February 2019
A conversation about race and equity in suburban contexts featuring filmmaker Steve James (America to Me, Hoop Dreams, Life Itself); the clinical practice experiences of Latinx educators; podcasting as a mechanism for disseminating education research; using data to debunk myths about how race works in higher education: These are among the important topics to be offered at Presidential sessions that will inform and engage attendees at this year’s annual meeting.
AERA President Amy Stuart Wells and 2019 Annual Meeting Co-Chairs Jennifer Jellison Holme and Janelle T. Scott have developed 28 sessions that align with the 2019 theme, “Leveraging Education Research in a ‘Post-Truth’ Era: Multimodal Narratives to Democratize Evidence.”
The eight sessions highlighted below join seven others that were featured last month in Highlights. Complete descriptions of each are posted on the Annual Meeting microsite. Additional Presidential sessions will be spotlighted in AERA Highlights, AERA19 Insider, and on the microsite as the meeting approaches.
Highlighted Presidential Sessions
Traditionally, a sharp distinction is drawn between urban and suburban contexts. However, during the past 30-plus years, we have seen major demographic shifts in metropolitan suburbs. Currently, 40 percent of suburban students are Asian, Black, Latinx, or Native American. This session will enter the discussion of race in the suburbs through screening one episode of the Starz documentary miniseries America to Me, created by filmmaker Steve James.
Moderator: John Diamond (University of Wisconsin, Madison); Participants: R. L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy (New York University), Linn E. Posey-Maddox (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Eve Louise Ewing (University of Chicago), Steve James (filmmaker, America to Me).
How do we prepare teachers to teach in high-poverty communities in locally responsive ways at a time when the move to “teacher-proof” pedagogy gains momentum globally? In this interactive session we hone in on formal and informal clinical practice experiences through the lens of an intergenerational group of Latinx scholars affiliated with public and private institutions in large urban centers of the Northeast.
Chairs: Sonia Nieto (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Viv Ellis (King’s College London); Participants: Gladys Aponte (City University of New York), Laura Ascenzi-Moreno (City University of New York, Brooklyn College), Edwin Mayorga (Swarthmore College), Nancy Lemberger (Long Island University), Carmen M. Martínez-Roldán (Teachers College, Columbia University), Carmen I. Mercado (City University of New York, Hunter College), Cristian Solorza (Bank Street College of Education), Elizabeth Taveras Rivera (Teachers College, Columbia University).
The urgency of Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock, and Idle No More has been deepened in the current political moment. For this session, the directors, research bases, and ongoing projects of five institutional centers enacting community-engaged research and practice aim to sustain Indigenous and Black peoples, alongside other communities of color. We are interested in learning from one another toward a collective policy/practice impact nationally and internationally.
Participants: Maisha T. Winn (University of California, Davis), Sandy M. Grande (Connecticut College), Leonie Pihama (University of Waikato), Shaun R. Harper (University of Southern California), Charles Harold Frederick Davis III (University of Southern California), Django Paris (University of Washington).
In a “post-truth” era, it is critical to engage the public in dialogue about education policy. This session examines podcasting as a mechanism for the dissemination of education research. Podcasting is a medium that encourages the kind of depth and nuance that scholarship so often offers. Participants Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire host a biweekly podcast, “Have You Heard,” which reaches an audience of roughly 10,000 listeners per episode.
Chair: Jack Schneider (University of Massachusetts, Lowell); Participants: Jennifer Berkshire (Boston College), Barry Goldenberg (Teachers College, Columbia University), Elise Castillo (University of California, Berkeley).
In today’s political climate, the vulnerability of marginalized youth, families, and communities is heightened. The work of researchers drawing upon critical methodologies to advance educational justice for such populations is attracting greater suspicion or plain dismissal. However, critical qualitative methodologies, in particular, have long guided researchers in affirming the value of experiential knowledge and lived truths.
Chair: Deborah Loewenberg Ball (University of Michigan); Participants: James Earl Davis (Temple University), Aurora Chang (Loyola University Chicago), sj Miller (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Camille M. Wilson (University of Michigan), Carolyn Hetrick (University of Michigan), Shanyce L. Campbell (University of California, Irvine); Moderator: Ann M. Ishimaru (University of Washington).
In this session, teacher education researchers in a variety of international contexts critically re-examine the meaning of the word “innovation” in order to shift it away from the dominance of the economistic and technological. Distinguishing between innovations driven by arguments for social mobility and those driven by social justice and equity, two imperatives for innovation underpinned by arguments for justice and equity are identified and taken up in this session.
Chair: Christine Harrison (King's College London); Participants: Keith Turvey (University of Brighton), Bruce Munro Burnett (Australian Catholic University), Jo Lampert (LaTrobe University), Michael C. Dominguez (San Diego State University), A. Lin Goodwin (University of Hong Kong), Kelsey Darity (Teachers College, Columbia University), A. Susan Jurow (University of Colorado, Boulder), Illana S. Horn (Vanderbilt University), Thomas M. Phillip (University of California, Berkeley), Mariana Souto-Manning (Teachers College, Columbia University); Discussant: Dorinda Carter Andrews (Michigan State University).
This symposium will assemble a diverse group of scholars to confront post-truth myths that permeate public opinion on how race works in higher education. Panelists will address misconceptions such as the accusation that students of color pervasively self-segregate, that students of color are mismatched at elite institutions, and that Asian Americans are hurt by affirmative action.
Chair: Julie J. Park (University of Maryland, College Park); Participants: Liliana Garces (University of Texas at Austin), Megan Segoshi (Loyola University, Chicago), Nolan L. Cabrera (University of Arizona), Kimberly Griffin (University of Maryland); Discussant: Lorelle Espinosa (American Council on Education).
Gentrification and the displacement of low-income residents of color from neighborhoods where they have long resided have accelerated over the last decade. This session will examine the relationship between schools and gentrification; consider the underlying causes of gentrification and the role that educational policy, such as privatization and accountability, has played; and explore how schools and communities are affected by these dynamics.
Chairs: Janelle T. Scott (University of California, Berkeley), Jennifer Jellison Holme (University of Texas at Austin); Participants: Terrance L. Green (University of Texas at Austin), Linn E. Posey-Maddox (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Maia B. Cucchiara (Temple University), Kara S. Finnigan (University of Rochester), Diana K. Cordova-Cobo (Teachers College, Columbia University).