John Pascarella, III

Dr. John Pascarella, Professor of Clinical Education, is an expert in teacher education reform, racial equity, and digital media literacy. He teaches courses in the MAT and EdD programs, serves on several university committees, and leads professional learning for K12 and college leaders, faculty, and staff. Dr. Pascarella is Chief Academic Officer for USC Race and Equity Center, where he leads the academic development of equity leadership academies for K-12 leaders and educators that focus on combatting institutional, structural, systemic, cultural, and individual racism in K-12 schools. Prior to his appointment at Rossier, he taught English Language Arts and Literature in urban New Jersey high schools and served as an Adjunct Professor at Montclair State University, a Course Lecturer at McGill University, and a Visiting Researcher at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Dr. Pascarella earned a Ph.D. in Culture and Values in Education from McGill University, an M.A. in Teaching from Montclair State University, and a B.A. in English Literature and African American Studies from the University of Central Florida.

Master of Arts in Teaching courses:

• EDUC 670: Introduction to Curriculum and Pedagogy in Urban Schools
• EDUC 671: Contexts for Equity, Access, and Agency
• EDUC 516: Framing the Social Context of High Needs Schools
• EDUC 517A: Understanding the Social Contexts of Urban Schooling
• EDUC 518: Application of Theories of Learning to Classroom Practice
• EDUC 506: New Media Literacies in High Needs Schools
• EDUC 513B: Teaching English Language Arts in the Secondary Classroom, Pt. 2
• EDUC 535: Secondary English Methods
• EDUC 568A: Guided Practice A for Secondary English Language Arts
• EDUC 568B: Guided Practice B for Secondary English Language Arts
• EDUC 599: Multimedia Literacy

Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership courses:

• EDUC 523: Challenges in Urban Education: Diversity
• EDUC 536: Inquiry II – Qualitative Research Methods 
• EDUC 599: Framing the Urban Context of Educational Leadership
• EDUC 606: International Field Trip: Bangkok, Thailand
• EDUC 701: Pedagogy of Teacher Education
• EDUC 790: Critical Review of Educational Research
• EDUC 792: Companion to the Dissertation Writing Process
• EDUE 724: Culturally Responsive Instructional Leadership
• EDUE 780: Dissertation in Practice

• 2021. “Towards an Anti-Racist, Culturally Responsive, and LGBTQ+ Inclusive Education: Developing Critically Conscious Instructional Leaders.” In Cain, E., Filback, R., and Crawford, J. (Eds.) Cases on Academic Program Redesign for Greater Racial and Social Justice. IGI Global.
• 2018, May/June. “Transformative Residential Programming: The Story of College Access Day.” Talking Stick, 35(5). Columbus, OH: Association of College and University Housing Officers International.
• 2017, November. “Transformative Teacher Preparation in Tumultuous Times.” Phi Delta Kappa Newsletter. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
• 2017, September. “Phi Delta Kappa Faculty Sponsor Welcome: Charlottesville and Beyond.” Phi Delta Kappa Newsletter. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
• 2016, November. “High Expectations, High Support, and Authentic Care.”  Phi Delta Kappa Newsletter. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
• 2016, September. “Phi Delta Kappa Faculty Sponsor Welcome.” Phi Delta Kappa Newsletter. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
• 2016, January. “ESSA Heightens Concern Over Weakened Teacher Preparation Programs for Neediest Students.” Phi Delta Kappa Newsletter. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
• 2015, September. “Phi Delta Kappa Faculty Sponsor Welcome.” Phi Delta Kappa Newsletter. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
• 2015, March. “To whom and to what should teacher education be held accountable?: Exploring our professional and moral obligation as Phi Delta Kappans to the role and task of teacher education. Phi Delta Kappa Newsletter. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
• 2014, December. “USDOE Office of Postsecondary Education Propose New Regulatory Action.” Phi Delta Kappa Newsletter. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
• 2014, September. “Phi Delta Kappa Faculty Sponsor Welcome.” Phi Delta Kappa Newsletter. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
• 2014, Spring. “Teacher Education 2.0: Staying Connected.” Futures in Urban Education. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
• 2011. “Confronting the challenges of HIV, AIDS, Stigma, and The Digital Divide: Lessons from a Rural South African Village.” In F. Islam’s (Ed.) Partnerships for hope: A school-university collaboration for change in rural South Africa. New York: Edwin and Mellon.
• 2010. “We Wanted Other People to Learn From Us: Girls Blogging in a Rural Secondary School in South Africa in the Context of HIV and AIDS.” Co-authored with Claudia Mitchell, Naydene de Lange, and Jean Stuart. In Sharon Mazzarella (Ed.) Girl Wide Web 2.0: Revisiting Girls, the Internet, and the Negotiation of Identity. New York: Peter Lang.
• 2010. “Blogging Their Way: Youth Identity in the Blogosphere.” In S. Steinberg, M. Kehler, and L. Cornish (Eds.), Boy Culture: An Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
• 2008, Jun 18. “University of KwaZulu-Natal Hosts Blogging Workshops for Rural Students to Address HIV and AIDS.” In UKZN Online, 2 (11). http://www.ukzn.ac.za/UKZNonline/V2/11/issue11.htm
• 2008, June. “Confronting the challenges of critical digital literacy: An essay review.” Educational Studies, 43 (3).
• 2007. “The Manufacture of Intent.” In R. Goldstein (Ed.), Useful Theory: Making Critical Education Practical. New York: Peter Lang.
• 2005. “Deviation: A Pre-Service Teacher in the Inner City.” Cultural Studies<-->Critical Methodologies, 5 (1).
• 2005. “Rethinking the White Man’s Burden: Identity and Pedagogy for an Inner City Student Teacher.” In J. L. Kincheloe, k. hayes, K. Rose, and P. Anderson (Eds.), The Praeger Handbook of Urban Education. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
• 2004. “Why Teach in Urban Settings”? In S. R. Steinberg and J. L. Kincheloe (Eds.) Nineteen Urban Questions. New York: Peter Lang.
• 2003. “Notes from the Field.” Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, 7 (2).

John Pascarella III is a Professor of Clinical Education in the Rossier School of Education and Chief Academic Officer for the USC Race and Equity Center at the University of Southern California.  Since 2012, John has served as Faculty in Residence in USC McCarthy Honors and South Residential Colleges. From 2015-19, John served as Chair of the Master of Arts in Teaching Program.  During his tenure as chair, Rossier rose in its national rankings to the #18 Secondary Teacher Education Program (USNWR, 2019).  From 2011-15, he served as Director of Fieldwork for Academic Programs at Rossier, during which time he led a video teacher performance assessment study with Dean Karen Symms Gallagher, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  Prior to his appointments at USC, John taught English Language Arts and Literature in urban New Jersey and teacher education courses at Montclair State University, McGill University, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.  In 2015, John served on a California (CCTC) taskforce to rewrite the state teacher preparation program standards.  From 2016-18, John led the redesign of the MAT program and brokered partnerships with Google For Education and Edthena to improve access and mastery of digital learning tools by teacher education faculty and candidates.  John is co-chair of the USC Academic Senate-Provost Joint Committee on Information Services and is member of the Rossier Teaching Taskforce.  In 2013, John founded and organized “College Access Day,” a full-day campus immersion event that annually welcomes 300+ youth from low-income communities to engage them in a series of workshops, panels, tours, and events focused on college admissions literacy, the on-campus college experience, and financial aid literacy.  John has earned multiple awards in the areas of research, teaching, and service from Phi Delta Kappa International and regularly presents at state and national conferences on teacher education reform.

John leads the academic development of professional learning and organizational change racial equity leadership academies for K-12 leaders that focus on combatting institutional, structural, systemic, cultural, and individual racism in K-12 schools. Through these leadership academies, principals, instructional leaders, and other school staff work to cultivate their critical awareness of practices, social norms, policies, and discourses that perpetuate racism within their schools by engaging in race-forward learning modules. These challenging academies lay the foundations for racial literacy, fluency, problem solving, and adaptable approaches within a larger transformative racial equity project that set goals specific to their school needs.