It wasn’t until he was studying to be a diplomat at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service that Bill discovered two things: that a diplomat could not pick and choose which future administration he would work for, and that it made more sense to experience the world prior to advocating, making, or implementing social policy. Bill dropped out of college and worked a series of colorful jobs before he returned to college life, where he attended Earlham College and majored in Peace and Global Studies with a Latin American focus. Bill has lived, worked, and traveled extensively in the western hemisphere’s Spanish-speaking world. While living and working in El Salvador as it emerged from a protracted civil war, Bill decided to return to school to study either education or public policy. A visiting social activist heard him discussing his interest in how people’s ideas change, and told him he should study with Eleanor Duckworth. Bill listened and spent the better part of a decade as a doctoral student, working often as one of Duckworth’s teaching fellows.
Bill’s initial focus on the learning that happens during study abroad programs shifted when he had a child. In order to stay close to home, he switched his focus to examining the evolution of pedagogical content knowledge among social studies educators. His dissertation Coordinating conceptions of peace: A critical exploration in social studies curriculum development has yet to be turned into a full length feature film.
A founding partner of Critical Exploration Press, Bill has been a college professor of teacher education, a leader of study abroad programs, a community garden organizer, and a K-12 teacher of Spanish and Humanities. He currently teaches middle school Spanish at an independent Jewish Day School.