As a historian of education, Dr. Beadie studies historical relationships between education, economy and culture in the United States. She has recently completed a book on this subject, Education and the Creation of Capital: The Place of Schooling in a Transforming Political Economy, 1790-1850. She has also written extensively on the history of higher schooling, and on the history of women in education. Her work is published in History of Education Quarterly, Social Science History, American Journal of Education, Educational Policy, Paedagogica Historica, Journal of American Ethnic History, Teachers College Record, Journal of American History, and History of Education (British).

Other published work includes Chartered Schools: Two Hundred Years of Independent Academies in the United States, 1727-1925 (New York: Routledge Press, 2002), and "Moral Errors and Strategic Mistakes: Lessons from the History of Student Accountability," Kenneth A. Sirotnik, ed. Holding Accountability Accountable: Toward Responsible Concepts and Practices (New York: Teachers College Press, 2003).

Dr. Beadie is Associate Editor of the History of Education Quarterly and immediate past President of the History of Education Society (U.S.). She is also serving a three-year term as Vice-President, Division F (History and Historiography), of the American Educational Research Association.

Dr. Beadie steaches courses on the history of education and education reform in the United States, education as the transfer of culture, historical research methods in education, and the social history of gender in education.