Bio
Dr. Christopher Dague has dedicated the past two decades of his professional life to the field of education, hoping to enrich the lives of his students and to improve the profession writ large. After graduating from The University of Akron (B.A., Secondary Education – Social Studies), he began his teaching career at Jack Britt High School in Fayetteville, North Carolina. During his thirteen years in the classroom, he taught world and European history. During much of his time, he served as the head baseball coach, leaving as the winningest coach in school history. At the beginning of his third year in the classroom, his time at Campbell University began, as he pursued his M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction that concentrated on social studies education.
In 2015, he earned his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in the fields of social studies education and motivational psychology. It was during this period that he developed an appreciation for the powerful intersections that could exist relative to theoretical and substantive frameworks present in each field. His research evolved into exploring how teachers’ uses of authentic educational practices could support student autonomy and empowerment in their own educational experiences. Since this time, he has continued to research how discussion- and inquiry-based approaches impact student emotion and affect as well as their innate psychological needs.
After graduating in 2015, Dr. Dague began his career in higher education in a part-time role as an adjunct professor at Campbell University. In his time at Campbell, he has taught classes at Fort Bragg and the main campus as well as with Adult and Online Education. He continues to teach both undergraduate and graduate courses in both education and history. Many of his students are veteran and active-duty students – many of whom are in the ROTC “Green to Gold” program. As a result of his work, in 2023, he received the Faculty Excellence Award for Adult and Online Education at Campbell University.
After leaving Jack Britt High School in 2018, he began his full-time role as an assistant professor of teacher and social studies education at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. While at The Citadel, he has continued his research and has authored numerous articles and book chapters in the fields of social studies education and educational psychology. He has supported state departments of education and their effort to rewrite social studies curriculum to improve the student learning experience. In addition to teaching, he has actively served the Zucker Family School of Education as the school’s program coordinator of teacher education. In 2023, he earned the ZFSOE’s “Innovation in Teaching Award.” In 2024, based on his teaching, scholarship, and service, Dr. Dague earned tenure and promotion to the rank of associate professor.
When time permits, Dr. Dague travels throughout the Southeast working with school districts and social studies teachers to help support their strategic implementation of discussion- and inquiry-based approaches. His research in the field culminated in the writing of his first book, Discussions and Democracy: Motivation, Growth, and the New Social Studies Classroom, which was published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2024. This book was written in a vernacular that intended to springboard and support teachers’ understandings of implementing discussion-based approaches in their classrooms. Moreover, its aim was to bring important theories and concepts out of the “ivory tower” and onto the hard ground of real-world experience as a guide for today’s social studies teachers. While he keeps a full schedule, Dr. Dague’s love of baseball and actively working with student-athletes has pushed him to maintain his presence in the world of high school baseball. From 2019-2023, he worked as an assistant coach at West Ashley High School in Charleston, South Carolina. In 2024, he was honored to serve as the interim head baseball coach at West Ashley, where the Wildcats won twenty games and the first district championship in a decade.
Degrees
- Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction for Social Studies Education
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC - M.Ed. in Social Studies Education
Campbell University, Buies Creek, NC - B.A. in Social Studies Education
University of Akron, Akron, OH