Biography
Rodney Hopson, Ph.D. serves as Professor of Evaluation in the Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. Previously, he served as Professor, Division of Educational Psychology, Research Methods, and Education Policy in the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University and as Hillman Distinguished Professor, Department of Educational Foundations and Leadership in the School of Education, and teaching faculty member in the Center for Interpretive and Qualitative Research and Honors College in the School of Liberal Arts at Duquesne University.
He received his Ph.D. from the Curry School of Education, University of Virginia with major concentrations in educational evaluation, anthropology, and policy, and sociolinguistics.
Research Interests
Hopson’s research interests lie in social politics and policies, foundations of education, sociolinguistics, ethnography, and evaluation. Relative to his research interests, Hopson raises questions that 1) analyze and address the differential impact of education and schooling on marginalized and underrepresented groups in diverse global nation states and 2) seek solutions to social and educational conditions in the form of alternative paradigms, epistemologies, and methods for the way the oppressed and marginalized succeed and thrive despite circumstances and opportunities that suggest otherwise. Author of 8 (co-authored and co-edited books), his research and evaluation work can be found in Addiction Research and Theory, American Journal of Evaluation, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, Chicago Policy Review, Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, International Journal of Human Rights, Journal of Negro Education, New Directions for Evaluation, Review of Education Research, Race, Ethnicity, and Education, Urban Education, and in a host of international handbooks and other book titles.
Courses Taught
As the first born of two passionate and lifelong learners and teachers, I am blessed to inherit a spirit of resolve and perseverance, an unwavering commitment to my fellow man, and an increased desire to leave the world a better place than the one into which I was born. It is these qualities that I have attempted to nourish and expand during my professional academic and administrative career. I find the rewards and challenges of teaching extremely exhilarating and I hope and imagine myself tapping into and exposing my students, young and old, to an unraveling and a reopening of their intellectual growth, interests and passions, sometimes despite their initial frustrations and unwillingness.
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor, Educational Psychology
Professor, Education Policy, Organization and Leadership
Dean's Fellow, College of Education
Recent Publications
Cram, A., Hopson, R., Powell, M., Williams, A., & Kaul, A. (2019). Challenges and possibilities in developing a programme-theory model through stakeholder engagement, dialogue, and reflection. Evaluation Matters—He Take Tō Te Aromatawai, 5, 113-143. https://doi.org/10.18296/em.0042
Horsford, S. D., Stovall, D., Hopson, R., & D’Amico, D. (2019). School Leadership in the New Jim Crow: Reclaiming Justice, Resisting Reform. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 18(2), 177-179. https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2019.1611872
Hood, S., & Hopson, R. (2018). Race and the Production of Knowledge in Black Higher Education: The Legacy and Contributions of Charles H. Thompson and the Journal of Negro Education in Evaluation. In B. L. Foster, S. W. Graham, & J. F. Donaldson (Eds.), Navigating the Volatility of Higher Education: Anthropological and Policy Perspectives (pp. 237-252). (Education Policy in Practice: Critical Cultural Studies). Information Age Publishing Inc..
Hopson, R. (2018). Apples Do Not Fall Far From Trees and Other Interesting Revelations as I Come to Age in Evaluation. New Directions for Evaluation, 2018(157), 113-116. https://doi.org/10.1002/ev.20285
Hopson, R., & Cram, F. (Eds.) (2018). Tackling Wicked Problems in Complex Ecologies: The Role of Evaluation. Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503605565