J. Spencer Clark

Dr. Clark brings more than two decades of teaching experience spanning K-12 classrooms, undergraduate teacher preparation, and graduate education. He began his career as a secondary teacher in Kansas City public schools and at the secondary level before transitioning to higher education, where he has taught at Indiana University, Utah State University, and Kansas State University. This grounding in classroom practice shapes his approach to teaching at every level — emphasizing inquiry, agency, and the meaningful connection between theory and practice. At Kansas State University, Dr. Clark teaches across both undergraduate and graduate programs in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction. His courses engage students in curriculum theory, action research, history of education, and contemporary issues in teaching and learning, offered across in-person, hybrid, and online modalities. He has been particularly committed to the development and delivery of online doctoral education, serving as coordinator of the Ed.D. in Curriculum & Instruction program and designing courses that support advanced scholarly thinking and professional growth for practicing educators. Dr. Clark's teaching has been recognized with multiple awards at both KSU and Utah State University, including K-State's Commerce Bank & W.T. Kemper Foundation Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award (2025), the KSU College of Education Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award (2022), and Teacher of the Year honors at USU at the college and program levels. He has also chaired 38 doctoral dissertations to completion and served on more than 30 additional doctoral committees, reflecting a deep and sustained commitment to mentoring the next generation of educational scholars and practitioners.