Edward Janak

Associate Professor, Department Chair
Gillham Hall Room 5000-C, Mail Stop 921
2801 West Bancroft St.
University of Toledo
Toledo, OH 43606-3390
Email: Edward.janak@utoledo.edu
Phone: (419) 530-4114

 

Dr. Edward Janak believes that the schools can influence the future; that to call oneself progressive one must be moving forward; and that in order to do either of those, all teachers must be grounded historically, philosophically, and sociologically.

Educational Background

Ph.D. (2003), Social, Philosophical, and Historical Foundations of Education, University of South Carolina—Columbia
• Dissertation: John Eldred Swearingen and the Development of the Public High School in South Carolina

M.Ed. (1996), Secondary Education—English, U.S.C. Columbia

B.A. (1992), English/Education, S.U.N.Y. College at Fredonia

Scholarly Interests

• Historical and social foundations of education
• Educational biography/archival methods
• Oral histories of educators
• Popular culture and education

Vitae

Select Publications

Monograph:
Janak, E. (2014). Politics, disability, and education reform in the South: The work of John Eldred Swearingen. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.
(Politics disability and education reform in the south - Edward Janak)

Edited Collection:
Janak, E. & Blum, D. (Eds.). (2012). The pedagogy of pop: Using pop culture to improve instruction. Lanham, MD: Lexington Press.
(The Pedagogy of Pop Theoretical and Practical Strategies for Success) 

Journal Articles:
Janak, E. & Helmsing, M. (2015). Problematizing philanthropy: How a historical study of the General Education Board in the U.S. West puts the 'social' in race and region as social constructs. Race Ethnicity and Education, 1-12.

Janak, E. (2013). Viewing democracy in 3-D: Using the past to examine schooling for democracy. Education in Democracy: A Journal of the NNER, 5, 5-19.

Janak, E. (2012). "Revelle"-ing in history: Lessons learned from a family of teachers." Vitae Scholasticae, 29 (1), 23-37.

Jensen, A., Janak, E. & Slater, T. (2012). Changing course: The impacts of Waiting for Superman on future teachers' perspectives on the state of education. Contemporary Issues in Education Research, 5 (1), 23-32.

Janak, E. (2010) Adventitiously blind, advantageously political: John Eldred Swearingen and social definitions of disability in Progressive-era South Carolina. Vitae Scholasticae, 27 (1), 5-25.

Janak, E. & Moran, P. (October 2010). Unlikely crusader: John Eldred Swearingen and African-American education in South Carolina. Educational Studies, 46 (2), 224-249.

Janak, E. (December 2009). "Lordy miss, that's a man": John Eldred Swearingen and the Office of State Superintendent of Education in South Carolina. Research in Higher Education Journal 2009, (5), 42-57.

Janak, E. (September 2009). Schooling for social change: A brief history of the development of social justice education in the United States. Journal of Justice Studies, 1(1), 84-95.

Janak, E. (Summer 2006). A good idea gone awry: A comparative study of Jefferson's Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge and Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. Journal of Thought, 41 (2), 65-80.

Essays and Editorials:
Janak, E. (2015). "Being a proud academic dinosaur: My career in the foundations of education. The Journal of Educational Foundations, 87-102.

Janak, E. (October 2011). Guest editorial: The things that bind us: Using pop culture as an entrée to U.S. History...in China." The Journal of Popular Culture, 44 (5), 911-914.

Chapters:
Janak, E. (2014). "Your dreams were your ticket out": How mass media's teachers constructed one educator's identity. In Ryan, K. M., Macey, D., and Springer, N.J. (Eds). How television shapes our worldview: Media representations of social trends and change (pp. 69-86). Lanham, MD: Lexington Press.

Janak, E. (2014). Adventitiously blind, advantageously political: John Eldred Swearingen and social definitions of disability in Progressive-Era South Carolina. In Morice, L.C. and Puchner, L. (Eds). Life stories: Exploring issues in educational history through biography (pp. 85-106). New York: Information Age Publishing. [Reprint: Chapter previously published in Vitae Scholasticae, 27 (1), 5-25.]

Edelman, J. & Janak, E. (2012). Can we win the future by living in the past? A preliminary exploration of nostalgia in education. In Janak, E. and Blum, D. (Eds.) The pedagogy of pop: Using pop culture to improve instruction (pp. 3-12). Lanham, MD: Lexington Press.

Janak, E. (2012). Remembering the present is the past writ large: An examination of the politics of the dominant texts in the United States, 1700's – 1900's. In Hickman, H. and Porfilio, B., (Eds.) The new politics of the textbook: Critical analysis in the core content areas (pp. 231-255). Boston: Sense Publishers.

Janak, E. (2006). The effects of the Great Depression on South Carolina's schools. In Ewing, E. Thomas and Hicks, David (Eds.). Education and the Great Depression: Lessons from a Global History (pp. 131-152). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

Creative Works:
Janak, E. (2014). 100 Years of the College of Education: Looking Back, Moving Forward. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEuerXz-kMc.

Select Presentations
Janak, E. (2015, November). "What do you mean it's not there?" The GEB, Texas, and Null History. Paper presented at the meeting of the History of Education Society (HES), St. Louis, MO.

Hendryx, J., Janak, E., & Johannes, T. (2015, July). Forecasting future-focused, engagement-enriched, knowledge management strategies for education across course, program, and discipline tiers. Workshop presented at the International Study Association of Teachers and Teaching (ISATT) Conference, New Zealand, University of Auckland.

Janak, E. (2014, November). Was all money good money? The General Education Board in the American West. Paper presented at the meeting of the History of Education Society (HES), Indianapolis, IN.

Janak, E. (2014, October). Pomegranate seeds from muddy waters: Research bias and researcher guilt in the impact of social identity on a historical study. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Educational Studies Association (AESA), Toronto, ON, Canada.

Janak, E. (2014, October). Problematizing philanthropy: How engaging in the historical study of the General Education Board in the American West puts the 'social' in race as social construct. Paper presented at the meeting of the AESA, Toronto, ON, Canada.

Janak, E. (2012, April). "Democracy is beautiful": Using a historical framework to examine preservice teachers' attitudes about teaching for democracy. In C.R. Pryor (Chair), Democratic Citizenship in Education Paper Discussion roundtable presented at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Janak, E. (2011, November). Preparing teachers in 3-D: Learning from past KDP laureates to influence current teaching practices. Paper presented at the meeting of the Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society in Education Centennial Convocation, Indianapolis, IN.

Janak, E. (2010, April). "Revelle"-ing in history: A family of teachers. Paper presented at the meeting of the AERA. Denver, CO.

Thackeray, F. (chair), Janak, E. & Hutchens, C. (2009, October). What comes around, goes around: Linking past and present educational practices by building a digital archive of teacher stories. Workshop presented at the meeting of the Oral History Association, Louisville, KY.

Janak, E. (2008, April). "Lordy, miss, that's a man!" John Eldred Swearingen, Cole Blease, and the intersection of masculinity and disability in Progressive-era South Carolina. Paper presented at the meeting of the International Society for Educational Biography, Chicago, IL.

Janak, E. (2006, January) "And ain't that a man!" Notions of disability and masculinity in the life of John Eldred Swearingen, State Superintendent of Education. Paper presented at the meeting of the Hawaii International Conference on Education, Honolulu, HI.

Janak, E. (2004, November). An interesting what if: John Eldred Swearingen and African-American education in South Carolina. Paper presented at the meeting of the HES, Kansas City, MO.
Janak, E. (2004, October). "I'd let you talk to him but he's dead": Encountering and overcoming obstacles in oral history projects. Paper presented at the meeting of the Canadian History of Education Association (CHEA), Calgary, AB, Canada.

Janak, E. (2004, October). The need for triangulation: John Swearingen, John Jr., and the Ku Klux Klan. Paper presented at the meeting of the CHEA, Calgary, AB, Canada.

Janak, E. (2004, August). Colorblind resistance, views of race: Superintendent Swearingen, Governor Blease, and the General Education Board in South Carolina. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Historical Association Pacific Coast Branch, San Jose, CA.

Janak, E. (2001, April). John E. Swearingen and the public high school in South Carolina. Paper presented at the meeting of the Southern History of Education Society, Birmingham, AL.

Courses
University of Toledo:
• TSOC 3000: Schooling and Democratic Society

University of Wyoming:
• EDST 1500: Education for Social Justice
• EDST 2480: Diversity and the Politics of Schooling
• EDST 3000: Teacher as Decision Maker/Teacher as Practitioner
• EDST 4000: Foundations of Education in a Diverse Society
• EDCI 5000: Principles of Curriculum
• EDCI/WMST 4050/5050: Issues in Minority Sex and Gender Identity Education
• EDCI/HIST 4665/5665: History and Philosophy of U.S. Education
• EDCI 5270: Seminar for Early Career Teachers
• EDCI 5790: Advanced Instructional Strategies
• EDCI 5800: Curriculum Development

Links

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online:
https://networks.h-net.org/

History of Education Society:
http://www.historyofeducation.org/

International Society for Educational Biography:
http://isebio.com/

Ohio Council of Community Schools:
http://www.ohioschools.org/

Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association:
http://pcaaca.org/