• PhD, University of Rochester
• MA, University of Rochester
• BA, Princeton University

• The City in History
• The Intellectual in History
• Science, Myth, and Religion
• Core: Enduring Questions
• American Experience
• Historical Foundations of Western Education
• Religion and US Society
• History and Philosophy of Education
• Democratic Theory and Organizational Change
• Ethnographies of School Administration

• Development History
• US Relations in Asia and the Pacific
• Educational History

Books and Book Chapters:

• Heffron, John M., “Foreword.” in The Wiley Handbook of Education Policy. Edited by Rosemary Papa and Shadow W. J. Armfield. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2018.
• Heffron, John M., “In the Shadow of Totalitarianism: Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and the Struggle for Value-Creating Educational Leadership” in Leading Against the Grain: Lessons for Creating Just and Equitable Schools. Edited by Jeffrey S. Brooks and Anthony H. Normore. New York: Teachers College Press, 2018.
• Heffron, John M. “The North American Sphere of Influence: From Sea to Shining Sea.” In The Pacific Basin: An Introduction, edited by Shane J. Barter and Michael Weiner, 46-55. New York: Routledge, 2017.
• Heffron, John M. “The Transnational Context of Schooling.” In Educational Leaders without Borders: Rising to Global Challenges to Educate All, edited by Rosemary Papa and Fenwick W. English, 167-192. New York: Springer, 2016.
• Ascher, William, Garry Brewer, Shabbir Cheema, and John M. Heffron. The Evolution of Development Thinking: Governance, Economics, Assistance, and Security. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

Papers and Publications

• Heffron, John M. “Soka Education as a Theory of Leadership: Implications for the Preparation, Practice, and for the Re-structuration of the Modern Principalship.” Management in Education 32, no. 3 (June 2018): 102-8.
• William Ascher, Garry D. Brewer, G. Shabbir Cheema, and John M. Heffron, The Evolution of Development Thinking: Governance, Economics, Assistance, and Security, Palgrave MacMillan, 2016.
• "The Transnational Context of Schooling" in Rosemary Papa and Fenwick W. English, eds. Educational Leaders Without Borders: Rising to Global Challenges to Educate All, Springer, 2016.
• William L. Ascher and John M. Heffron, eds. Cultural Change and Persistence: New Perspectives on Development, Palgrave MacMillan, 2010
• Dennis A. Rondinelli and John M. Heffron, eds. Leadership for Development in a Globalizing Society: What Globalization Demands of Leaders Fighting for Change, Kumarian Press, 2009
• Dennis A. Rondinelli and John M. Heffron, eds. Globalization And Change In Asia, Lynn Rienner, 2007
• “Between Reconstruction and Restoration: Three Historical Case Studies,” John D. Montgomery and Dennis A. Rondinelli, ed., Beyond Reconstruction in Afghanistan: Lessons for Development Experience (Pelgrave Macmillan), 2004
• “Beyond Community and Society: The Externalities of Social Capital Building,” John D. Montgomery and Alex Inkeles, ed., Social Capital as a Policy Resource (Kluwer), 2001
• “The Lincoln School of Teachers College: Elitism and Educational Democracy,” Susan F. Semel and Alan R. Sadovnik, ed., Schools of Tomorrow, Schools of Today: What Happened to Progressive Education? (Peter Lang), 1999
• "Nation-Building for a Venerable South: Moral and Practical Uplift in the New Agricultural Education, 1900-1920,” Wayne J. Urban, ed., The Limits of Exceptionalism: Southern Education in the Twentieth Century (Garland Press),1999
• “ 'to form a more perfect Union': The Moral Example of Southern Baptist Thought and Education,” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation, 8 (Summer 1998):179-204., 1998
• “Defining Values,” John D. Montgomery, ed., Values in Education: Social Capital Formation in Asia and the Pacific (Hollis Publishing), 1997
• “Toward a Cybernetic Pedagogy: The Cognitive Revolution and the Classroom, 1948 - Present,” Educational Theory, 4 (Fall 1995): 497-518, 1995
• “Science and the Challenge of Public Education,” History of Education Quarterly 36 (Summer 1995): 179-187, 1995
• “Science in General Education: Otis W. Caldwell (1869-1947) and the Rise of the Unified Science Course,” Science & Education, 4 (September 1995): 227-252, 1995

Presentations

• “Educational Leadership Preparation in the United States: The Missing Dimension, Education for Global Citizenship,” a paper presented at the 2017 Comparative & International Education Society annual meeting, March 6, Atlanta, GA
• “Knowledge Base Controversies in the Management and Design of Educational Leadership Programs, 1980 to the Present,” a paper presented at the 2016 History of Education Society annual meeting, November 3, Providence, R.I.
• “Soka Education as a Theory of Democracy: Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom,” a paper presented at the 2016 World Council of Curriculum & Instruction meeting, July 12, Budapest, Hungary
• “Soka Education as a Theory of Leadership,” a paper presented at the 2016 British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society annual meeting, July 8, Carden Park, Cheshire UK
• “The Myth of the Nation State: Transnationalism in the History and Culture of Education,” a paper presented at the 2016 Comparative & International Education Society annual meeting, March 7, Vancouver, CA
• “Toward an Axiology of Education, East and West: Administrative Leadership in the Writings of John Dewey and Tsunesaburo Makiguchi,” a joint paper with Tomoko Takahashi presented at the 2015 Comparative & International Education Society annual meeting, March 10, Washington, D.C.
• Invited Panelist, Special Topic Symposium: Do we really care about equity, dignity, freedom and advocacy? A panel discussion about human rights and educational leadership, 2014 Annual Convention of the University Council for Educational Administration, November 22, Washington, D.C.
• “To Be or Not to Be”: The Question of Incommensurability in Soka or Value-Creating Education," a paper presented at the 2014 Comparative & International Education Society annual meeting, March 14, Toronto Canada
• “Progress without Prosperity: The Imperial Ambitions of an American Anti-Modernist Class,” a paper presented at the 13th International Conference of Historical Geographers, August 24-27, 2009, Kyoto, Japan

• Fulbright Teaching Award Finalist, 2005
• National Endowment for the Humanities, 1991