Ferguson, Daniel

Dr. Daniel Ferguson
EdD, Teachers College, Columbia University
Assistant Professor
Early Childhood Education/Early Childhood Special Education:, PhD in Education
Early Childhood Education

Send email to Dr. Ferguson

Phone: (703) 993-2381
Fax: (703) 993-4370
Email: dfergu2 (@gmu.edu)

George Mason University
Fairfax Campus
Thompson Hall 1102
4400 University Dr.
MS 4C2
Fairfax, VA 22030

View Daniel Ferguson's curriculum vitae in PDF format.

Daniel E. Ferguson is an assistant professor of Early Childhood Education at the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University. He earned his Doctorate in Education in Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City. Prior to his doctoral work, he taught for over ten years in a variety of classrooms, including Kindergarten, 3rd, 4th, and high school debate in Birmingham, Alabama, and preschools in Hiroshima, Japan and New York City. He earned a Bachelors degree in Philosophy at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama, and a Masters in Early Childhood and Elementary Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

His dissertation, titled The Materiality of Early Literacy Curriculum: A Case Study of One Kindergarten Classroom in New York City, examines literacy curriculum through attending to the material organization of one classroom—the stacks in a closet, shelves, bulletin boards and book bins—to expose curriculum as a network effect actively produced through actors both local and distant, human and nonhuman. His writing has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, Journal of Literacy Research and Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, as well as in Rethinking Schools.

Dr. Ferguson's research interests have primarily focused on literacy curriculum and materials in early childhood spaces, applying critical and material theories to those interests.

Ferguson, D. E. (2024). Materialities of progressive curriculum reform: a case study of one kindergarten classroom. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 1-19.

Ferguson, D. E., Lewis, M. A., Dunkerly, J. M., Hayes, S. B., Talbert, C. S., & Moffit, C. A. (2024). Envisioning equity literacy in pre-service teacher education across five geographic educational contexts. The New Educator, 1-18.

Ferguson, D. E. & Dernikos, B. P. (2023). Reorienting curriculum materials as agents of restorative justice in early literacy classrooms. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 24(2), 163–175.

La Croix, L., Kidd, J. K., Walter, H., Stone, D., Ferguson, D. E., Fisher-Maltese, C., Steen, B., Vesely, C., & (2023). A dynamic process model for continued integration between ECE and EI/ECSE teacher preparation programs. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education 44:2, 216-233.

Ferguson, D. E., & Lemieux, A. (2022). Éclosions in Literacy Research: Rereading Brandt and Clinton’s “Limits of the Local.” Journal of Literacy Research, 54(2), 208–215.

Ferguson, D. E. (2021). “WE LOST THE PLADO”: Tracing privileged school literacies in one kindergarten classroom. Journal of Early Childhood Education. DOI: 10.1177/14687984211042055.

Ferguson, D. E., & Nichols, T. P. (2021). School sites and the haunting of history: Unmasking the past in field-based research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 34(9), 843-856.

Dernikos, B. P., Ferguson, D. E., & Siegel, M. (2020). The possibilities for “humanizing” posthumanist inquiries: An intra-active conversation. Cultural Studies↔Critical Methodologies, 20(5), 434–447.

Hatch, T., Ahn, M., Ferguson, D. E., & Rumberger, A. (2019). The role of external support in improving reading outcomes in New York City. Urban Education. DOI: 10.1177/0042085919877932.