UMass Boston

Christopher Martell is an associate professor of social studies education in UMass Boston’s College of Education and Human Development. His research has appeared in numerous peer-review journals and books. He is the author of the book “Teaching History for Justice: Centering Activism in Students’ Study of the Past” (with Kaylene M. Stevens) and also the editor of the book “Social Studies Teacher Education: Critical Issues and Current Perspectives.” He 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.