Ellie Friedland

Dr. Ellie Friedland is an associate professor in the Early Childhood Education program at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. She teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate early childhood education courses, including Classroom Assessment of Young Children, practicum seminar, and supervision of student teachers.

Dr. Friedland serves on the advisory board of the Wheelock Family Theatre and works as a teaching artist for WFT.  Her research and practice focus on education for social justice, antibias teaching, and teaching and learning through the arts. She is a Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner, and integrates this work into her teaching, as well as her community activism. She frequently offers professional development for teachers in antibias education and cultural competence. Previously, Dr. Friedland taught at Endicott College, Cambridge College, and Lesley University. She was a child and family psychotherapist for ten years, working in an outreach program that served families within which there was severe physical and sexual child abuse.

Dr. Friedland works with public school teachers in Guatemala, as well the educators and students of CEIPA, a not-for-profit organization in Quetzeltanango, Guatemala, that provides education and career preparation for child laborers. She serves on the board of the UPAVIM Community Development Foundation, and works with the teachers at UPAVIM, a women’s collective in Guatemala City that created and maintains their own school through their sales of handmade crafts and a bakery. She is past president of Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed, a professional organization focused on the liberatory educational and theatre approaches of Paulo Friere and Augusto Boal. She also studied and taught at the Actors Institute in Boston and New York, and before that she studied and performed clowning with the Cumeezi Bozo Ensemble in New York City; then founded and led the Clown Jewels Clown Troupe in Boston.

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