About Me

Office Hours Spring 2022: Wednesdays, 3:00-4:00 (Taylor 312A or Zoom), Thursdays 12:30-2:00 (Chat in The Commons over Lunch) & by  appointmentfor additional hours (most weekdays are possible!)

Peter Appelbaum is Professor of Education at Arcadia University. He has a doctorate from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in Educational Foundations, Policy and Administration, and Master's degrees in Curriculum & Psychological Studies (Michigan) and in Mathematics (ABD at Duke University). Dr. Appelbaum's focus areas in his doctoral work were in Diversity and Multicultural Education, Critical Feminist Studies, and Curriculum Theory.. He was a fellow at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Philadelphia (Psychoanalysis & Education), a visiting research professor at the Freie Universität (Student Perspectives on Assessment) and at the Technische Universität Fulda (Intercultural Communication) in Germany, and a visiting Spencer Fellow at the University of Cape Town in South Africa (Critical Multicultural Research Methods). He is currently collaborating as a European Union Scholar in Ethnomathematics with the University of Thessaly in Greece, and as an International Expert in Assessment and Public Pedagogies with the University of Lyon in France.

Dr. Appelbaum's doctoral dissertation later became his first book, Popular Culture, Educational Discourse and Mathematics (1995), which analyzed the ways that curriculum theory, ideology, and cultural trends support and transform power relations and social constructs across professional dialogue and public debates about education, even in the context of supposedly neutral subject areas such as mathematics. Later publications include Multicultural and Diversity Education: A reference handbook (2002); (Post) Modern Science (Education): Frustrations, propositions, and alternative paths (2001); Embracing Mathematics: On becoming a teacher and changing with mathematics (2008) - co-authored with Arcadia Graduate Students; and Children’s Books for Grown-up Teachers: Reading and writing curriculum theory (2009) - which was awarded the American Educational Research Association Outstanding Book Award for Curriculum Studies, and Sonic Studies in Education Foundations (2019). He has published articles in journals such as the Journal of Curriculum Studies, Transnational Curriculum Inquiry, The Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, and For the Learning of Mathematics. He has been the President of the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies, Chair or Program Chair of various research interest groups in Critical Issues in Curriculum and Cultural Studies, Post-Colonial Research in Education, Queer Studies in Education, Gender and Education, Popular Culture and Public Pedagogies, a section editor for several curriculum studies journals, Vice President of the International Commission for the Study and Improvement of Mathematics Education, a plenary speaker at international curriculum theory and curriculum studies conferences and international mathematics education conferences, and a workshop leader for several international and global educational leadership programs. Dr. Appelbaum is also one of the founding members of the Arts-based Educational Research Group of the American Educational Research Association; he has served as a doctoral committee member at Arcadia, Georgia Southern University, Arizona State University, The University of British Columbia, The University of Thessaly, The University of Cape Town, Melbourne University, RMIT Australia, Rio de Janeiro State University, and others. Recent projects include a special issue of Educational Studies devoted to Sound Studies approaches to educational foundations, an international collaboration bringing together curriculum theorists and ethnomathematics researchers to discuss ways that education can respond to contemporary global crises, and a joint project on the ethics of onto-epistemologies in education, such as South African Ubuntu, Refugee Studies, and Exiled Artists.

Check out Dr. Appelbaum's Youth Mathematician Laureate Project! http://yomap.org

Dr. Appelbaum enjoys working with doctoral students in such areas as curriculum theory and history, arts-based and hermeneutic research methods, mixed methods that combine quantitative approaches with qualitative approaches, interdisciplinary studies, education in and out of formal institutions, international and global leadership, psychoanalysis and education, popular culture studies, gender and sexuality education, and anything related to diversity, equity and social justice. His own educational path meandered a lot, from Physics and Mathematics, to Ethnomusicology, to Topology and Mathematical Logic, to Cultural and Post-Colonial Queer Theory, and he enjoys looking at questions and topics from perspectives that don't initially seem connected until they are brought together by research.

A professional horn player and composer/sound artist, Dr. Appelbaum is available for workshops in ethnomusicology and world music, experimental composition, sound art and sound sculpture, and the uses of polyrhythms, juggling, origami, and game structures for team building, STEAM curriculum development, and social justice community projects.