Marleen C. Pugach, PhD, is Professor Emerita in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is a national and international expert on teacher education for inclusion and the development and implementation of dual certification programs across special and general education. Her scholarly interests span teacher education policy, practice, and reform at the intersection of general and special education; teacher education for inclusion; situating disability intersectionally within the larger question of equity in the preparation of teachers; dual certification; pre-service curriculum reform; and qualitative research methods.
In addition to numerous book and handbook chapters, she has published over 70 articles that have appeared in journals such as The Journal of Teacher Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, and Teacher Education and Special Education. Dr. Pugach is author, co-author, and co-editor of several books, including the introduction to teaching text Because Teaching Matters (third edition in preparation, to be published by John Wiley and Sons); the ethnographic study On the Border of Opportunity; Collaborative Practitioners, Collaborative Schools (co-authored with Johnson); Curriculum Trends, Special Education, and Reform: Refocusing the Conversation (co-authored with Warger); and co-editor of Teacher Education in Transition: Collaborative Programs to Prepare General and Special Educators (with Blanton, Winn, & Griffin). Most recently, she and her co-authors Ananya Matewos and Joyce Gomez-Najarro published two extensive literature reviews on social justice, social identity, and intersectionality (2019, 2021), both appearing in the Journal of Teacher Education.
She is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Education at the University of Illinois, The Merrill Award for Excellence in Teaching and Teacher Education from the Teacher Education Division of the International Council for Exceptional Children, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Research Foundation Senior Faculty Award, and the Margaret Lindsey Award for Distinguished Research in Teacher Education from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. As an adjunct professor for Off-Site Graduate Programs for the College of New Jersey, which serves international teaching professionals globally, she taught the Introduction to Research course for over 20 summers in Palma de Mallorca.
A former Fulbright scholar, Dr. Pugach is a national and international consultant on teacher education reform for inclusion. Internationally, she has consulted and presented in her area of expertise in Canada, New Zealand, Scotland, the Republic of Ireland, Israel and the United Arab Emirates.