David Brazer

Ph.D., Stanford Unviersity
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 an Assistant Professor in 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 master's program for students pursuing a Virginia principal's license. He teaches in cohorts throughout Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. Recent projects also include coordinating a partnership with Fairfax County Public Schools to provide accelerated licensure to a promising group of teacher leaders. David also teaches courses at the Ph.D. level on campus and in Ph.D. cohorts for students wishing to specialize in education leadership. Questions regarding Ph.D. cohorts should be directed to David at the e-mail address above.

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 (article currently under review). Applying this model to field-based research, David and two other research partners are working with two school districts in Virginia and two in California to study specific change decisions and their implementation as the process occurs. 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.

David has also partnered with Penelope Earley, Director of the Educational Policy Center in CEHD, to study teachers' ability to remove endorsements from their licenses. This project is entering into an empirical phase in which individual state case studies of endorsement removal are being developed. Educational leaders will benefit from this study by having a clearer perspective on how teacher labor markets may be changing.

Additional research and publication efforts include the study of school site committee work, exploring the role of culturally and linguistically diverse teachers in assisting school leaders to reach immigrant student populations, and understanding how principals can attract and retain career switcher teachers.

Recent Publications

  • Brazer, S.D. & Keller, L.R. (in press) A design research approach to investigating educational decision making. In A. Kelly (Ed.), Handbook of design research in mathematics, science and technology education (tentative title). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Brazer, S.D., Sparrgrove, B., & Garvey, P. (2005). Making technology choices to improve performance-based assessment. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 9 (2), 76 – 80.
  • Brazer, S.D. (2005). Listening to and presenting data: Surviving and thriving in a data-driven world. In J. Tate & D. Dunklee, Strategic listening for school leaders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
  • Brazer, S.D. (2004). Principal choice and teacher participation in site-based management: Four schools implement one policy. In J. Chrispeels (Ed.), Learning to lead together: The promise and challenge of shared leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • 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 (46). Retrieved December 1, 2005 from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/vol13n46/.

Other Information

Presentations

  • Brazer, S.D., Rich, W. & Ross, S. (2005, November) The messy process of democratic educational decision making. Paper presented at the 2005 UCEA Convention, Nashville, TN.
  • Earley, P. & Brazer, S.D. (2005, November) Teachers removing license endorsements: The clash between individual rights, the common good, and bureaucratic need. Paper presented at the 2005 UCEA convention, Nashville, TN.
  • Earley, P. & Brazer, S.D. (2005, April) Teachers removing license endorsements: Short term consequences and long term policy implications. Paper presented at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Quebec.
  • Brazer, S.D. & Ferimeldi (2004, November) What happens in committee meetings? Exploring content, decision making, and roles in collaborative processes. Paper presented at the 2004 UCEA Convention, Kansas City, MO.
  • Brazer, S.D. & Keller, L.R. (2004, July). The multiobjective multistakeholder decision making model: Revealing decision making as it happens. Paper presented at the University of California, Santa Barbara 2004 Summer Forum, Santa Barbara, CA.