Andrew D. Coppens, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Education in Learning Sciences
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Studies
Coppens holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California Santa Cruz. Coppens' appointment involves research and teaching in cultural and developmental psychology, the learning sciences, and qualitative research methods. His research focuses on cultural processes of learning and development in the family and community contexts of non-dominant communities.
He has conducted research on children's learning and development in everyday, informal settings with rural, middle-class, and Indigenous-heritage communities in the US, Mexico, Ecuador, Germany, India, and Bhutan. Much of this research examines cultural patterns in whether children's learning involves their integration in or segregation from the work of adults and other experts, as well as the cultural strengths that children take up from learning in informal settings.
Coppens is one of several founding PIs of the New Hampshire Youth Retention Initiative (YRI), a collaborative and interdisciplinary research program understanding the affordances and constraints for youth and families imagining and pursuing varied educational, occupational, and residential futures. The research is focused on developing sustainable and strengths-based educational and workforce pathways for youth, and to address human capital extraction patterns among rural communities. YRI research is or has been funded by UNH CoRE, the Spencer Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the NH Charitable Foundation.
