Robert Kunzman

I teach in both Curriculum Studies and Philosophy of Education, as well as the Teacher Education minor. My courses include:

• “Failure: And How We Can Learn From It”
• "What is a Good Education?"
• "Dialogue and Difference: Ethics, Religion, and Democracy in Education”
• "Preservice Teacher Socialization”

My scholarship explores the purposes of education and how we can learn not only in classrooms but from life more broadly. I'm currently working on a book about navigating failure across the full span of our lives, and recently gave a TEDx talk: “Putting Failure In Its Place.”

In addition, my work examines the intersection of education, religion, and citizenship, particularly in the context of K-12 education in the United States. I have spent the last 19 years studying the phenomenon of homeschooling—its various philosophies, practices, and policies—and am the author of Write These Laws on Your Children: Inside the World of Conservative Christian Homeschooling (Beacon, 2009).

I serve as Managing Director for the International Center for Home Education Research, a nonpartisan organization which provides expert information and analysis on homeschooling research for journalists, policymakers, and scholars.

I am currently accepting doctoral students interested in research and scholarship in the areas of teacher education, civic education, religion and education, and alternative contexts such as homeschooling. Doctoral students working under my mentorship have recently conducted research related to the following:

• how beginning teachers navigate and are shaped by interactions with students’ parents
• examining the influence of religiosity on preservice teachers’ intended curriculum and pedagogy
• how children respond to learning about world cultures and implications for curriculum
• core reflection as a tool for teachers navigating pedagogical uncertainty
• the intersections of informal teacher socialization and formal teacher induction