Faculty Biography - John Richardson

Professor
Sociology Department
Western Washington University
Bellingham, WA 98225-9081
Arntzen Hall 524
Phone: (360) 650-3005
Fax: 360-650-7295
John.Richardson@wwu.edu

Dr. Richardson received his PhD from the University of California, Davis. He did his doctoral work on the historical and organizational roots of the misclassification of black and Hispanic students in special education in California schools. After one year at the University of Alaska where he explored similar issues facing native students, he came to Western in 1974. His research interests have been in the areas of education, historical sociology and sociological theory.

Recent Publications

Dr. Richardson's research on the institutional Development of Special Education was published in ‘Common, Delinquent, and Special (1999); extensions of this work were published in a chapter in the Handbook of Sociology of Education (2000).

His current research includes a study of the Everett Massacre of 1916 and its place in the structure of labor violence around the turn of the century; a study of desegregation cases since 1954; and a study of the social construction of intelligence (with Karen Bradley).

“Institutional Sequences, Pedagogical Reach, and Comparative Educational Systems.” Chapter in International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 7, edited by David Baker and Alexander Wiseman, 2006.

“Institutional Sequences and Curricular Trajectories: Classical vs. Scientific Knowledge and the Formation of a New Nation.” Book chapter (forthcoming).

“The Moral Career of Intelligence and the Development of Educational Psychology” (with Karen Bradley). Presented at the Fourth Basil Bernstein Symposium, July 2006, Rutgers University.