A former middle and high school social studies teacher, Hilary Conklin’s teaching and research are anchored by commitments to democratic, humanizing, and justice-oriented teaching, learning and teacher education. Her teaching aims to engage students in practices that model these commitments, with an ultimate goal of supporting thoughtful decision-makers who can contribute to a more socially just and ethical society—particularly through social studies education.
Conklin’s research explores civic and democratic education, the design of teacher preparation experiences, and the impact of teacher education experiences on teachers’ practices and their students’ learning. Most recently, she has been studying the possibilities of listening and storytelling as civic practices for creating a more just, inclusive, and connected democracy.
Conklin has published her research in academic journals and also written op eds about this work in media outlets including The Atlantic, Time, The Washington Post, and Newsweek. Her research has been funded by the Spencer Foundation, the Brinson Foundation, and a National Academy of Education-Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. Education
- PhD in Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- MAT in Secondary Social Studies/History Teaching, Brown University
- BA in Sociology/Anthropology and Education, Swarthmore College
Courses Taught
- LSP 275 Lived Civics, the Social Contract, and Public Life
- TCH 322/ 422 Inquiry and Application in Developing Secondary History and Social Sciences Pedagogy
- TCH 372/472 Teaching History and the Social Sciences in High School I
- TCH 382/482 Teaching History and the Social Sciences in High School II
- A&S 843 Politics of Schooling
- HON 207 The Design of Learning Environments
Research Interests
- Teacher preparation; pedagogy of teacher education; civic and democratic education; social studies curriculum and instruction; middle grades education.
Selected Publications
- Conklin, H. (2023). Preparing novice teacher educators for critical, justice-oriented teacher education practice. In (R.J. Tierney, F. Rizvi, & K. Erkican, Eds.) International Encyclopedia of Education (4th edition).pp.497-503, Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818630-5.04111-7
- Conklin, H., Lo, J., McAvoy, P., Monte-Sano, C., Howard, T., & Hess, D. (2021). Pedagogical practices and how teachers learn. In C. Lee, G. White and D. Dong (Eds.). Educating for Civic Reasoning and Discourse, (pp. 353-396). Washington D.C. National Academy of Education. https://naeducation.org/civic-reasoning-and-discourse/
- Andolina, M. and Conklin, H. (2021). Cultivating empathic listening in democratic education. Theory and Research in Social Education, 49(3), 390-417. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2021.1893240
- Andolina, M. and Conklin, H. (2020). Fostering democratic and social emotional learning in action civics programming. American Educational Research Journal, 57(3), 1203-1240. https://doi.org/10.3102%2F0002831219869599
- Conklin, H., Gatti, L., and Matsko, K.K. (2019). Teaching toward which ends? Residency candidates navigating competing programmatic aims. In J. Brewer and C. Lubienski (Eds.). Learning to teach in an era of privatization: Global trends in teacher preparation. New York: Teachers College Press.
- Andolina, M. & Conklin, H. (2018). Speaking with confidence and listening with empathy: The impact of Project Soapbox on high school students. Theory and Research in Social Education, 46(3), 374-409. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2018.1435324
- Conklin, H & Hughes, H. (2016). Practices of compassionate, critical, justice-oriented teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 67(1), 47-60. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0022487115607346
- Zeichner, K. & Conklin, H. (2016). Beyond knowledge ventriloquism and echo chambers: Raising the quality of the debate on teacher education. Teachers College Record, 118(12), 1-38.
- Conklin, H. (2015). Preparing novice teacher educators in the pedagogy of teacher education. Action in Teacher Education, 37(4), 317-333. https://doi.org/10.1080/01626620.2015.1078753
- Conklin, H. (2014). Toward more joyful learning: Integrating play into frameworks of middle grades teaching. American Educational Research Journal, 51(6), 1227-1255. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831214549451