David Brazer

PhD, Stanford University
Associate Professor
Coordinator, Education Leadership

Contact Information

Send email to sbrazer@gmu.edu

Phone: (703) 993-3634
Fax: (703) 993-3643

George Mason University, Fairfax Campus
Commerce II 213
4400 University Dr.
MS 4C2
Fairfax, VA 22030

Profile

S. David Brazer is Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Education Leadership Program at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Prior to coming to the College of Education and Human Development, David was a school administrator for 12 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, serving his last six years as the principal of Los Altos High School in Los Altos, California.

David teaches primarily in the Education Leadership licensure/master's program for students pursuing a Virginia pre-K – 12 administrative license. He teaches in cohorts throughout Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. David also teaches courses at the Ph.D. level on campus and in Ph.D. cohorts for students wishing to specialize in education leadership. In collaboration with colleagues, he has created doctoral coursework specifically designed to help students learn the foundational literature in education leadership and acquire the skills necessary to become independent researchers. Questions regarding Ph.D. cohorts should be directed to David at the e-mail address above.

Recent projects also include coordinating a partnership with Fairfax County Public Schools to provide accelerated licensure to a promising group of teacher leaders and building a partnership with five Northern Virginia school divisions to develop the Northern Virginia School Leadership Center.

Research Interests

David's primary research interest is in the area of educational decision making. He and co-author L. Robin Keller from the U-C Irvine Paul Merage School of Business have developed a model of decision making in educational contexts (Brazer & Keller, 2006). Applying this model to field-based research, David and two other research partners are working with one school districts in Virginia and two in California to study specific change decisions and their implementation. This real-time study of decision making is unusual in education and private sector based research. Implications include re-conceptualizing how decisions occur in educational contexts and helping school leaders to understand how multiple constituencies influence their decision making. (See Brazer & Peters, 2007; Rich & Brazer, 2007; and Brazer & Ross, 2006.)

 

Additional research and publication efforts include the study of administrative licensure program influence on master’s-level graduates, school site committee work, and early-career faculty service on doctoral dissertation committees.

 

Recent Publications

Brazer, S.D., & Keller, L.R. (2008) A design research approach to investigating educational decision making. In A.E. Kelly, R.A. Lesh, & J.Y. Baek (Eds.), Handbook of design research methods in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics learning and teaching, (pp. 284 – 296). New York: Routledge, Taylor, and Francis.

 

Brazer, S.D., & Peters, E.E. (2007). Deciding to change: One district’s quest to improve overall student performance. International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership, 2 (5). Retrieved July 24, 2007 from http://www.ijepl.org.

 

Brazer, S.D. (2007). Teaching leaders to lead committees. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 11 (2).

 

Rich, W., & Brazer, S.D. (2007). Guided democratic inquiry: A case study in the redesign of local policy. Journal of Research for Educational Leaders, 4 (1). Retrieved April 2, 2007 from http://www.education.uiowa.edu/jrel/Current_Issue.htm.

 

Brazer S. D., & Keller, L.R. (2006). A conceptual framework for multiple stakeholder educational decision making. International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership 1, (3). Retrieved October 6, 2006 from http://www.ijepl.org.

 

Bauer, S., & Brazer, S.D. (2006). Redesigning leadership programs: 4 puzzles. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 10 (3).

 

Earley, P., & Brazer, S.D. (2005) Exploring state policy regarding teachers removing license endorsements: Short term and long term policy implications. Education Policy Analysis Archives 13 (47). Retrieved October 12, 2006 from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v13n47/.  

Other Information

Selected Presentations

 

Bauer, S., & Brazer, S.D. (2008, November) Preparing leaders to foster student success: Learning by leading change. A paper presented at the 2008 UCEA Convention, Orlando, FL.

 

Brazer, S.D. (2008, November) Implementing a strategic decision: From collaboration to mandate. A paper presented at the 2008 UCEA Convention, Orlando, FL.

 

Brazer, S.D. (2008, April) A comparative case study of collaborative strategic decision making in school districts. Invited paper presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York , NY.

 

Bauer, S., & Brazer, S.D. (2008, April) Learning leadership through making change. A paper presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Educational research Association, New York, NY.

 

Brazer, S.D. (2007, November) Strategic educational decision making: Three districts strive to improve instruction. Paper presented at the 2007 UCEA Convention, Alexandria, VA.

 

Brazer, S.D., Jones, G., Lukacs, K., Montgomery, V., Ross, S. (2007, November) Why a conceptual framework? A conversation about scholarship and practice. Conversation presented at the 2007 UCEA Convention, Alexandria, VA.

 

Brazer, S.D. (2006, November) Deciding to change: One school district's quest to improve overall student performance. Paper presented at the 2006 UCEA Convention, San Antonio, TX.

 

Bauer, S., & Brazer, S.D. (2006, April) Redesigning education leadership programs: Lessons from three partnership programs. Paper presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA.