2026 Award Recipient  

Angela Valenzuela
University of Texas at Austin

It is with tremendous honor that we recognize Dr. Angela Valenzuela with the 2026 AERA Social Justice in Education Award. For over three decades, Dr. Valenzuela has been an unwavering force for educational justice on behalf of Mexican American and other students of color. The timelessness and timeliness of her work could not be more profound—in an era of book bans, dismantled DEI initiatives, and sustained attacks on ethnic studies, she has stood firmly at the front lines, testifying before the Texas legislature, co-founding Black Brown Dialogues on Policy, and directing the Texas Center for Education Policy. Her groundbreaking Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring remains a foundational text, and from the grassroots work of Academia Cuauhtli to her national Grow-Your-Own educator pipeline, Dr. Valenzuela's scholarship lives in community. She is, in every sense, a scholar-activist whose life's work is inseparable from the people she serves.

Established in 2004, the Social Justice in Education Award honors an individual who has advanced social justice through education research and exemplified the goal of linking education research to social justice. The winner of the award will be invited to give the Social Justice Lecture at the following Annual Meeting. The AERA Social Justice Committee is charged by AERA Council with serving as the selection committee for this award.         

Past Recipients