Faculty Research Profiles: Wanda Pillow

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Associate Professor

Educational Policy Studies
359 Education Building
1310 S. 6th St. MC 708
217 333-7144
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Research Biography

My research interests include the intersections of gender, race, class and sexuality as they impact issues of representation, access, voice, and equality. I explore these issues through thinking and writing about the doing of qualitative research and the methodologies that guide our analyses.

I am completing work on a book about the education of school-aged mothers, 1972-2002, that builds from the above interests and further develops my thinking about doing critical, race-based feminist policy analysis. This book uses qualitative, historical, legal, and policy research to analyze how the purpose of education for teen mothers has been and is currently defined and how the purposes of education are often defined differentially based upon the race of the teen mother.

Upon completion of this book (expected date, August 2002), I will turn attention to my most recent research on the uses of representations of Sacajawea and York, "members" of the Lewis and Clark 'Corps of Discovery' expedition, 1802-1804. Specifically I will consider cultural and media representations of Sacajawea and York and the impact of such representations upon K-12 curricula and discourse.

Degrees

  • Ph.D., Educational Policy and Leadership, The Ohio State University, 1994
  • M.S., Special Education, University of Utah, 1989
  • B.S., Psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1986

Key Professional Appointments

  • Assistant Professor, Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997--
  • Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership & Cultural Foundations, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1994-1997

Grants

  • Principal Investigator, Returning to School Pregnant: A qualitative and historical policy analysis of teen pregnancy public educational policy, 1972-1996, Campus Research Board, 2000

Selected Publications

  • Pillow, W. S. (2004). Unfit subjects: Educational policy and the teen mother. New York: Routledge.
  • Pillow, W. S. (2003). Race-based methodologies: Multicultural methods or epistemological shifts? In Gerardo Lopez & Laurence Parker (Eds.), Interrogating racism in qualitative research methodology, pp. 181-202. New York: Peter Lang.
  • Pillow, W.S. (2003). Confession, catharsis or cure? Rethinking the uses of reflexivity as methodological power in qualitative research. The International Journal of Qualitative Research in Education. 16 (2), 175-196.
  • Pillow, W.S. (2003). Bodies are Dangerous: Using feminist genealogy as policy studies methodology. Journal of Educational Policy. 18(2), 145-160.
  • Pillow, W. S. (2001). Exposed methodology: The body as a site of deconstructive practice: A reflection on doing qualitative research: Reprint & reflection. In S. Merriam (Ed.), Types of qualitative inquiry: Exemplars for study and discussion. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.