Biography
Judy Pace came to USF after teaching K-12; working on PBL, portfolio assessment, teaching for understanding, and school reform at Project Zero; and earning her doctorate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In TED her courses include Learning and Teaching, Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, Curriculum Currents and Controversies, and Curriculum Development and Design. She has also taught Qualitative Research and Sociology of Education in the EdD program in the School of Education. She aims to prepare educators with conceptual and practical tools to create constructivist, transformative, and equitable learning experiences that promote critical and democratic habits of mind, deep understanding, and civic agency.
A qualitative researcher, she is fascinated by classroom teaching and how it is shaped by teachers, students, schools, and society. Her research has focused on classroom authority and academic engagement, teaching for democratic citizenship, social studies teaching under high-stakes accountability, and preparation of preservice teachers for teaching controversial issues. Her new book is Hard Questions: Learning to Teach Controversial Issues (Rowman & Littlefield). She is the author of The Charged Classroom: Predicaments and Possibilities for Democratic Teaching (Routledge), and co-editor of Educating Democratic Citizens in Troubled Times (SUNY) and Classroom Authority: Theory, Research, and Practice (Routledge).
- Appointments
- Visiting Scholar, 2016–2017
- Teacher Education Department Chair, 2013–2016
- Coordinator of MAT master's courses, 2012–present
- Education
- EdD, Harvard University
- CAS, Harvard University
- MEd, Lesley College
- BA, Brandeis University
- Experience
- K-12 Teacher in special education and progressive settings in the Boston area
- Researcher and developer, Harvard Project Zero
- Research
- Teacher education
- Social studies education
- Teaching controversial issues and contested history
- Classroom relationships, curriculum, and teaching in the sociopolitical contexts of schooling
- Selected Publications
Pace, J. L. & Kasumagic-Kafedzic, L. (in press). Teacher education for democracy in Sarajevo and San Francisco. Citizenship Teaching and Learning.
Pace, J. L. (in press). How can educators prepare for teaching controversial issues? Cross-national lessons. Social Education.
Pace, J. L. (2021). Hard Questions: Learning to Teach Controversial Issues. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Pace, J. L. (2019). Contained risk-taking: Preparing pre-service teachers to teach controversial issues in three countries. Theory & Research in Social Education, 47.
Pace, J. L. (December 2017/January 2018). Preparing teachers in a divided society: Lessons from Northern Ireland. Phi Delta Kappan, 26-32.
- Awards & Distinctions
Spencer Foundation Research Communications Grant, 2021
Spencer Foundation Research Grant, 2016-2017
Jesuit Foundation Research Grant, University of San Francisco, 2004 – 2005
Spencer Foundation Research Training Grant, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 1995- 1998