Todd Chow-Hoy
Ph.D. Specialty Area: Educational Foundations and Social Policy
Present Position: Armed with my Ph.D., I decided to go back in to the classroom. I am currently the Case Middle School Mathematics Department Chair at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. Teaching 7th and 8th graders provides me with a different challenge every day and I truly enjoy watching them grow, both intellectually and developmentally. I also hold an appointment as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Education at Chaminade University in Honolulu, where I teach graduate courses in research methods (both quantitative and qualitative) and undergraduate foundations courses.
Dissertation Topic: My interests centered on how school context and principal leadership influence the moral and intellectual development of students.
Prior to coming to the SOE: Prior to coming to Michigan and the School of Education, I had just completed my Master's degree in Education at Washington University in St. Louis.
What I Learned in the Program: I came to graduate school right after finishing both my Bachelor's and Master's degree. My only experience in the classroom was time spent observing and student teaching. I sometimes wish that I had had more practical experience, as I think that it would have given me the perspective I needed to better appreciate what we were reading and discussing in class. Nevertheless, I can now apply what I learned through both coursework and research to my own classroom setting. The lessons that I gained from the myriad of research projects I worked on, informal discussions around a cup of coffee, lunches with advisors, and roundtables with administrators have made me a more of a "complete" educator and provided me with the ability to pose good questions as well as the skills I need to find the answers. Hopefully I can pass these same skills on to my own students, regardless of their age.
