Rate My Professor Joe Ohlinger

Joe Ohlinger serves as Assistant Professor of Education in the Department of Teacher Education within the School of Education at Purdue University Fort Wayne. He represents the Department of Teacher Education on the university senate for the 2024–27 term, contributing to institutional governance and policy discussions. Ohlinger has been involved in curriculum-related initiatives, including listing in university memoranda on educational policy and governance courses such as School Leader Advocacy. His engagement extends to collaborative projects, such as assisting with a collective impact grant from the Office of Engagement for a campus garden initiative designed to address food security, promote sustainability, and integrate experiential learning across disciplines including education, sciences, and arts.

Ohlinger's scholarly contributions appear in peer-reviewed outlets focused on curriculum studies, teacher education, and community engagement. He authored the chapter 'A Curriculum of Becoming' in the 2021 edited volume Hope and Joy in Education: Engaging Daisaku Ikeda Across Curriculum and Context, published by Teachers College Press. In a 2024 publication, he co-authored 'Farm to college: community engagement, learning and addressing food security while growing local foods on a Midwest college campus' in the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, detailing a campus-based project involving teacher preparation faculty and extension educators. Additional works include 'The Belly of The Whale: Who Dares To Certify?' published in the Contemporary Education Journal in 2025, exploring autoethnography and teacher certification; 'Making Discussions Existentially Relevant to Students' in 2025; and a book review of Worth Striking For: Why Education Policy is Every Teacher's Concern in the Mid-Western Educational Researcher in 2022. Ohlinger has presented at conferences including the American Educational Studies Association (AESA), the Bergamo Conference on Curriculum Theory and Classroom Practice, and the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing. In 2019, he published an op-ed titled 'Democracy demands critical thought' in the Journal Gazette, emphasizing the role of critical thinking in social studies education.