Northern Illinois University
Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations
College of Education

Carolyn Pluim, Ph.D.
Department Chair
Professor, Foundations of Education

Department

Research Interests

My research interests are focused around the intersections of sociology of education, curriculum studies and educational policy, specifically as these relate to school health policies, practices and pedagogies. I explore the ways in which contemporary school health policies are negotiated and experienced by students and school personnel. A central theme running throughout my research is the relationship between discourse and social dynamics as this bears on sociological understandings of health, illness and the body and influences the responsibilities and obligations of public schools.

Education

• Ph.D. Georgia State University, Atlanta, Educational Policy Studies, Social Foundations of Education
• M.S. Michigan Technological University, Environmental Policy
• B.S. University of Western Ontario, Nursing

Books

Gard, M. and Pluim, C. (formerly Vander Schee). (2014). Schools and Public Health: Past, Present, Future. New York: Lexington.

Select Articles and Book Chapters

Gray, E., Pluim, C., Pike, J. and Leahy, D. (In Press).“‘Someone has to Keep Shouting': Celebrities as Food Pedagogues.” The Journal of Celebrity Studies. DOI: 10.1080/19392397.2017.1334566

Gard, M. and Pluim, C. (2016 – Online First). Where is the Critical Health Education Scholarship in the United States?: An Examination of Fitnessgram®. Sport Education and Society. DOI: 10.1080/13573322.2016.1213716

Pluim, C. and Gard, M. (2016 – Online First). Physical Education's Grand Convergence: Fitnessgram®, Big-data and the Digital Commerce of Children's Bodies. Critical Studies in Education. DOI: 10.1080/17508487.2016.1194303

Gard, M. and Pluim, C. (2016). Parents as Pawns in Fitnessgram®'s War on Obesity. In L. Burrows and S. Dagkas (Eds.), Families, Young People, Physical Activity and Health: Critical Perspectives (71-83). New York: Routledge.

Gard, M. and Vander Schee, C. (2014). School, the State and Obesity: Some Critical and Historical Perspectives. In K. Fitzpatrick and R. Tinning (Eds.), Health Education: Critical Perspectives (61-74). New York: Routledge.

Vander Schee, C. and Gard, M. (2014). Happy, Healthy and Ready to Teach Or, Why Kids Can't Learn from Fat Teachers: The Discursive Politics of School Reform and Teacher Health. Critical Public Health, 24(2), 210-225.

Vander Schee, C. and Kline, K. (2013). Neoliberal Exploitation in Reality Television: Youth Health and the Spectacle of Celebrity Concern. Journal of Youth Studies, 16(5), 565-578.

Vander Schee, C. (2012). Keyword - Malls. In N. Lesko and S. Talburt (Eds.), Youth Studies: Keywords and Movements(169-173). New York: Routledge.

Vander Schee, C. and Gard, M. (2011). Politics, Pedagogy and Practice in School Health Policy. Policy Futures in Education, 9(2), 307-314.

Gard, M. and Vander Schee, C. (2011). The Obvious Solution. In M. Gard, The End of the Obesity Epidemic (82-107). London: Routledge.

Vander Schee, C. and Boyles, D. (2010). ‘Exergaming' and the Crisis Discourse of Childhood Obesity. Sport, Education and Society, 15(2), 169-185.

Vander Schee, C. (2009). (Re)Considering the Neutrality of Care: The Case of Body Mass Indexing in Schools.Philosophical Studies in Education, 40, 138-152.

Vander Schee, C. and Baez, B. (2009). HIV/AIDS Education in Schools: The ‘Unassembled' Youth as a Curricular Project.Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 30(1), 33-46.

Vander Schee, C. (2009). Fruit, Root Vegetables, Fatness and Foucault: Governing Students and their Families through School Health Policy. Journal of Education Policy, 24(5), 557-574.

Vander Schee, C. (2009). Confessions of the "Unhealthy"--Eating Chocolate in the Halls and Smoking Behind the Bus Garage: Teachers as Health Missionaries. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 30, 407-419.

Vander Schee, C. (2008). Consuming Health and Youth: Health Curricula and the Production of a Healthy Student. In D. Boyles (Ed.), The Corporate Assault on America's Youth: Commercialism, Exploitation and the End of Innocence(1-26). New York: Peter Lang.

Vander Schee, C. (2008). The Politics of Health as a School-Sponsored Ethic: Foucault, Neoliberalism, and the Unhealthy Employee. Educational Policy: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Policy and Practice, 22(6), 854-874.

Vander Schee, C. (2004). The Privatization of Food Services in Schools: Undermining Children's Health, Social Equity, and Democratic Education. In D. Boyles (Ed.), Schools or Markets?: Commercialism, Privatization, and School-Business Partnerships (1-30). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum.