Gabrielle Oliveira Harvard University Now We Are Here: Family Migration, Children's Education, and Dreams for a Better Life
The 2026 Outstanding Book Award is presented to Dr. Gabrielle Oliveira for her brilliant and moving study, Now We Are Here: Family Migration, Children's Education, and Dreams for a Better Life. On the pages of this extraordinary work of ethnographic scholarship, the experiences of children and parents of 16 migrant families from Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are probed deeply and memorably. It is an inspiring story of immigration as an act of parental care and investment in their children's future, but also a heartbreaking tale of that quest being disrupted by crises of border detention and family separation. Oliveira documents the failures and successes of schools involved in immigrant education, offering important lessons on how teachers can more effectively understand the needs of migrant children.
The Outstanding Book Award was established to acknowledge and honor the year’s best book-length publication in education research and development. To be considered for award, a book must be concerned with the improvement of the educational process through original research or scholarly inquiry, must have a research base, and must have copyright date of the past two years of the year in which the award is to be given.
Nominations may be submitted by the author of the work, by another scholar, or by the publisher of the work. The book may have been published anywhere in the world but, for purposes of consideration, must be available in English. Edited volumes, including textbooks, are not considered for the award.
The nomination deadline for the 2026 AERA Awards has now passed. Award winners will be announced in early 2026 prior to the AERA Annual Meeting.