Urban Education - Bernardo Pohl

Curriculum Vitae

​Dr. Bernardo Pohl, Co-Pi, is an Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Houston-Downtown. He currently teaches critical issues in social studies and social studies methods. Previously, he was a special education and social studies teacher at Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District in Northwest Houston for 10 years. He earned his Doctorate in Education from University of Houston-Main.

Dr. Pohl began his career in education as a substitute teacher in Cypress Fairbanks ISD in 1999. He was also an inner city TAKS tutor for Houston ISD. During his graduate studies, he served as a grant assistant, archivist, and special education advisor to the Board of Directors of the Gulf Coast American History Academy—a federally funded teacher professional development project from the University of Houston-Main and Region IV Educational Services. He is an active and participating member of the American Educational Research Association, the American Association of Teaching and Curriculum, the Texas Council of Social Studies, the Canadian Association of Disability Studies, and the Texas Council of Exceptional Children. Dr. Pohl currently serves as the College Representative and Past-President of Friends of Geography of Houston (FOG). He is the author of the book The Moral Debate on Special Education published by Peter Lang, which has been nominated for 2015 Outstanding Book of the Year at the American Education Research Association. 

Dr. Pohl research focuses on moral and ethical issues on social studies and special education, and his research has been presented nationally and internationally. Currently, he is a fellow researcher at the New Faculty Academy - a multi-campus university research in the Houston area, and his work focuses in the mentoring/induction experience of novice special education teachers. Preliminary findings for this project were presented at the 2015 Invisible Academy at the American Education Research Association annual meeting in Chicago, Illinois, and at the 2016 Ethnographic Qualitative Research Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Over the years, he has implemented research-based literacy techniques into the social studies curriculum. His successful implementation of this practices has been published in the Social Studies Texan and at the annual conference of the Texas Council of Social Studies.