School of Education

Brendan Maxcy is Associate Professor of Urban Education Leadership and Policy Studies at the Indiana University School of Education at IUPUI. From 2018 to 2022, he served as Associate Dean of Research and Faculty Development and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research from 2017 to 2018. As Chair of Graduate Programs, Coordinator of Educational Leadership Programs and Director of the Urban Principals Program, he helped lead the School’s effort to prepare school, district and state-level leaders employing equity-focused, anti-oppressive practices.

Maxcy researches educational reform policies and leader responses to these. In addition to research on US schooling, he studied leadership responses to national reforms and intense regional unrest in southern Thailand. He was co-principal investigator for two federally funded centers, the Great Lakes Equity Center and the Burmese Community Center for Education. Both centers sought to enhance student access to and participation in high quality education regardless of race, sex, and national origin.

Maxcy has authored and co-authored more than forty articles, book chapters, and reports, and co-edited the 2010 Politics of Education Association yearbook. His work is published in Urban Education, Educational Policy, Educational Management, Administration & Leadership, The Peabody Journal of Education and Educational Administration Quarterly. The Politics of Education Association named his doctoral study of district and school governance the Outstanding Dissertation on the Politics of Education. In recognition of his contributions to the field, he received the Jack A. Culbertson Award given annually by the University Council for Educational Administration to an outstanding junior professor of educational administration.

• PhD in Educational Administration, University of Texas at Austin, 2004
• MEd in Science Education, University of Texas at Austin, 1996
• BS in Education, University of Maine, 1990

• EDUC-Y 520: Strategies of Educational Inquiry
• EDUC-A 624 The Principalship
• EDUC-J 500: Curriculum in the Context of Learning
• EDUC-A 560: Perspectives on Educational Politics
• EDUC-A 695 Practicum in Educational Leadership
• EDUC-A 720 Workshop on Selected Problems in Educational Leadership

• Critical Leadership Studies
• Critical Policy Analysis
• Organizational Theory
• Politics of Education

• Jack A. Culbertson Early Career Award, University Council of Educational Administration, 2010
• Outstanding Dissertation in the Politics of Education, 2004-2006, Politics of Education Association, April, 2006.
• Outstanding Reviewer. Educational Administration Quarterly, 2006.
• David L. Clark Scholar, National Graduate Student Research Seminar hosted by the University of Educational Administration, 2004

• Nguyen, T.S.T., Maxcy, B.D., Mutraw, M.O., Plo, N., & Nar, Y.D. (2013). Burmese Community Center for Education: Community Self-Empowerment Program. Office of Refugee Resettlement, USDHHS. (Co-principal Investigator, $600,000 (2013-2016) awarded September, 2013).
• King Thorius, K., Maxcy, B.D., & Nguyen, T.S.T. (2011). Great Lakes Equity Center at Indiana University-Indianapolis. Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, USDOE. (Co-principal Investigator, $2.2 million (2011-2014) awarded August, 2011).
• Maxcy, B.D., Nguyen, T.S.T., & Scribner, J.P. University of Missouri Vietnam Fellows Collaborative Inquiry Project. SEAMEO ReTraC, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. (Primary Investigator: Memorandum of Understanding signed November 2009).
• Nitjarunkul, K., Maxcy, B.D., Atisabda, W. Sungtong, E., Placier, P. Grogan, M., Nguyen, T.S.T. (2007). Organizational Challenges for Educators in Southern Thai Primary Schools Responding to Educational Reform and Cultural Unrest. The Prince of Songkla University Research Council, Hat Yai, Thailand. (Co-Primary Investigator: Awarded November 2007).
• Maxcy, B.D. & Placier, P. (2006). Reconsidering and Renegotiating Institutional Position at an Elite Thai School, The University of Missouri-Columbia Research Council, Columbia, MO. (Primary Investigator: Awarded March 2, 2006).
• Maxcy, B.D. (2005). A study of responses of school officials to religious-ethnic violence and government reform in Thailand, The Dr. Richard Wallace Alumni Association Research Incentive Grants, Columbia, MO. (Primary Investigator: Awarded January 10, 2006).

• American Educational Research Association
• University Council for Educational Administration
• Politics of Education Association