Charles Vanover worked as a teacher-librarian in the Chicago Public Schools for eight years. He received a PhD from the University of Michigan and worked as a case study researcher for the Study of Instructional Improvement and the longitudinal evaluation of the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (TQC). His leadership research focuses on the ethnography of No Child Left Behind and other mass reforms and efforts to prepare school leaders to make a positive difference in the schools they lead and manage. 

Charles is a qualitative researcher and is committed to rigorous investigation in qualitative inquiry.  The ethnodramas in his inquiry theatre series have recieved more than 60 performances at accademic conferences and community theatres including The annual conferences of the American Educational Research Association, The Ethnography in Education Research Forum of the University of Pennsylvania, The International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, The Qualitative Report Conference, and the University Council of Educational Administration. 

Publications include

Vanover, C & Hodges, O. (2015). Teaching data use and school leadership. School Leadership and Management 35(1),17-38.

Vanover, C. (2017). From connection to distance: Using the practice of arts-based research to interpret fieldwork. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography.

Vanover, C. (2016). Inquiry theatre. Qualitative Inquiry.  22(4), 238-248

Vanover, C. (2021). The Magic of Theatre: Photographing a Performative Career. Critical Methodologies

Vanover, C., Mihas, P., Saldaña, J. (2022). Analyzing and Interpreting Qualitative Research: After the Interview. SAGE