Christopher P. Brown (he/him/his)

Christopher P. Brown is a Professor in the Department of Learning and Instruction and the Graduate School of Education’s Associate Dean for Teacher Education. He is a former preschool, kindergarten, and 1st-grade teacher whose research interests, rooted in qualitative methodologies, emerged from his teaching experiences as a public-school classroom teacher in Title 1 elementary schools where he witnessed how policymakers’ standards-based accountability reforms were eliminating his instructional-decision making while challenging his attempts to frame his students through asset-based discourses.

These experiences led him to build a research agenda rooted in the lived experiences of those working in contexts undergoing educational reform. By studying varied education stakeholders, he has sought to advocate for educational policies that seek to foster, sustain, and extend the complex educational, sociocultural, and individual goals and aspirations of children, their families, teachers, and school leaders.

His primary line of study seeks to understand the impact of policymakers’ reforms on those working across the varied fields that make up early childhood education. Much of this work investigates the impact of policymakers’ reforms on the lived experiences of education stakeholders in the field of teacher education. The goal of this work is to consider how teacher education programs can prepare preservice teachers to not only being successful classroom teachers but also advocates for change so that they can engage in equitable instructional practices that best align with the needs and wants of their students and the communities in which they teach.

Beyond teaching and teacher education, Dr. Brown investigates how early childhood stakeholders in public school settings make sense of and can respond to policymakers’ reforms that emphasize increased academic achievement, standardization, and accountability while providing limited resources through rigorous and developmentally appropriate learning experiences. Through this work, he seeks to advocate for programmatic and instructional practices that support all children through equitable learning experiences so that they can grow as learners and as members of their communities.

• Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, Curriculum and Instruction Minor: Educational Policy (2004)
• M.A., New Mexico State University, Curriculum and Instruction (Early Childhood Education) (1997)

• National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education Article of the Year; National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators; 2017-01-01;
• National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators Outstanding Early Childhood Teacher Educator Award; National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators; 2014-01-01;
• Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award; The University of Texas System Board of Regents; 2013-01-01;
• Award for Exemplary Research in Teaching and Teacher Education; Division K, Teaching and Teacher Education of the American Educational Research Association; 2011-01-01;
• Early Career Award; Early Education/Child Development Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association; 2011-01-01;

• Brown, C. P. (2025). Examining how to support the next generation of critical scholars seeking to transform systems of education: an evaluative case study. Higher Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-025-01489-x
• Brown, C. P. (2025). Preparing the next generation of scholars to produce and defend case study research: an evaluative case study. Pedagogies: An International Journal, https://doi.org/10.1080/1554480X.2025.2483516
• Brown, C. P. (2025). The biopolitical kindergarten: A critical qualitative examination of the intersection between policymakers’ neoliberal reforms and children’s figuring of themselves as learners. Cultural Studies<->Critical Methodologies, 25(1), 65-76.
• Brown, C. P., Barry, D., & Ku, D., & Puckett, K. (2025). A case study of how first-year early childhood teachers figured their role within the profession and whether to remain in it. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 46(1), 1-26.
• Brown, C.P., & McKenzie, L.C. (2024). How elementary school principals made sense of supporting prekindergarten and kindergarten teachers: A case study in Texas. Early Childhood Education Journal. DOI: 10.1007/s10643-024-01820-8