T. Philip Nichols, Ph.D.

Dr. T. Philip Nichols is an associate professor of English education in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction. His research explores how science and technology condition the ways we practice, teach, and talk about literacy and the implications of this conditioning for equitable public education. 

Dr. Nichols is currently working on several projects. First, he examines how the concept of “innovation” gets mobilized in public school reform and the competing interests and imperatives that drive these efforts. This was the focus of his book, Building the Innovation School: Infrastructures for Equity in Today’s Classrooms (Teachers College Press, 2022). Second, he explores how platform technologies (e.g., apps, adaptive software, data infrastructures) are remaking the work of teaching, learning, and administration — especially as it pertains to literacy education. His forthcoming book, co-edited with Antero Garcia, Literacies in the Platform Society: Histories, Pedagogies, Possibilities (Routledge, 2025) maps this emerging terrain and what it means for research, policy, and practice. Third, he is studying the political history of “media education” and its work in bridging Cold War social science, aesthetics, and English/literacy pedagogy over the last 70 years.

Dr. Nichols’s work at the intersection of literacy and technology has been widely recognized. He was the recipient of an NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship (2017) and Postdoctoral Fellowship (2022), and he was also awarded the 2022 Early Career Achievement Award from the Literacy Research Association and the 2024 Media Literacy Award from the National Council of Teachers of English. His work appears in leading journals, including Harvard Educational Review, Review of Research in Education, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and Learning, Media & Technology. He also frequently writes for practitioner journals (English Journal, Phi Delta Kappan), trade publications (Education Week, Edsource), and public venues (The Atlantic, Los Angeles Review of Books). 

Dr. Nichols holds a Ph.D. in Literacy, Culture, and International Education from the University of Pennsylvania, where he also earned an M.A. in History and Sociology of Science.

Dr. Nichols is currently accepting new Ph.D. students.

Degrees

Ph.D., Literacy, Culture, and International Education
2018 | University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

M.A., History & Sociology of Science
2016 | University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

M.A.Ed., English Education
2010 | Arcadia University, Glenside, PA

Select Publications

• Review of Research in Education, 2024
  "The platformization of writing instruction: Considering educational equity in new learning ecologies"
  with co-authors Amy Storniauolo, University of Pennsylvania; Jennifer Higgs, University of California – Davis; Robert Jean LeBlanc, University of Lethbridge; Roberto Santiago de Roock, University of California – Santa Cruz
• Reading Research Quarterly, 2024
  "Speculative capture: Literacy after platformization"
  with coauthors Alexandra Thrall, Baylor University; Julian Quiros, University of Pennsylvania; Ezekiel Dixon-Román, Teachers College, Columbia University
• Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 2024
  "Platform governance and education policy: Power and politics in emerging edtech ecologies"
• Learning, Media, and Technology, 2024
  "Googlization(s) of education: Intermediary work brokering platform dependence in three national school systems"
  with co-authors Niels Kerssens, Utrect University; Luci Pangrazio, Deakin University
• Harvard Educational Review, 2023
  "What relationships do we want with technology? Toward technoskepticism in schools"
  with co-authors Jacob Pleasants, University of Oklahoma; Dan Krutka, University of North Texas

Awards & Honors

• Media Literacy Award – 2024 | National Council of Teachers of English
• Early Career Achievement Award - 2022 | Literacy Research Association
• Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship - 2021 | National Academy of Education
• Spencer Dissertation Fellowship - 2017 | National Academy of Education

Professional Leadership

• Editor, Contemporary Issues in Technology & Teacher Education (English) - 2021-2024 
  (English/Language Arts); National Council of Teachers of English / Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education.

Courses

• Issues in Diversity (Doctoral Seminar)
• Young Adult Literature (Undergraduate)
• Advanced Qualitative Methods (Doctoral Seminar)
• Design-Based Research (Doctoral Seminar)
• Social Issues in Education (Undergraduate)
• Media Literacy (Graduate Seminar)
• Fundamentals of Curriculum (Doctoral Seminar)