Research

As a researcher, I explore what and how people learn through creative production in both formal and informal learning settings. In particular, I investigate how cultural contexts (ranging from informal music communities to math classrooms) both produce and restrict different types of curricula, pedagogies, and knowledge. While extant research shows that creative production holds the potential to empower individuals, the unexamined cultural forces within formal and informal curricula often reproduce systemic forms of oppression.

Through my research practice, I have found that investigating the historical and cultural contexts surrounding creative production demands a critical and interdisciplinary approach. In response, my work draws equally from curriculum studies, the learning sciences, cultural studies, art education research, and visual cultures. I approach this work through a number of philosophical lenses including poststructuralism, posthumanism, critical race theory, and feminist theory and draw from a variety of methodological standpoints including ethnography, design-based research, text analysis, object studies, and arts-based research. Findings from this work reveal unexplored, unique, and culturally situated ways of knowing and learning embedded within networks of interconnected and agentic actors (ranging from teachers and students to technologies, environments, and historical forces).

Recent Refereed Journal Articles

Woods, P. J. (2022). Learning to make noise: Toward a process model of artistic practice within experimental music scenes. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/10749039.2022.2098337

Woods, P. J. (2022). Aesthetics in the Eugenics Movement: A Critical Examination. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 56(2), 56–77. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/854113

Woods, P. J., & Jones, K. (2022). Players chatter and dice clatter: Exploring sonic power relations in posthuman game-based learning ecologies. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 0(0), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2022.2140124

Woods, P. J. (2021). Moving the Show Online: An Analysis of DIY Virtual Venues. Popular Culture Studies Journal. 9(2), 159-177. https://mpcaaca.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/SI11-Woods.pdf

Woods, P. J. (2021). Reimagining collaboration through the lens of the posthuman: Uncovering embodied learning in noise music. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 18(1), 45–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/15505170.2020.1786747

Recent Refereed Conference Papers

Woods, P. J., Copur-Gencturk, Y., & Atabas, S. (2022). Analyzing the Influence of Student Problem Solving Approaches on Learning Through Teaching in Mathematics Education. In Proceedings of the 2022 Annual Meeting of the International Society of the Learning Sciences. (p. 893-896). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360961936_Analyzing_the_Influence_of_Student_Problem_Solving_Approaches_on_Learning_Through_Teaching_in_Mathematics_Education

Desportes, K., Vacca, R., Tes, M., Woods, P. J., Matuk, C., Amato, A., & Silander, M., (2022). Dancing with Data: Embodying the Numerical and Humanistic Sides of Data. In Proceedings of the 2022 Annual Meeting of the International Society of the Learning Sciences. (p. 305-312). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359821240_Dancing_with_Data_Embodying_the_Numerical_and_Humanistic_Sides_of_Data

Vacca, R., DesPortes, K., Tes, M., Silander, M., Matuk, C., Amato, A., & Woods, P. J. (2022). “I happen to be one of 47.8%“: Social-Emotional and Data Reasoning in Middle School Students’ Comics about Friendship. In Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. (p. 1-18). https://doi.org/10.1145/3491102.3502086

Woods, P. J. (2020). Towards a Noisier Constructionism: Reimagining Experimental Music as Learning Context. In Proceedings of the 2020 Constructionism Conference (pp. 575-583). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341644510_Towards_a_Noisier_Constructionism_Reimagining_Experimental_Music_as_Learning_Context

Woods, P. J. (2019) (Re)making Whiteness: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Equity-Based Maker Literature. In Proceedings of the 2019 Connected Learning Summit (pp. 189-197). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339986968_Remaking_Whiteness_A_Critical_Discourse_Analysis_of_Equity-Based_Maker_Literature