Kathryn Lanouette is an Assistant Professor of Learning Sciences and Science Education at William & Mary’s School of Education, with faculty affiliate appointments in the Arts & Sciences (ENSP, IIC). In collaboration with schools, museums, and other youth-serving community organizations, Lanouette’s research and teaching explore how place-based pedagogies and emerging technologies can be central to young people’s learning about science and data science, in ways that build towards more joyful and ethical futures. Through her scholarship, Lanouette seeks to advance not only theoretical understandings of young peoples’ learning processes, but also practical instantiations that directly inform the design of K-8 science and data science curricula inside and outdoors. 

Dr. Lanouette’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Science Education, Journal of Learning Sciences, Educational Researcher, Cognition & Instruction, Connected Science, and Journal of Science Education and Technology as well as in Routledge book collections. Lanouette has recently co-edited a special issue of Occasional Paper Series (No. 48).  

Dr. Lanouette teaches a variety of courses on topics such as education research methodologies, elementary science teaching and learning, foundations of US education, and applied mentored research in interdisciplinary conservation sciences.  

Prior to her current appointment at William & Mary, Dr. Lanouette was a postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Berkeley working with middle school students and teachers on the NSF-funded Writing Data Stories (PI: Dr. Michelle Hoda Wilkerson). She holds a PhD in Learning Sciences and Human Development from University of California, Berkeley, an MA in Childhood & Museum Education from Bank Street Graduate School of Education, and BA in Politics from Oberlin College. Her scholarship is shaped by her teaching and environmental advocacy work in Washington, DC and New York City.  

Access CV here.