Rob Martinelle

Program Director, Social Studies Education
Senior Lecturer

Dr. Rob Martinelle is a senior lecturer and the program director for social studies education at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. He teaches both foundational courses and social studies method courses to undergraduate and graduate students, while his research focuses on reflective teaching, social studies teacher preparation, and the self-study of teacher education practices (S-STEP).

Previously, Dr. Martinelle worked as a secondary history teacher in several Boston Public Schools, where he also mentored beginning history teachers as a curriculum coach and supervising practitioner.

Pronouns: he/him

Education

EdD, Curriculum & Teaching, Boston University
EdM, Secondary Education, University of Massachusetts Boston
BA, American Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston

Courses

ED 200 Introduction to Justice-Based Education
ED 503 Analyzing Foundations of Teaching
CT 534 A Practical Approach to Classroom Management
SO 566 Teaching Critical Historical Inquiry 5-12
SO 571 Curriculum and Methods for History and Social Science Education 5-12
SO 578 Teaching Media Literacy
SO 509/510 Student-Teaching Seminar: History and Social Sciences 5-12
SO 930 Doctoral Seminar on The Nature of Social Studies Education
SO 933 Doctoral Seminar on History Education

Selected Publications

Martell, C., Martinelle, R., & Chalmers-Curren, J. P. (2025). Barriers and pathways to enacting
justice-oriented social studies: A longitudinal study of novice teachers in urban contexts. Urban Education. 60(4), 1124-1153. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859231170638

Martinelle, R. & Martell, C. (2024). From background to foreground: A retrospective self-study of critical social studies teacher educating. Studying Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425964.2024.2402555

Martell, C., Martinelle, R., & Chalmers-Curren, J. P. (2024). Becoming and remaining (un)critical: A longitudinal study of beginning history teachers. American Educational Research Journal. 61(4), 687-723. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312241262280

Martinelle, R. & Stevens, K. (2024). Making space for principled resistance. Educational Leadership. 81(8), 16-21.

Martinelle, R. (2024). Havens for acceptance, faith, and affirmation: The spiritual dimension of reflection in teaching for democracy. In M. Lin & T. Lucey (Eds.), Rekindling embers of the soul: An examination of spirituality issues relating to teacher education (pp. 143-167). Information Age Publishing.

Martinelle, R., Martell, C. C. & Chalmers-Curren, J. P. (2024). Teaching for transformative citizenship: A study of preservice social studies teachers’ developing beliefs and practices. Education, Citizenship, and Social Justice. 19(1), 77-94. https://doi.org/10.1177/17461979221115796

Martinelle, R., Funk, L., Nerlino, E., & Foye, B. (2024). Tensions in teaching Chinese international students: A self-study of cultural competence in an educational foundations course. Action in Teacher Education. 46(3), 226-247. https://doi.org/10.1080/01626620.2024.2339882

Martinelle, R., Martell, C., Chalmers-Curren, J. P. (2023). From rowing together to rowing alone: Beginning teachers’ practices related to multicultural democratic citizenship. Teacher Education Quarterly. 50(4), 54-73.

Martell, C., Martinelle, R., Chalmers-Curren, J. P. (2022). “We Need to Teach School Differently”: Learning to Teach Social Studies for Justice. The Journal of Social Studies Research. 46(4), 345-361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssr.2021.10.002

Martinelle, R. (2020). Using video-stimulated recall to understand the reflections of ambitious social studies teachers. The Journal of Social Studies Research. 44(3), 307-322. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssr.2020.03.001

Martinelle, R. (2018). Video-stimulated recall: Aiding teacher practice. Educational Leadership. 76(3), 55.

Selected Presentations

Funk, L., Martinelle, R., & Rowlings, B. (2025). A “difficult-ish” day: Social studies teachers’ approaches to (and reasons for) teaching 1/6/21 [Paper session]. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Denver, CO.

Martinelle, R., Funk, L., & Lake, J. (2025). Back then, over there, never here, never now: Fascism according to K-12 social studies standards [Roundtable session]. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Denver, CO.

Martinelle, R. (2024). Learning to center justice in the history methods course. CUFA National Council for the Social Studies, Boston, MA.

Martinelle, R. & Martell, C. (2023). More than a “background idea”: A self-study of justice-oriented practices in social studies teacher education [Paper session]. AERA Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.

Martell, C., Martinelle, R., Chalmers-Curren, J., (2022). Barriers and pathways to becoming a justice-oriented social studies teacher [Paper session]. AERA Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.

Martinelle, R., Martell, C., & Chalmers, J. (2021). A longitudinal study of beginning teachers’ beliefs and practices related to multicultural democratic citizenship. CUFA National Council for the Social Studies, Minneapolis, MN.

Martinelle, R., Funk, L., Nerlino, E., & Foye, B. (2021). Toward a culturally competent pedagogy of teacher education: Tensions in teaching international pre-service teachers [Roundtable session]. AERA Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL.

Martell, C., Chalmers-Curren, J., & Martinelle, R. (2021) A longitudinal study of beginning social studies teachers and critical historical inquiry [Roundtable session]. AERA Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL.

View all profiles