Research Discipline/Bio
My work explores school change, educational inequalities, and intergenerational mobility. I am interested in Latin America as a region with a shared colonial past that resulted in the development of unequal societies with low social mobility. Interested in producing contextualized and relevant research to help practitioners and policymakers increase educational quality, my research program revolves around teachers, as they are a vital component of national education systems. As a doctoral student in Comparative and International Education with a concentration in Economics, I place my work in the subfields of economics of education, teacher education, and school change. I use quantitative methods such as econometric and causal inference models to explore, describe, and explain these problems. Economic theory, state theories, decolonial theories, and my experience as an educator inform my work.
Educational Background
M.A. Economics and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, 2023
M.A. History, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, 2018
B.A. Literature and Philosophy, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, 2014 & 2017
Honors/Awards
George W. Perkins Memorial Scholarship, Teachers College ICEd, 2024; Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Order of Academic Merit, 2019; Nominated to the Colombian national undergraduate dissertation contest Otto de Greiff, 2018; Honorary Mention to Undergraduate Thesis, Paul Ricoeur and Michel Foucault: On the Problem of the Continuity or Discontinuity of History, BA Philosophy, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, 2017; Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Order of Academic Merit, 2014.
Publications/Exhibitions
- Hatch, T., Beltrán, J. (2023). Tutoring takes off – Scanning the news on the emergence of tutoring programs after the school closures (Part 1). International
Education News.
- Beltrán, J., Hatch, T. (2023). Predictable challenges and possibilities for effective tutoring at scale – Scanning the news on the emergence of tutoring programs after the school closures (Part 2). International Education News.
- Beltrán, J. (2021). Carlos Rincón, editor of Hernando Téllez and Hernando Valencia. Estudios de Literatura Colombiana, 48, 77–94. https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.elc.n48a04
- Beltrán, J. (2021). Presence of originality: António Candido’s theoretical contributions to Latin American literary criticism. In S. Vargas (Ed.), Trayectorias y
proyectos intelectuales: el pensamiento social en América Latina y Colombia (pp.184–211). Universidad Javeriana.
- Beltrán, J. (2018). Beauty and mystery in Hernando Téllez’s ”Theory of beauty.” In Montero, P., Figueroa, D., & Bernal, A. (Eds.), Fealdad, gracia y libertinaje.
Estética y modernidad en el pensamiento colombiano [1940-1960] (pp. 73–90). Editorial Universidad Nacional.
Last Updated: Feb 10, 2025