About Judy Pace
My fascination with democratic education began when learning to teach at progressive schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts and grew when studying at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and working at Project Zero. After 26 years as a teacher educator at the University of San Francisco, I am now professor emerita. In 2023-2024 I taught and conducted research as a Fulbright global scholar in Bosnia and Herzegovina and South Africa, preparing preservice teachers to teach controversial issues. For the last several years I have enjoyed consulting with schools and educational organizations across the U.S. and in other countries, conducting professional development that ranges from two-hour workshops to semester-long courses.
My scholarship examines classroom dynamics, teaching, and curriculum and how they are influenced by sociocultural and political contexts. Prior research projects have focused on classroom authority relationships and academic engagement, discussion in U.S. government classes, social studies teaching under high stakes accountability, and preparing preservice teachers for controversial issues. I published two edited volumes: Classroom Authority: Theory, Research, and Practice (with Annette Hemmings) and Educating Democratic Citizens in Troubled Times: Qualitative Studies of Current Efforts (with Janet Bixby. My solo-authored books are The Charged Classroom: Predicaments and Possibilities for Democratic Teaching (2015) and Hard Questions: Learning to Teach Controversial Issues (2021).