Edward Podsiadlik, PhD

Edward Podsiadlik is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction. He is the author of Anecdotes and Afterthoughts: Literature as a Teacher’s Curriculum (2013) and Grieving as a Teacher’s Curriculum: Relevant Prose and Postscripts (2020) and is a 2018 Silver Circle Teaching Award recipient.

Edward Podsiadlik teaches in the Urban Elementary Teacher Education Program, and is Program Coordinator (and Director of Graduate Studies) for the Instructional Leadership-Educational Studies Master’s program, and the Critical Pedagogies and Urban Teacher Education (formerly Curriculum Studies) Ph.D. program.

His research focus includes examining the following: To what extent are we being and becoming the educators (and individuals) we’ve aspired to be? In what ways does our public work align to our private values and beliefs? How do we as educators prioritize the lived experiences of our students, their families, and their communities?

Podsiadlik III, E. (2021, February 23). Literature as curriculum and curriculum studies. In Oxford Research Encycloperdia of Education. Oxford University Press. doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1574

Podsiadlik, E., & Parker-Katz, M. (2019). “Transforming Teacher Education: Nurturing Innovative Pathways of Collaboration Essential to Democratizing Teacher Education.” In A. E. Lopez & E. L. Olan  (Eds.), Transformative pedagogies for teacher education: Moving towards critical praxis in an era of change. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Podsiadlik, E. & Bond, J. (2018). The Dignity of the Calling: Educators Share the Beginnings of Their Journeys. Chapter entry: “Taken at the Flood:  Journeys of Identity and Integrity.” A. Kemp (Ed.). Georgia Regents University: Information Age Publishing.

Podsiadllik, E. (2017). Case Study: Philosophical Inquiry. SAGE  Publications Ltd City: London. Online. http://methods.sagepub.com/case/philosophical-inquiry

Podsiadlik, E.  (2016). Re-Viewing, Re-Imaging, & Re-Invigorating Middle School Teacher Education. Middle School Review: Vol. 2 https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/mgreview/vol2/iss1/7/

Podsiadlik, E. (2015). SAGE Guide to Curriculum in Education. Chapter Seven: “Subject Matters of the Humanities.” Editors: Ming Fang He, Brian D. Schultz, & William H. Schubert. Los Angeles: SAGE. ISBN: 9781452292243.

Member of the following service organizations: Aquin Guild, Golden Key Society, The Nature Conservatory, and the Arbor Day Foundation.

B.A. Elementary Education, St. Xavier University, College of Education
M.A. English Literature and Writing, Purdue University
M.A. Educational Administration, St. Xavier University
Ph. D. Curriculum Studies University of Illinois at Chicago, Ph.D. in
Dissertation: Anecdotes and Afterthoughts: Literature as a Teacher’s Curriculum
Committee: William H. Schubert (chair), William Ayers, Peter Hilton, Isabel Nunez, Ward Weldon

License: Elementary Teaching - State of Illinois

Endorsements: Elementary Education (K-9); Social Sciences (K-9); Middle School Pedagogy, English/Language Arts (5-8), Reading Teacher (K-8), English as a Second Language

Secondary Teaching, English - State of Illinois

Educational Administration - State of Illinois

American Educational Research Association (AERA)
Oxford University Literacy Round Table
American Classical League
Chicago Classics Club
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
Art Institute of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Phi Theta Kappa
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE)
Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning and Equity (SCALE)

February 2020 Critical Question in Educational Studies Conference, Seattle, Washington
Conference theme: Challenging our understandings of teaching & learning
Presentation: Literature as a teacher’s curriculum

November 2019 Critical Question in Educational Studies Symposium, Chicago Illinois
Conference theme: Supporting Public Schools, Teachers, Students
Presentation One: Setting the Record Straight
Presentation Two: Teachers have it easy?!! Refuting This and Other Myths about Public Education

July 2019 American Classical League (ACL) Centennial Institute, Midtown Hilton, New York City
Presentation at Elementary Teachers of Classics (ETC) sub-committee
Content-based Preparation for Teacher Educators

April 2019 American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) Conference Louisville, Kentucky Presentation: Creating Spaces for Multiple Stakeholder Collaboration.

July 2019 American Classical League (ACL) Institute, University of Montana
Presentation: Using Homer’s Odyssey for Teacher Reflection

October 2018 Critical Questions in Education Conference
The Academy for Educational Studies, Kansas City, Missouri
Presentation: Creating Democratic Learning Spaces in Schools

April 2016 American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Washington D.C.
Panel presentation: The Dignity of the Calling: Educators Share the Beginnings of Their Journeys.

April 2016 Annual American Educational Research Association Conference, Chicago, Illinois
Presentation: Discourse, Imagination, and Advocacy

March 2015 American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) Conference
Atlanta, Georgia
Presentation:Re-imagining Urban Teacher Preparation: Investing in University-School  Collaborations

My advocacy for democratic teaching and learning and my commitment to cultivating public education’s capacity to transgress personal and political boundaries is informed by diversity rather than hierarchy, accountability instead of profit, and empathy over stigmatization. My research, teaching, and service are designed to unmask and meander through spaces of quiet dignity and identity that are hidden beneath externally-imposed constraints too often placed upon individuals and groups (individually, collectively, and systemically). I believe that educators have the potential (as well as a moral imperative) to collectively empower those excluded or marginalized from the curriculum of public schooling and life.

In Preparation

Podsiadlik, E. (anticipated December, 2021). Licensed to Transform: An Alphabet of Student Teaching. New York: DIO Press.

For inclusion in the DIO Press series Liberating Education, Liberating Educators. This project explores the emerging professional and evolving personal identities of teacher candidates. Some of the critical questions explored include: what are we teaching for and what are we teaching against? To what extent do integral pieces of our humanity (i.e., one’s values, beliefs, mission, vision, challenges, aspirations) inform one’s teaching, learning, and living? As these questions indicate, my research continues to be rooted in the conviction that teaching and learning are more than methods and strategies. They are sacred actions that have the potential to validate and fortify our individual and collective humanity in all its complexity and nuance.