Tocci, Charles

Associate Professor

Charles Tocci's work explores the connections between American schooling and democracy with a close analysis of the evolving implicit and explicit social education provided to students over the past 150 years. He approaches this topic through curriculum studies, bridging academic research and professional practice by centering problems emerging from teaching and learning in their varying social contexts. His work has been in published in academic journals, including Review of Research in Education, Journal of Teacher Education, History of Education, and Journal of Philosophy of Education. Dr. Tocci is co-author of the Curriculum Foundations Reader (Palgrave). His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times, Crain’s Chicago Business.

Dr. Tocci is a co-founder of the Big City Social Studies Group. He began his career in education as a social studies teacher at South Shore Community Academy in Chicago. He earned his doctorate in Curriculum & Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University, where he also worked as senior research associate at the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, & Teaching.  Before joining Loyola, he was a member of the faculty at National Louis University.

Education

• EdD in Curriculum & Teaching, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY
• MEd in Anthropology & Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY
• MAT in Secondary Education, National Louis University, Chicago, IL
• BS in History, Suffolk University, Boston, MA

Research Interests

• Social Studies, History, and Civics Education 
• History of Education 
• Curriculum Studies 

Specialty Area

Social Studies Education; Curriculum History; Social Studies Teacher Preparation

Professional/Community Affiliations

• Big City Social Studies Group, co-founder
• Constitutional Democracy Project, board member
• InterCultural Studies for the Future (InterFuture), board member
• College and University Faculty Assembly of the National Council for the Social Studies, delegate  

Courses Taught

• CIEP 522: Curriculum Policy Across Schools and Communities 
• CIEP 523: Community, School Improvement, & Curriculum Change 
• ELPS 219: History of American Education 
• TLSC 210/406: Education Policy for Diverse Students 
• TLSC 300: Secondary Social Studies Professional Learning Community 
• TLSC 340: Teaching & Learning in Secondary Social Studies 
• TLSC 350: Teaching & Learning in a Global Framework 
• TLSC 403: Teaching for Social Justice and Equity 
• TLSC 455: Teaching for Change: Secondary Social Studies Methods

Publications/Research Listings

• Tocci, C., Stacy, S., Seigal, R., Renick, J., LoCurto, J., Lakind, D., Gruber, J., Fisher, B. (2023). Statement on the Effects of School-based Law Enforcement in School Settings. American Journal of Community Psychology, 73(3-4), 360-377. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12723 *Named as AJCP’s most viewed article published in 2023 & top 5% all research outputs scored by Altmetric
• Lees, A., Ryan, A.M., Muñoz, M., & Tocci, C. (2023). Mapping the Indigenous Postcolonial Possibilities of Teacher Preparation. Journal of Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.1177/00224871231199361
• Tocci, C. & Ryan, A.M. (2023). Developing Horizontal Expertise with Professional Learning Communities in Social Studies Teacher Preparation. The Councilor: A Journal of the Social Studies, 85(1).
• Tocci, C. & Ryan, A.M. (2022) Teaching for International Mindedness in Chicago Public Schools International Baccalaureate Humanities Classes. Social Studies Research and Practice, 17(1), p.30-49. https://doi.org/10.1108/SSRP-09-2020-0040
• Tocci, C.  & Ryan, A.M. (2021). Conserving the American Man: Gender, Eugenics, and Education in the Civilian Conservation Corps. History of Education.
• Tocci, C., Ryan, A.M., Ensminger, D., Rismiati, C., & Moughania, A. (2021). Teaching for International Mindedness in Chicago Public Schools International Baccalaureate Humanities Classes. Social Studies Research and Practice.
• Pigott, T., Tocci, C., & Ryan, A.M. (2021). How do we know? The quality of research evidence in education. Review of Research in Education 45, p.vii-xii.
• Tocci, C., Schmidt, J., & Cullinane, M. (2021). Sustainable, Mutually Beneficial, and Place-Based: Building and Maintaining a Dynamic School-University Partnership. In P. Chandler & L. Barron (Eds.), Rethinking School-University Partnerships: A New Way Forward. Information Age Publishing.
• Tocci, C. & Moon, S. (2020). Nonviolencing: Imagining Non-violence Pedagogy with Laozi and Deleuze. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 54(3), p.541-562.
• Tocci, C. (2020). Wild and Small. In M. Peters, M. Tesar, L. Jackson, & M. Beasley, What comes after postmodernism in educational theory? (pp.17-18). Routledge. Reprint of Tocci, C. (2018). Wild and Small. Educational Philosophy & Theory, 50(14), p.1312-1313.
• Moon, S. & Tocci, C. (2020). Theoretical perspectives on teacher education for Global Citizenship Education. In C. Wolhuter & D. Schugurensky (Eds.), Global Citizenship Education beyond the nation state: Implications for teacher education (pp.85-101). Routledge.
• Tocci, C., Bartolutti, F., Czajka, K., Jeffirs, J., Matassarin, M., Serrano, N., Timlin, A. (2020). Developing educational websites in lieu of clinical fieldwork. In Ferdig, R.E., Baumgartner, E., Hartshorne, R., Kaplan-Rakowski, R. & Mouza, C. (eds.), Teaching, Technology, and Teacher Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Stories from the Field, pp.649-654. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).  
• Ryan, A.M., Tocci., C., & Moon, S. (2020). The Curriculum Foundations Reader. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Awarded the Society of Professors of Education “Outstanding Book Award” in 2022.
• Tocci, C., Ryan, A.M., & Pigott, T. (2019). Introduction to the volume: Changing teaching practice in PK-20 education settings. Review of Research in Education, 43, p.xii-xviii.
• Hedges, L., Pigott, T., Polanin, J., Ryan, A., Tocci, C., & Williams, R.* (2016). The question of school resources and student achievement: A history and reconsideration. Review of Research in Education Centennial Edition, 40, p.143-168. (*Authors listed in alphabetical order.)
• Heineke, A., Ryan, A., & Tocci, C. (2015). Teaching, learning, and leading: Preparing teachers as educational policy actors. Journal of Teacher Education, 66(4), p.382-394.
• Tocci, C. (2010). An immanent machine: Reconsidering grades, historical & present. Educational Philosophy & Theory, 47(2), p.762-778.