Degrees and Certifications

• Ph.D., Curriculum & Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• M.S.Ed., Reading/Writing/Literacy, University of Pennsylvania
• B.A., English/Writing; Sociology, St. Lawrence University

Responsibilities

American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division C: Learning & Instruction
Program Section Co-Chair (Section 1b, 2022-2024)

American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division B: Curriculum Studies
Program Section Co-Chair (Section 4, 2018-2020)

Biography

Crowley's primary area of research is in the field of curriculum studies and focuses on issues of privatization in teacher education. His research critically examines how various stakeholders including non-profit organizations, philanthropic foundations, the for-profit sector and others are becoming increasingly involved in multiple aspects of teacher education.  His research has appeared in journals such as Teaching and Teacher Education, Review of Research in Education, Teacher Education & Practice, Schools: Studies in Education and in several edited volumes. 
 

Area of Expertise

• Curriculum Theory
• Teacher Education
• Politics of Education Reform
• Teacher Research/Practitioner Inquiry

Awards

• 2022
  Wayne State University College of Education Faculty Scholarship Award
   
• 2016
  Wayne State University College of Education Faculty Teaching Award

Grants

External Grants

2022
Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan
"Bridging the Gap: Archives in the Classroom and Community"
Principal Investigator: Christopher B. Crowley
Co-Principal Investigators: Min Yu, Dan Golodner, Meghan Courtney
Co-Director: Sean McBrady
($65,000)

2020
Schultz Family Foundation; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Grand Challenges.
“Shifting Urban Narratives: Youth Civic Engagement and America’s Future”
Principal Investigators: Roland Sintos Coloma
Co-Principal Investigators: Aja Reynolds, Christopher Crowley
($140,000)

2020
National Archives and Records Administration, National Historical Publications & Records Commission (NHPRC)
"Bridging the Gap: Archives in the Classroom and Community"
Principal Investigators: Min Yu
Co-Principal Investigators: Christopher B. Crowley, Meghan Courtney, Dan Golodner
($83,100, with additional $93,839 Wayne State University cost share)

Internal Grants

2019
University Research Grant, Wayne State University
“Should for-profit teacher education be a cause for concern?”
($10,000)

2019
Educational Development Grant, Wayne State University
“Archives in the Classroom and Community Project”
Principal Investigator: Min Yu
Co-Principal Investigators: Christopher B. Crowley, Meghan Courtney, Dan Golodner
($3,000)

Featured publications

Licensing whiteness: property, privilege, and (re)centering the politics of race within neoliberalism

Crowley, C. B., Powell, S., Reynolds, A., & Yu, M. (2024). Licensing whiteness: property, privilege, and (re)centering the politics of race within neoliberalism. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.

Critical race theory ought to be central to analyses of neoliberalism and its impact on contemporary educational landscapes in the United States. Neoliberalism finds grounding in the rule of law, particularly as it relates to the role of contracts, contractual relationships, and by extension forms of licensure. Parallel to this, critical race theory also finds conceptual grounding in law, most notably as it pertains to understandings of linkages between property rights and whiteness. We explore the implications of considering whiteness as an institutionally-sponsored, state-sanctioned form of licensed property. The identification of neoliberalism as a dominant form of institutionalized whiteness centers understandings of the racialized contractual terms operating discursively under the auspices of white supremacist neoliberal regimes. Though Brown v. Board of Education (1954) overturned the “separate but equal” principle in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), we argue that neoliberalism continues to operationalize the maintenance of racial inequity in US schooling.

Curriculum ideologies

Crowley, C. B. (in press). Curriculum ideologies. In M. F. He & W. H. Schubert (eds.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1033

Keywords

Curriculum
Ideology
Hidden curriculum

The study of the curriculum and educational knowledge is a study of ideology. The curriculum is never neutral. It always reflects or embodies ideological positions. Ideologies present within the curriculum are negotiated and formulated through multilayered processes of strategic compromise, assent, and resistance. And as such, the curriculum ideologies become operationalized in both overt and hidden means—constructing subjects and objects of knowledge in active as well as passive ways. Teaching is always a political act, and discussions and debates over curriculum ideologies have a long history within the field of curriculum studies. In terms of its function related to the organization and valuing of knowledge, it remains important to recognize not only the contested nature of the curriculum but also how such contestations have ideological dimensions in the framing of the curriculum.

Publications

• Crowley, C. B., Powell, S., Reynolds, A., & Yu, M. (2024). Licensing whiteness: property, privilege, and (re)centering the politics of race within neoliberalism. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.
•  
• Miller, R., Liu, K., Crowley, C. B., & Yu, M. (2024). Critical Thinking for Transformative Praxis in Teacher Education: Music, Media and Information Literacy, and Social Studies in the United States. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 56(8), 801-814.
   
• Teng, J., Yang, Z., Yu, M., Crowley, C. B., Jing, X. (2024). Chinese Primary School Teachers’ Working Time Allocation after the Enactment of “Double Reduction” Policy: A Mixed-methods Study. Teaching and Teacher Education, 137.
   
• Yu, M. & Crowley, C. B. (2023). Educational policies and schooling for migrant children in China. In Pinson, H., Bunar, N., & Devine, D. (Eds.), Research handbook on migration and education (pp.480-495). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
   
• Crowley, C. B., Hadeer, R., & Yu, M. (2022). Rethinking Teacher Education for Ethnic Diversity in China. Educational Studies, 58(1), 74-94.
  *equal authorship, authors listed in alphabetical order
   
• Crowley, C. B. (2021). Curriculum ideologies. In M. F. He & W. H. Schubert (eds.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies (pp.406-421). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
   
• Yu, M., & Crowley, C. B. (2020). The Discursive Politics of Education Policy in China: the Case of Educating Migrant Children.The China Quarterly, 241, 87-111.
   
• Crowley, C. B., & Fleury, A. (2019). Review of Educating for Empathy: Literacy learning and civic engagement, by Nicole Mirra. Michigan Reading Journal, 51(2), 57-59.
   
• Apple, M. W., Crowley, C. B., Kang, H., Kang, M., Lam, S., Lim, L., Sung, Y., Takayama, K., Wong, T., & Yu, M.* (2018). A Response to Edward Vickers. London Review of Education, 16(2), 341-344.
  * equal authorship, authors listed in alphabetical order
   
• Crowley, C. B. (2017). Professional development as product implementation training. Teaching and Teacher Education, 67(1), 477-486.
   
• DeNicolo, C. P., Yu, M., Crowley, C. B., & Gabel, S. (2017). Reimagining Critical Care and Problematizing Sense of School Belonging as a Response to Inequality for Immigrants and Children of Immigrants. Review of Research in Education, 41(1), 500-530.
   
• Crowley, C. B. & Yu, M. (2017). Review of The Global Testing Culture: Shaping Education Policy, Perceptions, and Practice. Teachers College Record.
   
• Crowley, C. B. (2016). Teach For/Future China and the politics of alternative teacher certification programs in China. In Lim, L. & Apple, M. W. (Eds.), The Strong State and Curriculum Reform (pp.131-147). New York, NY: Routledge.
   
• Yu, M. & Crowley, C. B. (2016). Review of Teaching Comparative Education: Trends and Issues Informing Practice. Teachers College Record.
   
• Crowley, C. B. & Knoester, M. (2012). Public higher education under attack in the United States. In Knoester M. (ed.), International Struggles for Critical Democratic Education (pp.111-130). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
   
• Crowley, C. B. & Apple, M. W. (2009). Critical democracy in teacher education. Teacher Education & Practice, 22(4), 450-453.
   
• Crowley, C. B. (2009). A starting point for practitioner inquiry: A review of The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research. Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research, 11 (2).
   
• Crowley, C. B. (2008). Descriptive review of the child: “Aisha”. Schools: Studies in Education, 5(1/2), 156-162. 

Courses taught by Christopher B. Crowley

Winter Term 2025 (future)

• TED8350 - Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction
• ED7999 - Terminal Master's Seminar and Essay or Project

Fall Term 2024 (current)

• TED7000 - Introductory Master's Seminar

Winter Term 2024

• ED7999 - Terminal Master's Seminar and Essay or Project

Fall Term 2023

• TED7000 - Introductory Master's Seminar

Winter Term 2023

• ED7999 - Terminal Master's Seminar and Essay or Project

Fall Term 2022

• TED7000 - Introductory Master's Seminar

Recent university news spotlights

• Wayne State University College of Education and Walter P. Reuther Library host free two-day conference to help K-12 teachers and librarians use archives to enhance student learning
• "Shifting Urban Narratives" featured in Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation video
• Division of Teacher Education awarded $100,000 grant to engage young people in “Shifting Urban Narratives”

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