Dr. Lionel C. Howard

Interim Dean, Graduate School of Education and Human Development; Professor, Educational Research

School: Graduate School of Education and Human Development

Department: Educational Leadership

Contact:

Email: Dr. Lionel C. Howard

Office Phone: (202) 994-4959

Dr. Lionel Howard is a developmental psychologist whose research interest includes, broadly, gender and racial identity development and socialization, motivation and academic achievement, and research methodology. He has worked on several local and national research projects focused on Black child development and improving the educational trajectory and schooling experiences of minoritized students. He has also served as a consultant on education policy and evaluation studies.

Dr. Howard has published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Journal of Black Psychology, Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Journal of Boyhood, International Journal of Inclusive Education, Journal of Homosexuality, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, and Harvard Educational Review. He is co-editor of Facing Racism in Education (3rd Ed), published by Harvard University Press, and is completing a manuscript on researcher vulnerability in social science research. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health.

Dr. Howard received his Ed.D. in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University, Graduate School of Education, and completed a National Institute of Child Health and Development postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Department of Psychology and the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. He also has a M.A. in Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation from the University of Maryland, College Park, and B.A. in Applied Mathematics and Statistics from William Paterson University of New Jersey.

Education

Ed.D., Harvard University

Ed.M., Harvard University

M.A., University of Maryland, College Park

B.A., William Paterson University of New Jersey

Programs

PhD in Education: Education and Inequality Concentration

Expertise

Qualitative Research Methodology
Human Development and Psychology
Racial Identity Development
Gender Identity Development
Mixed Methods

Publications

Select Publications:

Isaacson, K. B., Kutscher, E. L., Tuckwiller, E. D., & Howard, L. C. (2026). Counting the Costs: A Proposed Conceptual Model of Disabled Students’ College-Going Decisions. The Journal of Higher Education, 97(6), 1146–1172. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2025.2549196

Saleem, F., Howard, L.C., Schmidt-Temple, C., Langley, A., & Howard, T. (Accepted September 2023, OnlineFirst, 2024). Understanding the influence of teachers’ ethnic-racial socialization practices on students in schools: A qualitative inquiry. Urban Education. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859241227961

Walters, H.L., Tuckwiller, B.D., Howard, L.C., Spencer, K.H., & Frey, J. (2023). A mixed-methods approach to understanding early childhood special education teacher well-being. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 65, 374-384.

Burmester, S., & Howard, L.C. (2022). Confronting book banning and assumed curricular neutrality: A critical inquiry framework. Theory into Practice, 61(4), 373-383.

Kutscher, E.L., & Howard, L.C. (2021). Integration as a Process: Applying Iterative Multiple Correspondence Analysis to Surface Dynamic Findings. Journal of Mixed Methods Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/15586898211021669

Howard, L.C. (2020). Vulnerability in the act of research: Methodological praxis and strategies of self-care. In A. Ali & T. McCarthy (Eds.), Critical Youth Research in Education: Methodologies of praxis and care (pp. 207-226). New York, NY: Routledge

English, D., Lambert, S., Zea, M., Bowleg, L. Tynes, B, & Howard, L.C. (2020). Daily multidimensional racial discrimination among Black American adolescents, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 66, 101068.

Howard, L.C., & Hammond, S. L. (2019). Vulnerable researcher: Implications for educational research and practice. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 32(4), 411-428. doi: 10.1080/09518398.2019.1597205.

Chan, C.D., Steen, S., Howard, L.C., & Ali, A.A. (2019). Disentangling the Complexities of Queer Theory and Intersectionality Theory: Research Paradigms and Insights for Social Justice. In K. Strunk & L. Locke (Eds.), Research Methods for Social Justice and Equity in Education (pp. 59-70). Switzerland: Palmgrave McMillian.

News and Media Mentions

January 2026
- Alumna Dr. Karly Ball Isaacson (Ph.D. in Education, Education and Inequality Concentration), along with Dr. Elisabeth Kutscher, Dr. Elizabeth Tuckwiller, and Interim Dean Lionel Howard, published an opinion piece in Inside Higher Ed titled, "The Hidden Costs that Keep Disabled Students from College."
- The recent study by alumna Dr. Karly Ball Isaacson (Ph.D. in Education, Education and Inequality Concentration), along with Dr. Elisabeth Kutscher, Dr. Elizabeth Tuckwiller, and Interim Dean Lionel Howard, titled, "Counting the Costs: A Proposed Conceptual Model of Disabled Students’ College-Going Decisions," was featured on Georgetown University's The Feed: "Providing better financial support for students with disabilities."
March 2025 - Dr. Lionel Howard was chosen as an Outstanding Reviewer for 2024 for his service on the editorial board of the American Educational Research Journal (AERJ).
March 2024
- Dr. Lionel Howard was an invited panelist at the 42nd Annual Conference on the Black Family at Hampton University in Norfolk, VA (March 20-22, 2024). The conference theme was Elevating Black Families - Actualizing the Vision of the Beloved Global Community, and the panel was titled "Health Relationships and the Experiences of Black men."
- Dr. Lionel Howard and colleagues at Stanford University (Farzana Saleem, Ph.D.) and UCLA (Cameron Schmidt-Temple; Audra Langley, Ph.D.; Tyrone Howard, Ph.D. AERA President) published an article titled, "Understanding Teachers' Ethnic-Racial Socialization Practices with Students in School: A Qualitative Inquiry," in Urban Education.
March 2023 - Dr. Lionel Howard gave an invited research presentation at the Maryland Equity Project colloquium speaker series held in the College of Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research presentation was titled, "Socio-emotional Learning and Development: The Implications for Black Boys." He also was an invited guest speaker for the EdD seminar at Hunter College CUNY.
December 2019 - Dr. Howard was invited by The Center for Innovative Teaching, Learning, and Engagement (CITLE), at Clark Atlanta University (a HBCU), to give a presentation entitled "Engaging Social Justice-Oriented Research." The center provides professional development opportunities to engage faculty in innovation and excellence in teaching, learning and scholarship that will further the goals of the undergraduate curriculum at the University.