Rate My Professor Christopher Meidl

Christopher Meidl serves as an Associate Professor of Education at Duquesne University in the School of Education's Department of Instruction and Leadership in Education, teaching PK-4 courses since the summer of 2015. Previously, he taught early childhood courses at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, from 2009 to 2015. His K-12 teaching career began as a substitute teacher in Beloit, Wisconsin, followed by participation in Teach For America where he taught English at Marion Abramson High School in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1998. After earning his M.Ed., he taught pre-kindergarten at Joshua Butler Elementary in Westwego, Louisiana; pre-kindergarten and looping kindergarten in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, starting in 2002; and alternative certification courses at the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg, Texas, in 2004. Meidl earned a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Early Childhood Education from The Pennsylvania State University in 2008, an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction: Early Childhood Education from the University of New Orleans in 2001, and a B.A. in Psychology from Saint John’s University in 1996. He teaches courses such as Theories and Practices in Early Childhood Education, Integrated Curriculum in Early Childhood Settings, Families, Schools, and Communities, and Family and Community Collaborations.

Meidl's research advances understanding of teachers' perceptions and identity, focusing on character and moral education, classroom management, pre-service teacher identity and dispositional development, as well as personal, teacher, and K-12 student identity. His work informs higher education institutions on developing teachers' knowledge, skills, and dispositions to meet all students' needs and empower them through socio-emotional and academic growth. Meidl's teaching philosophy underscores identity development as central to teacher preparation, prioritizing dispositions that foster socially just and culturally responsive practices, where the journey of learning is as vital as the outcome. Key publications co-authored with T. Meidl include “Emergent Literacy and Cognition” in The Reading Professor (2015), “Valuing Students' Cultural Experiences and Linguistic Abilities in the Classroom” in the Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education (2013), “Character Education in Three Schools: Catholic, Quaker, and Public” in Education 3-13 (2011), and “Did 'The Beaver' question my authority?: Families and teachers helping children learn about respect” in Childhood Education (2009). Additional contributions encompass evaluation reports for Pennsylvania Department of Education projects and a foreword in Minority and Mainstream Children's Development and Academic Achievement (2007, with T. Yawkey). He has presented peer-reviewed papers at conferences such as the Association of Teacher Educators on topics like transforming teacher identity and classroom management approaches.