Description of Research Expertise

Areas of Expertise

Gender dynamics & education
Learning & emotional development
Group dynamics

Professional Biography

Dr. Kuriloff earned his doctorate in counseling psychology and is a fellow of the American Psychological Association in School Psychology. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania since 1970 and twice chaired the Psychology in Education Division. He moved to the Educational Leadership Division (now the Foundations and Practices of Education Division) in 1992. Besides teaching at GSE, Dr. Kuriloff is the senior advisor on Group Effectiveness and Career Development in Wharton’s Executive MBA program. He has held a number of University-wide positions, including chair of the Grievance Commission, chair of the Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility, and chair of the Faculty Senate.

Research Interests and Current Projects

Dr. Kuriloff’s interests include gender dynamics (masculinities, femininities, and school gender “offers”) and their impact on the opportunities of children; minority retention in schools and colleges; and, in general, the reinvention of schools as more inclusive, open, generous, and effective places for the children who inhabit them. His research has involved the study of learning and teaching in small groups, the impact of legal reform on educational practice including the effectiveness of various kinds of dispute resolution in public schools, the nature of parent-child communications about human sexuality, the organizational and educational consequences of parental involvement in public schools, and most recently, the impact of various constructions of masculinity on boys’ learning and emotional development. In his capacity as research director of the Center for the Study of Boys’ and Girls’ Lives, a coalition of independent schools, he fosters teacher-initiated research to discover and implement best practices for boys and girls.

His work with GSE’s Mid-Career Executive Doctoral Program also has caused him to begin studying how teaching practitioner research methods to current educational leaders affects both their understanding of their leadership behavior and their school or district’s capacity to learn.