Research

Dissertation

My dissertation evaluates students' cognitive and behavioral responses to curricula developed and administered in polarizing political contexts. I construct a theory of adolescent political development that merges insights from research on adolescent development and psychology with qualitative interviews I personally conducted with a diverse group of high school students. I begin by rejecting the assumption—advanced tacitly by existing studies of political socialization and curriculum evaluation—that students are unsophisticated “empty vessels.” Instead, I argue that students are strategic political actors with emerging social and political identities. I show that the identities students possess can condition the way students respond to their curricular experiences. This is particularly true in highly polarized political contexts, when the underlying political forces shaping education policies become overt and school classrooms become venues for battles over sociopolitical wedge issues. In these contexts, school curriculum policies may affirm or attack student identities, thus shaping students’ cognitive and behavioral reactions.

A copy of my job market paper is available upon request.