Sharon Ravitch

Professional Biography

Dr. Sharon M. Ravitch is a Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. She is Principal Investigator of Semillas Digitales, a school-based education program in the coffee-producing regions of Nicaragua that cultivates a holistic model of educational innovation focused on pedagogical and curricular enrichment, intensive inquiry-based teacher professional development, technology integration, digital literacy and community partnership guided by active collaboration, mutual capacity building, and participatory engagement.

Dr. Ravitch has published eight books: Leadership Mindsets for Adaptive Change: The Flux 5 (with Liza Herzog, Routledge, 2023); Flux Leadership: Real-Time Inquiry for Humanizing Educational Change (with Chloe Kannan, Teachers College Press, 2022); Critical Leadership Praxis: Leading Educational and Social Change (with Katie Pak, Teachers College Press, 2021); Applied Research for Sustainable Change: A Guide for Education Leaders (with Nicole Carl, Harvard Education Press, 2019); Qualitative Research: Bridging the Conceptual, Theoretical, and Methodological (with Nicole Carl, Sage, 2016/2021); Reason and Rigor: How Conceptual Frameworks Guide Research (with Matthew Riggan, Sage, 2012/2017); School Counseling Principles: Diversity and Multiculturalism (American School Counselor Association Press, 2006); and Matters of Interpretation: Reciprocal Transformation in Therapeutic and Developmental Relationships with Youth (with Michael Nakkula, Jossey-Bass, 1998). Ravitch is currently completing the book Um Kulthumism: Arab American Women, Identity, and Intersectionality (with Dr. Reima Shakeir).

Ravitch earned two master’s degrees from Harvard University in Human Development and Psychology and Education, mentored by Dr. Carol Gilligan, and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in an interdisciplinary program that integrates across the fields of anthropology and education.

Dr. Ravitch has the distinct honor of being designated as a GIAN Scholar of the Government of India. Ravitch has received a Fulbright Fellowship, through the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Fulbright Specialist Roster, to work with Dr. BMN College in Mumbai, Maharashtra on an applied research project focused on pluralism and wellness for first-generation minoritized female students and their teachers (2021-2022). In 2021, she was selected as a faculty recipient of the Recognition of Outstanding Service Award to honor her dedication to providing a nurturing and supportive environment for students.

Research Interests and Current Projects

Dr. Ravitch’s scholarship integrates the fields of education, qualitative research, educational anthropology, human and organizational development, psychology, and business and has five strands: (1) Flux Pedagogy, teacher learning, inquiry, and professional development; (2) Practitioner and school-based research for sustainable professional and institutional development; (3) Leader education and professional development, communities of practice, applied research teams; (4) International development research using participatory, action, and ethnographic research approaches; and (5) Participatory research, evaluation, M&E, and assets-based assessment.

Ravitch’s approach to sustainable, assets-based organizational development and applied research is grounded in her decades-long experience serving as a collaborator with and advisor to educational leaders and practitioners, government, business, non-profit, and non-government organization leaders and policymakers working to foster equitable change and transformation at the individual, community, state, and national levels around the globe.

Ravitch’s U.S.-based work focuses on Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) and Flux Pedagogy facilitation with educational leaders and teacher teams in schools and districts, corporate leaders and teams, education boards, and higher education programs. Focal areas include anti-racist pedagogy, implicit bias/dysconscious racism, racial literacy and navigating identity-based stress, brave space pedagogy/organization and team norm development, critical inquiry stance and equity-focused theories of action, culturally responsive SEL pedagogies and leadership approaches, emergent design professional development, transformational and crisis leadership, healing-centered engagement, radical compassion and radical self-care in schools.

Education

• Ph.D. (Education, Culture, and Society) University of Pennsylvania, 2000
• Ed.M. (Human Development and Psychology) Harvard University, 1995
• Ed.M. (Risk and Prevention) Harvard University, 1994
• B.A. (Religion and Women’s Studies) Temple University, 1993

Areas of Expertise

• Qualitative Research
• Inquiry Stance and Practitioner Research
• School- and Community-based Research
• Rapid-cycle Leader Inquiry
• Teacher and Counselor Education and Professional Development
• Racial Literacy and Brave Space Pedagogy
• Anti-racist Professional and Organizational Development
• Communities of Practice and Applied Research Teams
• Conceptual Frameworks and Theories of Action
• Participatory Action Research (and YPAR)
• Humanizing Pedagogies and Methodologies
• Case Studies as Development Strategy