David Carlson
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444A Farmer Building 1050 S Forest Mall Tempe, AZ 85287
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Mail code: 1811Campus: Tempe
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David Lee Carlson is a Professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. His primary areas of research include qualitative inquiry, curriculum studies, and gender and sexuality studies in education. He works primarily with the thought of the French intellectual Michel Foucault and contemplates in his work how pedagogy plays a part in crafting life as a work of art. The exploration and application of theoretical perspectives drive his work. Professor Carlson investigates the impact of specific post-humanists theories in qualitative methods. His work also investigates how art, philosophy, and literature operate in research-creation. Dr. Carlson sees qualitative research and educational research primarily as that which attunes to the subtle, nuanced, and textured elements of life, language, and labor. As such, it is both a field of study and a collection of approaches and perspectives that aid scholars in understanding the material complexities of human life and their endeavors. Qualitative methods can be used to satisfy the impulse for certainty in knowledge production, but they are primarily employed to explore and foster practices and perspectives of diversity and equity. Qualitative approaches and perspectives can be used to look at life-in-motion in its socio-political contexts as a part of the humanities. Current research topics include Post-Qualitative Inquiry as Uprootedness; Michel Foucault's Lectures and Educational Research; The Uses of Theory in Educational Research; Michel Foucault's Genealogical Analytic; and Rethinking "Algorithmic" Reasonings in Educational Research Methodologies. Dr. Carlson is the 2024 recipient of the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College Excellence in Research Achievement Award.
Most Recent Book:
Michel Foucault and Gender and Sexualities: Friendship as Ascesis (2019).
- Ed.D. English Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, NY 2005. Dissertation Title: Producing a Sovereign Self: Portfolios and the Ownership of Scholastic Bodies. Dissertation Committee: Dr. James Albright (Advisor), Dr. Nancy Lesko, Dr. John Broughton, and Dr. John Baldacchino
- M.A. Literature, American University, Washington, DC 1996 (British Romanticism)
- B.A. English, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 1992
- English Literature and English Law, Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Oxford University, UK 1990-1991
Guiding Research Questions:
- How can scholarship support LGBTQ youth in secondary English classrooms?
- How can post-structuralists theories reshape qualitative inquiry?
- What is the use(s) of theory in education?
Current Research Questions:
Carlson is currently exploring how Michel Foucault's ethical care of the self can be used in qualitative inquiry. Using Foucault's four-part guide to the care of self along with narrative theory, he is producing personal stories of how the body fuses with research methods and perspectives to produce narratives of vulnerability. The intent of this research is to provoke thought about the how qualitative research can or may impact consumers of research studies. This work strives to show how research processes become infused with affect, which supersedes cognitive and post-positive leanings in scholarly endeavors.
Carlson is also working on a project that investigates how LGBTQ themed young-adult literature reflect or reinforce a new heteronormativity. This study compares marginal LGBTQ YAL with those that have become canonized to illustrate how heteronormativity gets reinscribed in the dominate narratives about and for queer youth.
Additionally, Carlson is working on a book-length project investigating how Axel Honneth's theory of recognition may help scholars re-imagine queer theory in education. This book develops a rhetoric of recognition that includes curriculum and pedagogy in secondary English classrooms. The main concern in this book is how to revise the practices and discourses in schools, specifically around issues of bullying, writing and reading pedagogy, and community involvement to better support LGBTQ youth.
Books (published)
Linville, D., & Carlson, D.L. (Eds.) (2015). Beyond Borders: Queer Eros and Ethics in LGBTQ Young Adult Literature. New York: Peter Lang.
Perry, J., & Carlson, D. L. (Eds.)(2013). In Their Own Words: A Journey to the Stewardship of the Practice of Education. Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing.
Carlson, D. L., & Albright, J. (2012). Composing a Care of the Self: A Critical History of Writing Assessment in Secondary English Education. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Peer Reviewed Articles
Carlson, D.L. & Koro-Ljungberg, M. (2017). (Re)mixing Foucault and Deleuze: Power Games in Critical Qualitative Research. International Journal of Research in Qualitative Inquiry. 10(4), 411-429.
Blumenfeld-Jones, D., & Carlson, D.L. (2017). Trois Chaise, ABR and the possibility of ‘thinking again.’ International Journal of Education and the Arts.
*Sweet, J.D., & Carlson, D.L. (2017). A Story of Becoming: Trans* Equity as Ethnodrama. Qualitative Inquiry. (0-10% acceptance rate).
*Sweet, J.D. & Carlson, D.L. (2017). Teaching trans*: Transparent and English Language Arts. Bank Street Papers, 37. https://www.bankstreet.edu/occasional-paper-series/37/part-ii/teaching-…
Dugan, M.A., Carlson, D.L., Jordan, M., Gaias, L.M., Abry, T., & Granger, K. (2017). “Dear Diary”: a qualitative examination of the phases of first-year teaching. Teacher Education & Practice, 30(1), 16-37. (15% acceptance rate)
Carlson, D.L., & Linville, D. (2016). The social importance of a kiss: A Honnethian reading of David Levithan’s, Two Boys Kissing. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37(6), 887-901.
*Boozer, A., & Carlson, D.L (2016). Planning backwards to go forwards: Examining howpre-service teachers use backward design to plan and deliver instruction. Teacher Education & Practice. 28(4), 522-547. (15% acceptance rate.)
Loytonen, T., Koro-Ljungberg, M., Carlson, D.L., Orange, A. & Cruz, J. (2015). A pinkexperiment. Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology, 6(1), 23-42. (15% acceptance rate)
Koro-Ljungberg, M., Carlson, D.L, Tesar, M., & Anderson, K. (2015). Methodology brut: Philosophy, ecstatic thinking, and some other (unfinished) things. Qualitative Inquiry. Accepted for publication (0-10% acceptance rate)
*Hollis, M. A, *Aletheiani, D. R., Carlson, D. L., & Ewbank, A. D. (2014). ‘Keeping up the good fight’: The said and unsaid in Flores v. Arizona. Policy Futures in Education, 12(3).
Courses
2025 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
COE 503 | Intro to Qualitative Research |
DCI 691 | Seminar |
2024 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
COE 503 | Intro to Qualitative Research |
DCI 691 | Seminar |
2024 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 784 | Internship |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
2024 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
DCI 706 | Academic Writing |
DCI 691 | Seminar |
2023 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
COE 503 | Intro to Qualitative Research |
TEL 707 | Reading the Research |
2023 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 784 | Internship |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
2023 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
DCI 702 | Transdisciplinary Seminar II |
DCI 691 | Seminar |
2022 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
DCI 701 | Transdisciplinary Seminar I |
2022 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 784 | Internship |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
2022 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
2021 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
COE 503 | Intro to Qualitative Research |
2021 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 784 | Internship |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
2021 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 784 | Internship |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
COE 503 | Intro to Qualitative Research |
DCI 691 | Seminar |
2020 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
DCI 691 | Seminar |
COE 503 | Intro to Qualitative Research |
DSC 592 | Research |
2020 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 784 | Internship |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
2020 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 784 | Internship |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
DCI 791 | Seminar |
SPE 799 | Dissertation |
COE 503 | Intro to Qualitative Research |