Research and Teaching Interests: History of American Education; Philadelphia History; Oral History; the History of Childhood and Adolescence; Course Portfolios and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Personal Statement: My research and teaching interests focus on the relationship between education and American culture. I have explored this relationship by studying the history of the school, the family, and the material culture of education. I have taught an introductory graduate course in American history, a graduate course on the history of the family, using oral history as the principal research methodology, and a general research seminar in American history. I have taught most recently courses on the history of urban edcuation, the history of childhood and adolescence, and a graduate course on the teaching of history in college. I have also co-developed and taught a new general education course on higher education and American society.

My recent research includes the history of the home-school relationship in America since the middle of the nineteenth century and the material culture of American education, stressing school design, public buildings, and civic art. I am currently working on the history of the relationship between citizens and schools, concentrating on the period between World War II and the present.  I also work on projects having to do with the scholarship of teaching and learning, which I have done in cooperation with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the American Historical Association.

William W. Cutler