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College of Education & Human Development Educational Policy and Administration

Educational Policy and Administration
330 Wulling Hall - 86 Pleasant St. SE - Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA
Tel: 612-624-1006 - Fax: 612-624-3377

New Department:
Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development

Effective July 1, 2009, a new department has been created that integrates the business and marketing education, human resource development and adult education, and comprehensive WHRE programs from the Department of Work and Human Resource Education (WHRE) into the department formerly known as Educational Policy and Administration (EdPA). The name of this new department is Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development (OLPD). It will offer exciting opportunities for collaboration and interdisciplinary education and research. Click here for details.

 

Peter Demerath

Associate professor

E-mail: pwd@umn.edu
Phone: 612-626-0768
Fax: 612-624-3377
Office: 410G Wulling Hall

Mailing address:
Dept. of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development
University of Minnesota
330 Wulling Hall
86 Pleasant Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0221

Current Research Interests

  • Educational anthropology
  • Comparative study of class culture and education
  • Urban education
  • School-university partnerships
  • Research methodology

Profile

My inquiry and teaching are animated by an abiding interest in illuminating the cultural basis of everyday educational practices. My scholarship is informed by the disciplinary perspective of anthropology and the methods of ethnography. Ideally, it constitutes a way of "seeing" that attempts to reconstruct the cultural logic of how individuals and groups formulate educational problems and respond to them. Throughout, my work seeks to contribute both to scholarly understandings of educational phenomena and to recommendations for policy and practice.

My major research interest is the role of class culture in the perpetuation of social inequality through education. My concentration has largely been on the meanings high school students construct that shape their approach to school and their aspirations. My research investigates these processes in comparative perspective, internationally (Papua New Guinea) and in the United States, with broad consideration of local contextual features. I use the methods of cultural anthropology: ethnographic fieldwork along with grounded surveys examined with descriptive and analytic statistics.

I draw on my ethnographic experience to infuse my courses with comparative resources for illuminating cultural dimensions of American life, and for teaching about race/ethnicity, politics, and equity in education. As an anthropologist I encourage all of my students to question their taken-for-granted cultural assumptions about schooling in order to contribute to educational renewal in a variety of ways.

Selected Publications

Books

Demerath, P. (in press). Producing success: The culture of personal advancement
in an American high school. University of Chicago Press.

Articles

Demerath, P., Lynch, J., Milner, R., Peters, A., & Davidson, M. (in press). Decoding success: A middle-class logic of individual advancement in a U.S. suburb and high school. Teachers College Record.

Demerath, P., Lynch, J., & Davidson, M. (2008). Dimensions of psychological capital in a U.S. suburb: Identities for neoliberal times. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 39(3).

Demerath, P., & Lynch, J. (2008). Identities for neoliberal times: Constructing enterprising selves in an American suburb. In N. Dolby & F. Rizvi (Eds.), Youth moves: Identities in global perspective.  New York: Routledge.

Demerath, P. (2006). The science of context: Modes of response for qualitative researchers in education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 19(1), 97-113.

Demerath, P. (2001). The social cost of acting "extra:" Students’ moral judgments of self, social relations, and academic success in Papua New Guinea. American Journal of Education 108(3).

Demerath, P. (1999). The cultural production of educational utility in Pere Village, Papua New Guinea. Comparative Education Review 43(2).

Academic Degrees

  • Ed.D, University of Massachusetts, 1997, education policy, research, and administration
  • M.A., University of Pennsylvania, 1992, anthropology
  • B.A., Haverford College, 1992, political science

Academic Positions

  • Associate professor, Department of Educational Policy and Administration, University of Minnesota, (2007-present)
  • Associate professor, School of Educational Policy and Leadership, The Ohio State University (2004-07)
  • Assistant professor, School of Educational Policy and Leadership, The Ohio State University (1998-2004)
  • Lecturer, School of Educational Policy and Leadership, The Ohio State University (1997-98)

Honors

  • Ohio State University College of Education Distinguished Teaching Award (2005)
  • Comparative and International Education Society George Z. F. Bereday Outstanding Scholarship Award (1999)

Professional Memberships

For more information about Peter Demerath, see his full curriculum vitae [PDF].

Revised November 2009

 
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The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
Last modified on November 04, 2009