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Abraham DeLeon, who joined the Warner School faculty in 2007, directs the social studies teacher preparation program. His research interests include social studies education, cultural studies, and critical pedagogy. DeLeon’s research interests are grounded in critical theory and its relationship to social studies education. This has led him to explore how social studies education and radical theory can be combined to equip students with the knowledge and understanding of how ideology is reproduced. His dissertation focused on four text-based classroom simulations and he argued that these uncritically reproduced dominant ideology. He combined his analysis with suggestions for how classroom teachers can integrate simulations more critically. This path has also led him to explore radical theories outside of education and he is further interested in cultural studies, critical pedagogy, and anarchist theory.
He has authored articles in The Social Studies and The Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies and published book reviews in Teacher’s College Record and Educational Studies. He also has two entries (one co-authored with Eric Hass) in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice, edited by Gary Anderson. DeLeon has presented at numerous local, national, and international conferences, such as the American Educational Studies Association, UCEA, the Connecticut chapter of NAME, and the Northeast Philosophy of Education Society. He also was a Stafford Student Scholar for The National Institute on Leadership, Disability, and Students Placed At Risk at the University of Vermont. This position allowed him to work with the institute and local families in the Burlington area.
He was born and raised in the desert southwest of New Mexico and graduated from New Mexico State University with a bachelor’s in secondary education. After his undergraduate work, he taught Global Studies at Flowing Wells High School in Tucson, Arizona. Wanting to pursue an advanced graduate degree, he moved to Connecticut to earn a master’s in history. After finishing his master’s, he enrolled in the Ph.D. program in curriculum and instruction at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut.
DeLeon also has a wide range of teaching experiences at the university level, including teaching various seminars, a social studies methods course, and a graduate course on critical pedagogy. This allowed him to also work closely with student teachers. He has held several adjunct teaching positions at Eastern Connecticut State University, St. Joseph’s University, and Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. He also has worked with high school students in various summer programs, such as Upward Bound where he served as a counselor and teacher, and Mentor Connection, an intensive summer internship program designed for high school juniors and seniors.
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