Faculty Vita

Phil Carspecken, Ph.D.

Academic Degrees

Professional Experience

Faculty load

Faculty Teaching

Selected Publications

Carspecken, P.F. (2002) "The Hidden History of Praxis Theory within Critical Ethnography and the Criticalism / Postmodernism Problematic." Chapter four in Zou, Y. and Trueba, H. (eds.) Ethnography and Education: Qualitative Approaches to the Study of Education. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN: 0-7425-1737-3 (in press, April 2002)

Georgiou, D.; Carspecken, P.F.(2002) "Critical Ethnography and Ecological Psychology: Conceptual and Empirical Explorations of a Synthesis." Qualitative Inquiry, June 2002 (in press).

Carspecken, P.F. (2001) "Critical Ethnographies from Houston: distinctive features and directions." Chapter One in Carspecken, Phil Francis and Walford, Geoffrey (eds.) (2001). Critical Ethnography and Education, (Studies in Educational Ethnography, Volume 5). Amsterdam, New York, Oxford: JAI Press.

Carspecken, P.F. (1999) "There is no such thing as critical ethnography: A historical discussion and an outline of one methodological theory." pp. 29-56 in Alexander Massey and Geoffrey Walford (eds.), Studies in Educational Ethnography, Vol. 2: Explorations in Methodology. Stamford, Connecticut: Jai Press.

Carspecken, Phil Francis. (1999) Four Scenes for Posing the Question of Meaning and Other Explorations in Critical Philosophy and Critical Methodology. New York, Berlin: Peter Lang.

Carspecken, P.F. and MacGillivray, L. (1998) "Raising Consciousness about Reflection, Validity, and Meaning", pp. 171-190 in Being Reflexive in Critical Educational and Social Research, Geoffrey Shacklock and John Smyth, eds., Falmer Press.

Carspecken, P.F. (1996). "The Set-up: Crocodile Tears for the Poor", Ch. 5 (pp 109-126) in Kincheloe, J.; Steinberg, S.; Gresson, A. Measured Lies; the Bell Curve Examined. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Georgiou, D.; Carspecken, P.F., and Willems, E. (1996) "An Expansion of Roger Barker's Behavior Setting Survey for an Ethno-Ecological Approach to Person-Environment Relations"; Journal of Environmental Psychology, vol. 16, #1, pp 319-333.

Georgiou, D. and Carspecken, P. F. (1996). "A Method for Contextual Research on Person-Environment Interactions: Behavior Setting Survey and Critical Ethnography". Refereed Published Papers of EDRA 27th Annual Proceedings; pages 163-169.

Carspecken, Phil Francis. (1996) Critical Ethnography in Educational Research; A Theoretical and Practical Guide. New York and London: Routledge.

Carspecken, P.F. (1995). "Pragmatic Binary Oppositions and Intersubjectivity in an Illegally Occupied School". in McLaren, P. and Giarelli, J. (eds.) Critical Theory and Educational Research. New York: SUNY Press. (reprint of QSE publication).

Carspecken, P.F. and Cordeiro, P. (1995). "Being, Doing, and Becoming; Textual Interpretations of Social Identity and a Case Study"; Qualitative Inquiry, pp 87-109, vol. 1, no. 1, March 1995.

Cordeiro, P. and Carspecken, P.F. (1993). "How a Minority of the Minority Succeed; a Case Study of Twenty Highly Successful Hispanic High School Students". International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Vol. 6, #4; October-December 1993.

Carspecken, P.F. and Apple, M. (1992). "Critical Qualitative Research, Theory, Method, and Practice", chapter 11 in LeCompte, M. Millroy, W. and Preissle, J., Handbook of Qualitative Research in Education, Florida: Academic Press.

Carspecken, P.F. (1992). "Pragmatic Binary Oppositions and Intersubjectivity in an Illegally Occupied School", International Journal of Qualitative Research in Education, Vol.5 #1, January-March 1992.

Funded Projects

Carspecken, P. 1996. "Sociological Social Psychology for the Classroom: The development of Conceptual Models for Teachers, from the perspective of Sociological-Social Psychology, with Empirical Vignettes". University of Houston Faculty Research Opportunity Award.

Carspecken, P. 1996. "Critical Analysis of Qualitative Interviews: The development of conceptual models and analytic techniques". University of Houston Limited Grant in Aid Program. $2,000 to pay a research assistant.

Carspecken, P. 1990. "School-Community Relations and the Houston Mobility Problem; Extrapolations from Projects STAY and HOPE in the Spring Branch Independent School District", awarded by the Texas Education Agency: $5,000. 160 page report submitted at the end of the funding period.

Current Professional and Academic Association Memberships

American Anthropological Association

American Sociological Association

American Educational Research Association

Southwestern Social Science Association

Conference Presentations

Carspecken, P.F. 2002. Two AERA papers

Carspecken, P.F. 2001. AERA paper

Carspecken, P.F., 2000. "Critical Ethnography in Houston; Methodological Innovations of the Houston School." Oxford Conference on Educational Ethnography, Oxford U.K. September 2000.

Carspecken, P.F., 2000. "Problems in Critical Methodological Problems in Critical Ethnography: The Hidden History of Praxis Theory within Critical Ethnography And the Criticalism / Postmodernism Problematic", Invited paper for special conference on contemporary ethnographic theory; organized by Henry Treuba and Yali Zou for leading ethnographers, Houston, February 2000.

Carspecken, P. F., 1999. "Houston School Critical Ethnography; Trends and Themes"; Journal of Curriculum Theory Conference, Bergamo, OH, October 1999.

Carspecken, P. F., 1999. "There is no such thing as Critical Epistemology", Invited lecture given at Indiana University, Bloomington Indiana: November 1999.

Carspecken, P. F., 1996. "Power, Truth, and Method; Outline of a Critical Methodology", presented at the Southwestern Social Science Association's 1996 Annual Meeting: Houston.

Georgiou, D. and Carspecken, P.F., 1996. "Person-Environment Interactions in Context"; 26th International Congress of Psychology; Montreal, Canada.

Georgiou, D. and Carspecken, P. F., 1996. "A Method for Contextual Research on Person-Environment Interactions: Behavior Setting Survey and Critical Ethnography." EDRA, 27th conference, Salt Lake City, May 1996. (Will be published in the EDRA year book).

Cordeiro, P. and Carspecken, P.F., 1992: "How a Minority of the Minority Succeed". Presented to University Council on Educational Administration, Nov. 1992, Minneapolis, MN.

Carspecken, P.F., 1991. "Explorations of System and Lifeworld through Critical Ethnography", Comparative and International Education Society, annual conference held at the University of Pittsburgh.

Carspecken, P.F., 1991. "Binary Oppositions, Rationality, and Systems of Practice: A Study of School-Community Relations in Liverpool", Comparative and International Education Society, annual conference held at the University of Pittsburgh.

Carspecken, P.F., 1991. "Binary Oppositions, Intersubjectivity, and Rationality in School-Community Relations", Southwestern Social Science Association, San Antonio, Texas.

Carspecken, P.F., 1990. "Project HOPE: A Qualitative Evaluation of Housman Elementary School's Intervention Program", Texas Association of School Administrators, annual conference held in Houston, Fall 1990.

Menon, S. and Carspecken, P.F., 1990. "Beyond 'Push' and 'Pull' Explanations, Asian-Indian Graduate Students in the United States", paper presented to the Comparative and International Education Society in Los Angeles, CA.

Carspecken, P.F., 1989. "What's New About 'New' Social Movements? Some Notes on a Liverpool Protest Movement Over a School Closure", paper presented to the annual conference of the American Anthropological Association in Washington, D.C.

Carspecken, P.F., 1989. "Uniting the General and the Particular in the Study of Social Movements", paper presented to the annual meeting of the Southwestern Social Science Association in Little Rock, Arkansas -- March 1989.

Research Areas

I teach and conduct scholary work in the fields of critical qualitative research methodology, social theory, social philosophy and philosophical issues in inquiry. I have a primary faculty position in Inquiry (within the Counseling and Educational Psychology Department), and a one quarter faculty position in philosophy of education (within the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department).

Service/Outreach Projects

Organizer and Chairperson AERA session on critical ethnography 2002

Organizer and Chairperson AERA session on critical ethnography 2001

Organizer and Chairperson for two conference sessions entitled: "Houston School Critical Ethnography I", and "Houston School Critical Ethnography II". These sessions were held at the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing Conference at Bergamo, OH, in October 2000.

Organizer and Chairperson for two conference sessions: "Qualitative Research and Modern Social Theory I", "Qualitative Research and Modern Social Theory II", Southwestern Social Science Association; March 1996: Houston.

Organizer and Chairperson for a conference session entitled "Explorations of System and Lifeworld through Ethnographic Research", Comparative and International Education Society, Pittsburgh -- Spring 1991.

Invited member of panel called "Transversing Disciplinary Boundaries: Sociologists Working Outside Sociology Departments", at the annual meeting of the Southwestern Social Science Association in Little Rock, Arkansas -- March 1989.

Organizer and Chairperson for a conference session entitled "Transmission, Reproduction, and Structuration: Recent Anthropological and Sociological Approaches to Education", held at the American Anthropological Association's December 1985 conference in Washington D.C.

On international editorial board of Ethnography

Academic Editor for CUSTos Press

Academic Editor of Cultural Studies for Taboo

Referee for Academic Journals

The International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education

The Social Science Quarterly

Qualitative Inquiry

American Educational Research Journal

Ethnography

Anthropological Forum

Classroom Interaction