Charles Tocci, Ed.D.

Assistant Professor of Education
Loyola University Chicago

My work examines the evolving implicit and explicit social education provided to American students over the past 150 years. I approach this topic through curriculum studies, bridging academic research and professional practice by centering problems emerging from teaching and learning in their varying social contexts.

I’m the Assistant Professor of Education in the School of Education, Loyola University Chicago. I’m also a co-founder of the Big City Social Studies Group and co-director of the NEH Summer Institute for Teachers, “Rethinking the Gilded Age & Progressivisms: Race, Capitalism, & Democracy, 1877-1920.”

I began my career in education as a social studies teacher at South Shore Community Academy in Chicago. I earned a doctorate in Curriculum & Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University, where I also worked as senior research associate at the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, & Teaching. Before joining Loyola, I was a member of the faculty at National Louis University.

I co-authored The Curriculum Foundations Reader, winner of the 2022 Outstanding Book Award from the Society of Professors of Education. I’ve published peer reviewed work in Review of Research in Education, Educational Theory and Philosophy, History of Education, and The Journal of Teacher Education. My public scholarship has appeared in The Washington Post, The Chicago-Sun Times, and Chalkbeat.

My current research examines the capacity of large urban school districts to support professional learning and curriculum development in social studies.