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Joseph Nichols, Ph.D.

Associate Professor


Education

Ph.D., University of Georgia
M.A., Georgia College and State University
B.B.A., Mercer University

Practice Areas

  • Social Studies and Civic Education
  • Qualitative Research Methods
  • Teacher Education

Research Interests

I research the questions "who is a good citizen" and "how do schools cultivate citizenship" through three avenues:

(1) teacher education;

(2) the political and policy contexts of K-12 schooling; and

(3) race and segregation in the history of American schools. 

Publications and Media Placements

Selected Publications: 

— Nichols, J. R., Cuenca, A., & Diemer, A. (2021). Policy analysis: The rise and fall of Missouri’s performance assessment of student teachers. PRiME Center Policy Briefs (Vol. 3, Iss. 4).

— Nichols, J. R. (2020). Who is a नागरिक (citizen)? Civic orientations in Indian education policy. Citizenship, Teaching and Learning, 15(2), 239-254.

— Nichols, J. R., Hendel, S., & Gerke, N. (2019). For those who “love liberty and the American way of life”: Governor Lester Maddox and the opening of post-Brown segregation academies in Georgia. History Matters, 32(4).

— Cuenca, A., & Nichols, J. R. (2019). Framing teacher education: An analysis of the comprehensive educator equity plans of sixteen state education agencies. The New Educator, 15(1), 1-17.

— Nichols, J. R., Preis, S., & Rhinesmith, E. (2019). The road back: St. Louis public school governance. PRiME Center Policy Briefs (Vol. 1, Iss. 1).

— Nichols, J. R. (2017). The economic citizen: Civic education and its discontents. In C. Wright-Maley & T. Davis (Eds.), Teaching for democracy in an age of economic disparity (pp. 25-41). New York, NY: Routledge. 

— Nichols, J. R., & Cuenca, A. (2014). Two roadmaps, one destination: The economic progress paradigm in teacher education accountability in Georgia and Missouri. Action in Teacher Education, 36(5/6), 446-459.

— Cuenca, A., & Nichols, J. R. (2014). Ferguson is about us too: A call to explore our communities. Social Education, 78(5), 248-253.