UMass Boston

Social studies education, history education, teacher education, social justice, culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogy, inquiry-based instruction

EdD, Curriculum and Teaching (Social Studies Education), Boston University
MEd, Curriculum and Instruction, Boston College
BA, History, University of Massachusetts Amherst

• Martell, C. C. (in press). A longitudinal study of beginning elementary teachers' beliefs and inquiry-based practices in the history classroom. Teacher Development.
• Martinelle, R., Martell, C. C., & Chalmers-Curren, J. P. (in press). Teaching for transformative citizenship: A study of preservice social studies teachers' developing beliefs and practices. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice.
• Shreiner, T. L. & Martell, C. C. (in press). Making race and racism invisible: A critical race analysis of data visualizations in online curricular materials for teaching history. Race, Ethnicity and Education.
• Martell, C. C. (in press). White elementary teachers and learning to teach race in the social studies classroom: A 6-year longitudinal study. Whiteness and Education.
• Martell, C. C., Martinelle, R. & Chalmers-Curren, J. P. (in press). "We need to teach school differently": Learning to teach social studies for justice. The Journal of Social Studies Research.
• Martell, C. C., Carney, M. M., Marin, K. A., & Hashimoto-Martell, E. A. (2021). Whose research counts? Teacher research and the practitioner-academic divide. The Teacher Educator, 56(4), 399-426.
• Stevens, K. M. & Martell, C. C. (2021). Five years later: How the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the #MeToo Movement impacted feminist social studies teachers. Theory & Research in Social Education, 49(2), 201-226.
• Martell, C. C., & Stevens, K. M. (2020). Teaching history for justice: Centering activism in students’ study of the past. Teachers College Press.
• Martell, C. C. (2020). Barriers to inquiry-based instruction: A longitudinal study of history teachers. Journal of Teacher Education, 71(3), 279-291.
• Martell, C. C., & Stevens, K. M. (2019). Culturally sustaining social studies teachers: Understanding models of practice. Teaching and Teacher Education, 86, 1-11.
• Stevens, K. M. & Martell, C. C. (2018). Feminist social studies teachers: The role of teachers' backgrounds and beliefs in shaping gender equitable practices. The Journal of Social Studies Research, 43(1), 1-16.
• Martell, C. C. (Ed.). (2018). Social studies teacher education: Critical issues and current perspectives. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
• Martell, C. C. & Stevens, K. M. (2018). Perceptions of teaching race and gender: Results of a survey of Massachusetts social studies teachers. The High School Journal, 101(4), 274-299.
• Martell, C. C. (2018). Teaching about race in U.S. history: Examining culturally relevant pedagogy in a multicultural urban high school. Journal of Education, 198(1), 63-77.
• Martell, C. C. & Stevens, K. M. (2017). Becoming a race-conscious social studies teacher: The influence of personal and professional experiences. The Social Studies, 108(6), 249-260.
• Martell, C. C. & Stevens, K. M. (2017). Equity- and tolerance-oriented teachers: Approaches to teaching race in the social studies classroom. Theory & Research in Social Education, 45(4), 489-516.
• Martell, C. C. (2017). Approaches to teaching race in elementary social studies: A case study of preservice teachers. The Journal of Social Studies Research, 41(1), 75-87.
• Martell, C. C. & Sequenzia, M. R. (2016). Working the dialectic: Teaching and learning teacher research in social studies. The Educational Forum, 80(4), 407-416.
• Martell, C. C. (2016). Divergent views of race: Examining Whiteness in the U.S. history classroom. Social Studies Research and Practice, 11(1), 93-111.
• Martell, C. C. (2016). Teaching emerging teacher-researchers: Examining a district-based professional development course. Teaching Education, 27(1), 88-102.
• Stevens, K. M. & Martell, C. C. (2016). An avenue for challenging sexism: Examining the high school sociology classroom. Journal of Social Science Education, 15(1), 63-73.
• Martell, C. C. (2014). Building a constructivist practice: A longitudinal study of beginning history teachers. The Teacher Educator, 49(2), 97-115.
• Dunne, K. A. & Martell, C. C. (2013). Teaching America's past to our newest Americans: Immigrant students and United States history, Social Education, 77(4), 192-195.
• Martell, C. C. (2013). Race and histories: Examining culturally relevant teaching in the U.S. history classroom. Theory & Research in Social Education, 41(1), 65-88.
• Martell, C. C. (2013). Learning to teach history as interpretation: A longitudinal study of beginning teachers. The Journal of Social Studies Research, 37(1), 17-31.

Dr. Martell has taught EDC U 466/EDC G 662 Social Studies Methods, EDC G 676 Advanced Strategies for Teaching History, Social Studies, and Ethnic Studies, EDC G 626 Integrating Social Studies and the Arts, EDC U 406/EDC G 606 Sociocultural Foundations of Education, EDC U 460/EDC G 660 Using Data to Plan Curriculum and Instruction, and supervises student teachers. Before joining the faculty of UMass Boston, he was a clinical associate professor at Boston University.

Dr. Martell was a high school social studies teacher for 11 years in urban and suburban contexts. For most of his teaching career, he taught at Framingham High School, which is a racially and economically diverse urban school outside Boston with large immigrant populations from Brazil, Central America, and the Caribbean. As a teacher, he engaged in regular examinations of his own classroom practices through action research. His research and professional interests focus on teacher development across the career span, including preservice teacher preparation, inservice professional development, and practitioner inquiry. He is particularly interested in social studies teachers in urban and multicultural contexts, and how they teach for social justice, use culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogy, and engage their students in historical inquiry.