H. James McLaughlin has a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is now a faculty member in the Department of Curriculum, Culture, and Educational Inquiry at Florida Atlantic University. Dr. McLaughlin has teaching experience at four grade levels in K-12 schools, and served as a faculty member at the University of Georgia and the University of Hawai'i prior to working in Florida.  

Dr. McLaughlin directed the Middle School Education program at the University of Georgia and served as Director of Graduate Studies for three years in his department at Florida Atlantic University. He has many years of experience teaching undergraduates and supervising student teachers, but currently he specializes in graduate programs. Currently, Dr. McLaughlin teaches courses in global education, foundations of curriculum, research in curriculum and instruction, the doctoral seminar, and a new course focused on global perspectives of children's lives.  

In 1998, Dr. McLaughlin created an international project in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. The project includes study abroad experiences for University of Georgia students and practicing teachers, a university exchange program, and a research component in rural Mexican schools. Dr. McLaughlin was named a Fulbright Scholar in 2002-2003 and lived for 6 months in Mexico to conduct research and teach a graduate course at the University of Veracruz. For his efforts to create international projects and globalize the curriculum, the University of Georgia gave him the 2003 Richard R. Reiff Internationalization Award, the highest honor of its kind at the university.  

Since coming to Florida Atlantic University in 2004, Dr. McLaughlin has been part of evaluation teams for arts integration projects and grants, including the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education, the Ravinia Music Festival, and the Smart Museum at the University of Chicago. He continued his international work in Fall of 2007 by developing an experimental course at Florida Atlantic University that incorporates a visit to Mexico.  

Dr. McLaughlin's scholarly interests revolve around action research, program evaluation, teachers' work with Latino immigrant students and families, international professional development experiences, and life in Mexican rural schools. He has published articles in journals such as Teaching and Teacher Education, Theory into Practice, Journal of Education and Urban Society, Phi Delta Kappan, Middle School Journal, Journal of Teacher Education, and the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. He also co-authored two books, Foundations of Democratic Education (Harcourt Brace) and Classroom Management: Perspectives on the Social Curriculum (Prentice-Hall), and authored a chapter on Hispanic Education in The Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Foundations. Dr. McLaughlin has made numerous presentations at national and international conferences, and has been awarded more than 30 grants for research and program development.