Dr. John K. Smith University of Northern Iowa Charter Member

Dr. John K. Smith is Professor of Education at the University of Northern Iowa. He received his PhD in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1971.

Over the last 15 years Dr. Smith has been interested generally in the philosophical issues concerning the nature of social and educational inquiry and, more specifically, in the issue of criteria for judging interpretive inquiry. This interest has resulted in numerous presentations and publications, including two books entitled The Nature of Social and Educational Inquiry: Empiricism versus Interpretation and After the Demise of Empiricism: The Problem of Judging Social and Educational Inquiry.

Currently Dr. Smith is president of the Iowa Academy of Education. He is also past chairperson and a founding member of the Qualitative Research Special Interest Group, American Educational Research Association. Most recently, he is editing for Hampton Press a series of book length manuscripts that take an interpretive approach to the study of schools and schooling.