Daniel Liou

Daniel D. Liou (he/him) is an associate professor of education leadership at Arizona State University. As a community-based researcher and former school board president, Liou’s scholarship explores the sociological manifestations of expectations in the organization of classrooms, schools, and society, contextualizing educational practices in relational, curricular and institutional terms. Liou is interested in understanding the role of expectations, as ideology and social practice, naturalize and/or disrupt power relations between populations and knowledge systems. His research is organized around the following questions: Whose expectations count in schools and society? Why do they matter? What are the central aims of these expectations? How do these expectations consciously and unconsciously manifest in organizational settings? How do these expectations contribute to knowledge production and the larger sociopolitical projects of society? As Liou sets out to answer these questions, he calls attention to the relational aspects of expectations, power, and difference in giving rise to transformative practices in a stratified world. 

Liou has published more than 80 journal articles, book chapters, and other publicly accessible scholarship. His research has been published in top leading journals, including Educational Administration Quarterly, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of Teacher Education, Teachers College Record, Race Ethnicity and Education, and Urban Education. Additionally, Liou is an appointed associate editor for the Review of Educational Research. He also serves on the editorial board for the International Journal of Critical Media Literacy, and the Educational Foundations and Social Justice Education Journal.

Liou has more than 30 years of experience in education. He began his career as a middle school youth counselor at the San Francisco Community Youth Center. In 1996, Liou was recognized by the Berkeley Unified School District for his advocacy work with immigrant students and families, and in 1997 Berkeley High School presented him with the Excellence Service Award for building an effective family-school engagement program with the bilingual community. He twice received the Most Inspirational Award from the University of California at Berkeley for creating a high school outreach program that paired undergraduate mentors with first-generation, immigrant, and refugee students to support their college-going expectations. 

To contribute to ASU's local impact and social embeddedness, from 2015-2020, Liou served as an appointed member of the Equitable and Inclusive Practices Advisory Council at the Arizona Department of Education, which resulted in the development of the state's first culturally inclusive teaching guidelines. In 2015, he was awarded the Social Justice Teaching Award in Educational Leadership from American Educational Research Association. The Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation has recognized him for several awards including the 2017 Outstanding Promising Research Scholar and the 2023 Professor of Impact Award. Liou was elected to the Los Angeles College Prep Academy School Board from 2020-2024, with the last three years serving as the board president.