Curriculum Studies and Teacher Education
Curriculum Studies and Teacher Education offers two pathways for developing, examining, implementing, and assessing curriculum. Curriculum Studies, which employs theory and research in curriculum as a broadly construed discipline, and Teacher Education, which engages school curriculum issues, especially the teaching of particular subject areas in classroom settings. This Ph.D. concentration provides students with a general introduction to the study of curriculum, while allowing students to specialize in either Curriculum Studies or Teacher Education in ways that are flexible for meeting their needs.
Curriculum Studies aims to make sense of the teaching and learning by inquiring into the purposes of curriculum, questioning whose interests are served by curriculum, and considering research in successful teaching approaches. To do so, Curriculum Studies is not narrowly technical in application; rather, it employs a historically-informed and critical theoretical perspective. Moreover, it views curriculum as more than just a list of content to be taught by also taking into account the sociopolitical contexts of education, the organization of the school, and the hidden or unintended implications of what is taught and learned in schools. Curriculum Studies is interdisciplinary in nature, bringing together work in the foundations of education (including the history, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology of education) and educational policy analysis.
The teacher education emphasis develops candidate’s knowledge of teacher development across the life and learning span of teachers, including pre-service teacher preparation, the induction years, and teacher professional development. Within this wide construct, individual candidates may choose to focus on areas such as policies that impact teachers’ work; the development of teachers’ content knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors; the role of student knowledge and learning in a content area, or the social and political environment in which teachers work.
Christopher Atchison (Ph.D., Ohio State University, Science Education), Association Professor of Geoscience Education
Contact: 511E Teachers College, 513-556-3613, or send an email.
Anna DeJarnette, (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Mathematics Education) Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education
Contact: 511H Teachers College, 513-556-4547, or send an email.
Research interests: Students’ mathematical thinking and reasoning, group work and classroom discourse, the use of technology for learning mathematics
Teaching: Mathematics methods, problem solving in mathematics, technology
Shelly Sheats Harkness (Ph.D., Indiana University, Curriculum & Instruction, 2002) Associate Professor of Curriculum & Instruction or send an email.
Research interests: Mathematics and social justice, playing the “believing game” (Elbow, 1986) and listening in mathematics classrooms, Ethnomathematics, teaching and learning.
Teaching: Secondary mathematics education, doctoral proseminar in Curriculum & Instruction, Inquiry into Teaching and Learning, Issues in Mathematics Education.
Kathy Koenig (Ph.D., University of Cincinnati, Physics Education, 2004)
Associate Professor of Curriculum & Instruction
Contact: 443 Geo-Phys or 511 Teachers College, 513-556-0507 or 513-556-0391, or send an email.
Research interests: physics education, scientific reasoning.
Teaching: physics, science methods.
Helen Meyer (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, Curriculum & Instruction, 2000) Associate Professor of Curriculum & Instruction
Contact: 513-556-5115, or send an email.
Research interests: qualitative methods, action research, teacher beliefs, science education, urban education, organizational change, social justice, and democracy in education.
Teaching: science education research, science methods, introduction to academic writing, history and philosophy of science, role of teachers in a democratic society.
Linda Plevyak (Ph.D., The Ohio State University, Teacher Education/Environmental Education, 1997) Associate Professor of Curriculum & Instruction.
Contact: 511F Teachers College, 513-556-5106, or send an email.
Research interests: environmental education and scientific inquiry research within K-6 grades.
Teaching: science methods, environmental education, teacher effectiveness, and attitude formation.
Sarah M. Stitzlein (Ph.D., University of Illinois, Philosophy of Education, 2005) Professor of Curriculum Theory.
Contact: 615-S Teachers College, 513-556-2439, or send an email.
Research interests: curriculum theory, philosophy of education, educational equality, education for democracy, politics of education.
Teaching: curriculum theory, theory and ethics of research.