviting mathematics teacher educators to apply EQUIP-ing while emphasizing purposeful support for asset-based noticing.

  PublisherDOI

• Visualizing inequity: how STEM educators interpret data visualizations to make judgments about racial inequity

  SN Social Sciences · 2023-05-05 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• When Active Learning Is Inequitable: Women’s Participation Predicts Gender Inequities in Mathematical Performance

  Journal for Research in Mathematics Education · 2022 · 72 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Mathematics education
  • Political Science

  This article investigates the implementation of inquiry-oriented instruction in 20 undergraduate mathematics classrooms. In contrast to conventional wisdom that active learning is good for all students, we found gendered performance differences between women and men in the inquiry classes that were not present in a noninquiry comparison sample. Through a secondary analysis of classroom videos, we linked these performance inequities to differences in women’s participation rates across classes. Thus, we provide empirical evidence that simply implementing active learning is insufficient, and that the nature of inquiry-oriented classrooms is highly consequential for improving gender equity in mathematics.

  PublisherDOI

• Not Another Bias Workshop: Using Equity Analytics to Promote Antiracist Teaching

  Change The Magazine of Higher Learning · 2022-07-01 · 8 citations

  articleSenior author

  In ShortMeaningful change towards antiracist practices take time. There are no quick fixes.Quick workshops on implicit bias and microaggressions rarely lead to lasting changes in teaching practices.Equity QUantified In Participation (EQUIP) learning communities organize faculty members to work together to promote antiracist teaching.Participation in EQUIP learning communities results in lasting, meaningful changes to both faculty beliefs and practices.

  PublisherDOI

• Moving beyond gatekeeping: Using data analytics to overcome resistance to pedagogical change

  HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · 2022-02-02

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  International audience

  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Daniel L. Reinholz

  33 shared

• Nickolaus A. Ortiz

  Georgia State University

  18 shared

• Julie Christensen

  National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

  18 shared

• David Stroupe

  University of Utah

  18 shared

• Colleen M. Lewis

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  10 shared

• Na’ilah Suad Nasir

  Spencer Foundation

  6 shared

• Megan Bang

  Northwestern University

  4 shared

• Ai-Khanh Nguyen

  Seattle University

  4 shared

Awards & honors

• Spencer Foundation Program Fellow, 2024
• Outstanding Reviewer Award, Journal for Research in Mathemat…
• UW College of Education Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award, 2…
• Article of the Year (Shortlisted), International Journal for…
• National Academy of Education / Spencer Postdoctoral Fellows…