Charles Tocci

History of Education & Social Studies Education

Associate Professor of Education, Loyola University Chicago

My scholarship connects the history of American education and social studies education to explore the development of curriculum, policies, and institutions that shape students’ social education. Currently, I’m developing a book on the history of Chicago Public Schools and completing a second edition of The Curriculum Foundations Reader with my co-authors, Dr. Ann Marie Ryan & Dr. Seungho Moon.

I’m the Associate Professor of Education at the School of Education, Loyola University Chicago. Here I coordinate the social studies education and the education policy studies programs.

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 serve as a delegate from the College & University Faculty Assembly to the National Council for the Social Studies House of Delegates

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 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 Philosophy and Theory, History of Education, and The Journal of Teacher Education. My public scholarship has appeared in The Washington Post, The Chicago-Sun Times, and Chalkbeat.