Barbara Bowman


Barbara Bowman Headshot

Currently Barbara Bowman is the Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Development at Erikson Institute and Chief Officer of Early Childhood Education for the Chicago Public Schools.

Bowman is one of three faculty members who founded Erikson Institute in 1966 and is the immediate past president. She has taught at preschool and primary levels as well as in colleges and universities and now teaches courses at Erikson Institute. In addition, she administers preschool and kindergarten programs in the Chicago Public Schools. She has over 50 publications, including articles, book chapters, and edited volumes and is a frequent speaker at conferences and at universities in the United States and abroad. Her specialty areas are early education, cultural diversity, and education of at-risk children.

In addition to administration, teaching, writing, and speaking, Bowman has directed a wide range of projects, including ones for Head Start, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and on Native American reservations. Her most recent work includes a survey of diversity in teacher education programs.  She is co-director and investigator on projects in the Erikson Center for the Study of Young Children: Race, Class, and Culture.

Bowman has served on numerous professional boards, including the Family Resource Coalition and the National Association for the Education of Young Children, of which she was President (1980-82). Currently she is on the boards of the Great Books Foundation, Erikson Institute, and Roosevelt University. She has served on a variety of professional committees, including the National Research Council committees on Day Care Policy, the Prevention of Reading Difficulties, and Early Childhood Pedagogy (which she chaired), the Leadership Initiative for the National Black Children Development Institute, and the Illinois Early Learning Council. She holds honorary degrees from Bank Street College, Roosevelt University, Dominican University, Governors State University, Lewis University, and Wheelock College.