Christopher Lubienski
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Christopher Lubienski is the Director of the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy, and a professor of education policy at Indiana University. His work focuses on research evidence and education reform, and the political economy of education, with a particular concern for issues of equity. He has studied innovation, effectiveness, and organizational responses to competitive conditions in local education markets, with geo-spatial analyses of education opportunities. His current work examines policymakers’ use of research evidence as influenced by advocacy organizations. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education, a fellow with the American Educational Research Association, and a fellow at the National Education Policy Center. He has been a visiting scholar/professor at Monash University, Murdoch University, and East China Normal University, and was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at at Waikato University in New Zealand.
Christopher Lubienski joins the Paris IAS in June 2026 for a one-month writing residency.
Research topics
Evidence; misinformation; knowledge governance.
Possibilities for Democratic Education in an Era of Disinformation
This project examines the impact of technological innovations on information dissemination and the resulting social upheaval and erosion of trust in institutions and expertise, and considers the challenges facing information-based institutions in the current moment. Drawing parallels between the invention of the printing press and the current digital age, This research project examines how mis- and dis-information (MDI) can lead to social instability and declining confidence in established, expertise-oriented institutions.
It investigates current and historical trends in the decline of traditional expertise and the rise of new forms of knowledge governance, such as advocacy-driven organizations and internet communities, and attempts to (re-)assert expertise in the wake of such challenges. The research focuses on the role and potential of education systems in combating MDI by fostering critical literacy and social tolerance. However, such systems are also targets of misinformation campaigns.
The project employs a neo-institutionalist perspective to analyze how different governance structures in education and other sectors respond to MDI. It identifies effective strategies used by established and new institutions to maintain their legitimacy as arbiters of truth. He highlights challenges and potential solutions for governing knowledge production and propagation in a post-institutional era, centering the potential of democratically governed schooling in addressing misinformation.
Key publications
Christopher Lubienski, Mir Yemini, Claire Maxwell (Eds.). The Rise of External Actors in Education: Shifting Boundaries Globally and Locally. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, 2022.
Antoni Verger, Christopher Lubienski, Gita Steiner-Khamsi (Eds.). The Global Education Industry. New York: Routledge, 2016.
Christopher Lubienski, Sarah Theule Lubienski. The Public School Advantage: Why Public Schools Outperform Private Schools. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Pres, 2014.
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