Phone: +1 512 232 2288
Email: cpbrown@utexas.edu
Office: SZB
Christopher is a Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy. He also is a Faculty Fellow with The Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis and a Faculty Fellow of the Center for Health and Social Policy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. He is also the Past-Chair for the Early Education/Child Development Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association.
As a former preschool, kindergarten, and first grade teacher, his research centers on how early childhood education stakeholders across a range of political and educational contexts make sense of and respond to policymakers reforms. He has looked at this issue across a range of political and educational contexts using multiple theoretical and practitioner-based perspectives that span the fields of early childhood education, curriculum and instruction, teacher education, and policy analysis.
Through this work, his goal is to advocate for early learning environments that foster, sustain, and extend the complex educational, cultural, and individual goals and aspirations of teachers, children, and their families. To achieve this goal, he has produced empirical, theoretical, and practitioner-oriented publications on such topics as: high-stakes standards-based accountability reform in early childhood, early learning standards, pre-kindergarten (Pre-k) assessment, Pre-k alignment with elementary school, school readiness, culturally relevant and developmentally appropriate teaching, the changed kindergarten, neoliberal reform, teacher education, professional development, and teaching a mandated curriculum. Among his publications, 39 have been co-authored with 16 current and former graduate students at UT-Austin.
His recent publications focus on three issues: 1) Examining how familial, education, research, and political stakeholders make sense of the changed kindergarten; 2) RIGOROUS DAP; 3) Understanding how practicing and pre-service early childhood educators in high-stakes public teaching contexts can engage in practices that support the cultural, individual, and developmental learning needs of children.
Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2004
M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction, New Mexico State University, 1997
B.A. in Philosophy, University of the South, Sewanee, 1993
Researches how early childhood stakeholders respond to and conceptualize policies affecting the the complex educational, cultural, and individual goals and aspirations of teachers, children, and their families.
Brown, C. P.., Barry, D. P.., Ku, D-H. & Englehardt, J.. (2021). How education stakeholders made sense of the types of learning experiences children are and should be having in kindergarten and why. Early Education and Development, 32(2), 291–322. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2020.1750292.
Brown, C. P.., Barry, D. P.. & Ku, D-H. (2021). How education stakeholders made sense of school readiness in and beyond kindergarten. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 35(1), 122–142. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2020.1717688.
Brown, C. P.., Ku, D-H. & Barry, D. P.. (2020). Kindergarten isnt fun anymore. Isnt that so sad?: Examining how kindergarten teachers in the US made sense of the changed kindergarten.. Teaching and Teacher Education, 90, 1–13. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103029.
Brown, C. P.. & Cortés, A.. (2020). Kids are dealing with a lot of uncertainty this summer, and they need our reassurance: Parents can help by playing, laughing, and answering questions as best they can.. The Dallas Morning News.
Englehardt, J.. & Brown, C.P.. (2019). Vertical and horizontal discourse: A Bernsteinian perspective of preservice teachers conceptualizations of using iPads in early elementary teaching environments.. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 43(3), 430–445. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2019.1608337.
Brown, C. P.. & Weber, N.. (2019). Bringing being into professional development: a qualitative investigation into teachers struggles moving beyond an epistemological framing of teaching and learning. Early Child Development and Care, 188(5), 763–776. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2017.1343312.
Brown, C.P.. & Englehardt, J.. (2019). Neoliberal technological devices and articulations of teaching young children: A case study of preservice teachers using iPads in their teacher education program. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 17(2), 88–103. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X18812214.
Brown, C. P.., Englehardt, J.., Barry, D. P.. & Ku, D-H. (2019). Examining how stakeholders at the local, state, and national level made sense of the changed kindergarten.. American Educational Research Journal, 56(3), 822–867. doi:https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831218804152.
Brown, C. P.., Englehardt, J.., Barry, D. P.. & Ku, D-H. (2019). Questioning democratic notions of governance: A case study examining how a kindergarten teacher and her students give voice to and enact a neoliberal framing of schooling.. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 20(3), 236–252. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949118773382.
Brown, C. P.., Englehardt, J.., Ku, D-H. & Barry, D. P.. (2019). Wheres the joy in the classroom?: Families sensemaking of the changed kindergarten. The Elementary School Journal, 120(2), 319–346. doi:https://doi.org/10.1086/705964.
Nxumalo, F.. & Brown, C. P.. (2019). Disrupting and countering deficits in early childhood education.. New York: Routledge. (View)
Brown, C. P.., McMullen, M. B.. & File, N.. (2019). Wiley handbook of early childhood care and education. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. (View)
Brown, C. P.. & Barry, D. P.. (2019). Public policy and early childhood curriculum in the United States.. Curriculum in early childhood: re-examined, reclaimed, and renewed, (2nd ed.ed., pp. 17–33). New York: Routledge.
Brown, C. P.. & Lan, Y. C.. (2018). Understanding families conceptions of school readiness in the United States: A qualitative metasynthesis.. International Journal of Early Years Education, 26(4), 403–421. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09669760.2018.1454302.
Brown, C. P.., Feger, B. S.. & Mowry, B. N.. (2018). RIGOROUS DAP in the Early Years: From Theory to Practice: Redleaf Press. (View)
Brown, C P. (2018). What really should be happening in kindergarten classrooms. Houston Chronicle.
Brown, C. P.. & Ku, D-H. (2018). Putting theories into action: A case of study of how early educators made sense of teaching lessons that reflected their students sociocultural worlds.. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 39(4), 382–405. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2017.1415239.
Brown, C. P.. & Mowry, B.. (2017). I wanted to know how they perceived jail: Studying how one early educator brought her students worlds into her standardized teaching context.. Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(2), 163–173. https://rdcu.be/6gJp.
Brown, C. P.. & Englehardt, J.. (2017). A case study of how a sample of preservice teachers made sense of incorporating iPads into their instruction with children. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 38(1), 19–38. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10901027.2016.1274695.
Brown, C. P.. (2017). Preservice teachers reconfiguring teaching young children in a high-stakes early education context through the use of iPads: A case study.. Early Education and Development, 28(8), 976–995. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10409289.2017.1336403.
Brown, C. P.. & Weber, N. B.. (2017). Bringing being into professional development: a qualitative investigation into teachers struggles moving beyond an epistemological framing of teaching and learning. Early Child Development and Care. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03004430.2017.1343312?journalCode=gecd20. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2017.1343312.
Brown, C. P.. (2017). I've been in education for 20 years here's what everyone gets wrong about kindergarten.. http://www.businessinsider.com/what-everyone-gets-wrong-about-kindergarten-2017-9.
Brown,, C. P.. & Englehardt, J.. (2016). Conceptions of and early childhood educators experiences in early childhood professional development programs: A qualitative metasynthesis.. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 37(3), 216–244. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10901027.2016.1204574?journalCode=ujec20.
Brown, C P., Weber, N. & Yoon, Y. (2016). Reluctantly governed: The struggles of early educators in a professional development course that challenged their teaching in a high-stakes neoliberal early education context.. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 17(2), 210–234. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1463949116647286.
Brown, C P. & Weber, N. (2016). Struggling to overcome the states prescription for practice: A study of a sample of early educators professional development and action-research projects in a high-stakes teaching context.. Journal of Teacher Education, 67(3), 183–202. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022487116636452.
Brown, C P. & Mowry, B. (2016). Using testimonio to bring childrens worlds into a standardized teaching context: An example of culturally relevant teaching in early childhood education.. Childhood Education, 92(4), 281–289. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00094056.2016.1208006?journalCode=uced20.
Brown, C P., Englehardt, J. & Mathers, H. (2016). Examining preservice teachers conceptual and practical understandings of adopting iPads into their teaching of young children. Teaching and Teacher Education, 60, 179–190. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X16302645.
Brown, C. P.. (2016). Kindergarteners get little time to play. Why does it matter?. https://theconversation.com/kindergartners-get-little-time-to-play-why-does-it-matter-57093.
Brown, C P. (2015). Conforming to reform: Teaching pre-kindergarten in a neoliberal early education system. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 13(3), 236–251. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1476718X14538602.
Brown, C P., Mowry, B. & Feger, B. (2015). Helping others understand academic rigor in teachers developmentally appropriate practices. Young Children, 70(4), 62–69. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/sep2015/helping-others-understand-academic-rigor.
Brown, C P., Lan, Y. & Jeong, H. (2015). Beginning to untangle the strange coupling of power within a neoliberal early education context. International Journal of Early Years Education, 23(2), 138–152. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09669760.2015.1034093?journalCode=ciey20.
Brown, C P., Bay-Borelli, D. & Scott, J. (2015). Figuring out how to be a teacher in a high-stakes context: A case study of first-year teachers conceptual and practical development. Action in Teacher Education, 37(1), 45–64. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01626620.2014.969849.
Brown, C P. & Mowry, B. (2015). Close early learning gaps with RIGOROUS DAP. Phi Delta Kappan, 96(7), 53–57. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0031721715579041?journalCode=pdka.
Brown, C P., Weber, N. & Yoon, Y. (2015). The practical difficulties for early educators who tried to address childrens realities in their high-stakes teaching context. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 36(1), 3–23. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10901027.2014.996925?journalCode=ujec20.
Brown, C P. & Lan, Y. (2015). A qualitative metasynthesis comparing U.S. teachers' conceptions of school readiness prior to and after the implementation of NCLB. Teaching and Teacher Education, 45(1), 1–13. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X14001097.
Brown, C P. & Lan, Y. (2015). A qualitative metasynthesis of how early educators in international contexts address cultural matters that contrast with developmentally appropriate practices. Early Education and Development, 26(1), 22–45. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10409289.2014.934176.
Brown, C P. (2015). Taking and teaching the test are not the same: A case study of first year teachers' experience in high-stakes contexts.. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 22(3), 1026–1044. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13540602.2015.1005870.
Brown, C P. & Pickard, H. (2014). Balancing the school readiness equation in early learning environments. Childhood Education, 115(12), 1–36. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00094056.2014.982975. doi:10.1177/1476718X14538602.
Spencer Foundation Small Grant: Examining how familial, education, research, and political stakeholders make sense of the changed kindergarten
Kindergarten in the United States has fundamentally changed. Debates among familial, education, research, and political stakeholder groups over these academic and instructional changes to kindergarten specifically and public education in general are fractured and far from settled; making it difficult to grasp what is driving this change. Thus, there is an empirical need to understand how various stakeholder groups make sense of these changes to kindergarten. Dr. Brown and his colleagues are examining this issue through a video-cued multivocal ethnographic study that documents how familial, educational, and political stakeholders at the local, state, and national level conceptualize the purpose and processes of kindergarten specifically and public schooling in general. They will use their findings to offer practical, educational, and political insight into what is driving these academic and instructional changes. Moreover, they hope to identify whether and how these various stakeholder groups might work individually and together to support and/or alter such changes to kindergarten specifically and public schooling in general, what opportunities for further reform exist, and what research still needs to be done
Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education Article of the Year, National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (2017)
Outstanding Early Childhood Teacher Educator Award, National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (2014)
Regents' Outstanding Teacher Award, University of Texas System (2013)
Foundation Research Award, National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (2013)
Exemplary Research Award, American Educational Research Association, Division K: Teaching and Teacher Education (2011)
Taylor Francis Outstanding Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education Journal Article Honorable Mention, National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (2011)
Kate Puckett, Ph.D., expected 2021 (Co-supervisor)
QRIS systems and their influence on quality as perceived by teachers; Play as an evidenced based curriculum; Early childhood teacher education; Mentoring of inservice teachers in childcare settings; Influences on adults' decisions about how much risky play to allow children to participate in, particularly in cross-cultural settings
Da Hei Ku, Ph.D., expected 2021 (Co-supervisor)
social context of education, early childcare centers and early childhood education, educational policy, policy implications on early childhood education
David P Barry, Ph.D., expected 2021 (Co-supervisor)
Early childhood teacher education; Early childhood teacher self-care; Creating trauma-informed early childhood learning spaces
Shubhi Sachdeva, Ph.D., expected 2020 (Committee Member)
Shubhi is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, specializing in Early Childhood Education. Her work engages with critical methods and theories to understand equity and social justice issues in early education.
Year | Semester | Course |
---|---|---|
2020 | Spring | EDC 385G: Curric, Tchg, Assmt: Pre-K/K |
2020 | Spring | EDC 371G: Teaching Young Children-L |
2019 | Fall | EDC 385G: 90-Socl Contexts Early Ch Educ |
2019 | Fall | EDC 371G: Teaching Young Children-K |
2019 | Summer | EDC f388R: 9-Case Study |
2019 | Spring | EDC 385G: 38-Crit Persp Early Chldhd Ed |
2019 | Spring | EDC 371G: Teaching Young Children-P |
2018 | Fall | EDC 381R: Intro To Sys Of Human Inquiry |
2018 | Fall | EDC 371G: Teaching Young Children-L |
2018 | Summer | EDC f388R: 9-Case Study |
2018 | Spring | EDC 385G: 44-Curric Theors For Pre-K & K |
2018 | Spring | EDC 371G: Teaching Young Children-K |
2017 | Fall | EDC 385G: 90-Socl Contexts Early Ch Educ |
2017 | Spring | EDC 381R: Intro To Sys Of Human Inquiry |
2017 | Spring | EDC 385G: 38-Crit Persp Early Chldhd Ed |
2016 | Fall | EDC 381R: Intro To Sys Of Human Inquiry |
2016 | Fall | EDC 371G: Teaching Young Children-H |
2016 | Summer | EDC s388R: 9-Case Study |
2016 | Spring | EDC 385G: 92-Theories Of Curr Pre-K & K |
2016 | Spring | EDC 371G: Teaching Young Children-E |
2015 | Fall | EDC 385G: 90-Socl Contexts Early Ch Educ |
2015 | Fall | EDC 381R: Intro To Sys Of Human Inquiry |
2015 | Summer | EDA f387Q: Intro To Sys Of Human Inquiry |
2015 | Summer | EDC s388R: 9-Case Study |
2015 | Spring | EDC 371G: Teaching Young Children-S |
2015 | Spring | EDC 371G: Teaching Young Children-C |
2014 | Fall | EDC 385G: 86-Crit Persp Early Chldhd Edu |
2014 | Fall | EDC 371G: Teaching Young Children-J |
2014 | Summer | EDC s385G: Case Study Research |
Business Insider
I've been in education for 20 years here's what everyone gets wrong about kindergarten.
The Conversation
Kindergarteners get little time to play. Why does it matter?
National Kindergarten Day: A Day to Celebrate the Joy and Value of Play