Madhu Narayanan studies the changing values and norms of the institution of education. His work examines how language, policy, and practice come together to form shifting discursive foundations as education takes on new and diverse forms. He draws from anthropology and sociology, as well as education policy, economics, pragmatism, politics, and urban studies.
A key area of interest is how individuals—teachers, leaders, and other bureaucrats—work to uphold and resist currents of change within institutions. His research includes studies of teachers seeking autonomy through lesson planning and district officials navigating adaptation within rigid bureaucratic norms.
With interests in urban education, his work is informed by his experience as a teacher and high school principal in New York City. Schools are essential threads in the fabric of cities, often imagined as symbols of urban decay or as beacons of hope for poor and migrant families. His work centers on the latter.
His most recent project examines a diverse network of educators in India who are reinventing the norms and values of education to serve students historically denied access to quality schooling. This research traces how municipal governments, global policies, capital flows, committed educators, and resilient residents of urban slums are working together to rewrite the rules of the institution of education.
Recent Publications
Narayanan, M. (2025). Continent imaginaries across time: official educational discourse from the progressive USA to UNESCO. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2025.2483662.
Narayanan, M. & McCluskey, M.S. (2025). Signifying Improvement: Reform Symbols as Discursive Practice in School Improvement Plans. Educational Administration Quarterly, 61(5), 781-808. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X251319215.
Narayanan, M. (2025). Evading the War with Mis/Information: Rorty’s Education without Foundations and the Creation of Community. Studies in Philosophy and Education. 44, 333–349 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-024-09979-8.
Narayanan, M., Acker, T., Gillis, D., & Walsh, E. D. (2025). To Stand as Principals: Developing Assistant Principal Leadership Identities. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, https://doi.org/10.1177/19427751251363172.
Narayanan, M., Shields, A.L., and Delhagen, T.J. (2024). Autonomy in the Spaces: Teacher Autonomy, Scripted Lessons, and the Changing Role of Teachers. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 56(1), 17-34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2023.2297229.
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