Dr. Bernardo Pohl
Biography
Dr. Bernardo Pohl is an Associate Professor and the Faculty Assessment Coordinator for the Department of Urban Education at the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD). He currently teaches critical issues in social studies, social studies methods, and special education theory. Before joining UHD, he was a special education and social studies teacher at Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District in Northwest Houston for 10 years. He earned his Master's and Doctorate in Education from the University of Houston-Main.
Dr. Pohl began his career in education as a substitute teacher in Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District in 1999. He was also an inner-city TAKS tutor for Houston Independent School District. During his doctoral 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.
Currently, 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, and the Ethnographic Qualitative Research Conference. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research and a Co-Editor for the Journal of Behavioral and Social Sciences.
Dr. Pohl research focuses on moral and ethical issues in social studies and special education, and his research has been presented locally, state, nationally, and internationally in Europe and Canada. Currently, he is a fellow researcher at the New Faculty Academy—a multi-campus university research team in the Houston area, where his work focused on the mentoring/induction experience of novice special education teachers in Southeast Texas. Findings for this project have been presented at the annual meetings of the Invisible College at the American Education Research Association, the American Association of Teaching and Curriculum, and the Ethnographic Qualitative Research Conference (EQRC). Over the years, he has implemented research-based literacy techniques into the social studies and special education curriculum. His successful implementation of these practices has been published in the Social Studies Texan and English in Texas and presented at the annual conferences of the Texas Council of Social Studies and the Texas Council of Teachers of Language Arts.
He is the author of the book The Moral Debate on Special Education published by Peter Lang, which was nominated for the 2015 Outstanding Book of the Year at the American Education Research Association. In 2016, he received the McGraw-Hill/EQRC Distinguished Scholar Award at the Ethnographic Qualitative Research Conference. In the spring of 2019, he was awarded first place for the Faculty Service Award at the University of Houston-Downtown.
Degrees Earned
B.Arch (University of Houston-Main)
M.Ed. (University of Houston-Main)
Ed.D. (University of Houston-Main)
Courses Taught
Social Studies Methods-EED 3311
Critical Issues in Social Studies-SOSE 3310
Cultures in Urban Schools-SOSE 3306
Graduate Level Instructional Methods-MAT 5316
Graduate Level Social Studies Methods-MAT 5319
Experience Qualifications
Book:
Pohl, B. (2013). The moral debate on special education. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Chapters:
Pohl, B. (2015). At the Margins of Social Justice: The Debate on Special Education and the Other Latino. In J. Martin (Ed), Racial Battle Fatigue: Insights from the Front Lines of Social Justice. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. (225-240)
Pohl, B. (2015). The Critical Debate on Special Education: At the Margin of Social Justice. In C. White (Ed), Critical Qualitative Research in Social Studies. Information Age Publishing. (113-129)
Articles:
Kelly, J. and Pohl, B. (2017). Using Structured Positive and Negative Reinforcement to Change Student Behavior in Educational Settings in order to Achieve Student Academic Success. Multidisciplinary Journal for Education, Social and Technological Sciences. In Press
Pohl, B. and Kelly, J. (2016). Examining the Mentoring and Induction Experience of Novice Special Education Teachers: Perspective from the Field. The Forum for Texas Teacher. Volume 6. (37-51)
Pohl, B. (2016). Social Education for the Disabled: Standing at the Margin of Social Justice. Journal of Social Studies and History Education. Volume 2, Issue 2. (1-21)
Pohl, B. and Beaudry, C. (2015). Critical Literacy in the Social Studies Classroom: A Case for the 21st Century. Journal of Family Strengths. Volume 15, Issue 5. (1-13)
Pohl, B. (2015). Meet Me at the Flagpole: Thoughts About Houston's Legacy of Obscurity and Silence in the Fight of Segregation and Civil Right Struggles. Journal of Social Studies and History Education. Volume 1, Issue 1. (1-19)
Pohl, B. (2008). Voices of Empowerment. The English Record. Volume 83; Issue 1. (18-22)