Ajay Sharma

Areas of Expertise

  • Middle Grades Education
  • Science Education
  • Poststructural theories
  • Political theory

Interests

  • Ontology of Education
  • Neoliberalism and Education
  • Representations of Nature in Science Education

Concentrations

Education

  •  Ph.D in Curriculum, Teaching and Educational Policy, 2006
    Michigan State University

Contact

 Aderhold Hall, 624F

Research Summary

My current research centers on explorations of representations of nature in science education, and neoliberalism’s impact on education. In past I have focused on understanding classroom discourse in K-12 science classrooms and science teacher education programs from the perspectives of individual agency and equity.

Recent Publications

  • Sharma, A. & Buxton, C. (2018). Natural world and Science Education in the United States. New York: Palgrave-MacMillan.
  • Sharma, A. (2017). The ontology of science teaching in the neoliberal era. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 12(4), 795-813.
  • Schmiechel, M., Sharma, A., & Pittard, B. (2017). Contours of neoliberalism in empirical American educational research. Curriculum Inquiry, 47(2), 195-216.
  • Sharma, A. (2016). Understanding climate change ‘debate’. Science & Education, 25(5-6), 717-723.
  • Sharma, A. (2016). STEM-ification of Education: The Zombie Reform Strikes Again. Journal for Activist Science and Technology Education, 7(1), 42-51.
  • Sharma, A., & Buxton, C. A. (2015). Human–Nature Relationships in School Science: A Critical Discourse Analysis of a Middle‐Grade Science Textbook. Science Education, 99(2), 260-281.
  • Sharma, A. (2015). Teacher activism: Got post-structuralism? Journal for Activist Science and Technology Education, 6(1), 27-36.