Dear Division K Members,

It is with deep humility and a fierce sense of purpose that I greet you as the incoming Vice President of AERA’s Division K: Teaching and Teacher Education. As Dean of the School of Leadership and Education Sciences at the University of San Diego—and as a lifelong educator, mentor, and advocate—I step into this role fully aware of the weight of this moment for our profession and for our democracy.

We are navigating a time of profound contradiction. Across the country, educators from preschool through higher education are under attack—targeted for teaching accurate histories, for creating inclusive classrooms, and for standing in solidarity with marginalized students and communities. Public education is being dismantled in plain sight, even as we fight to reimagine it as a space of possibility.

We know the truth: this system was never built for the thriving of Black, Latine, Indigenous, immigrant, and neurodiverse students. And yet, educators continue to show up. We continue to teach, to resist, to hope. We do this in classrooms where students train for active shooters. In communities where families live under the threat of deportation. In states where inclusive curricula are banned. In institutions that call for transformation, yet still cling to practices that harm.

As a Division, we must name this reality—and study it with intellectual rigor, historical clarity, and moral courage. The labor of teachers, teacher educators, youth workers, scholars, and community leaders is not only pedagogical—it is political, emotional, and deeply embodied. Our work demands care: for our students, for our colleagues, and for ourselves.

We must attend to our own learning differences, traumas, and disabilities while supporting the humanity and brilliance of our students. We must protect joy—not as a luxury, but as an imperative for survival and liberation. We must push the field to acknowledge that justice is not a theory; it is a practice.

As Vice President of Division K, I stand alongside you in honoring the labor and legacy of educators who cultivate spaces of radical hope in even the most difficult terrain. Together with our Program Co-Chairs, Dr. Nicol R. Howard and Dr. Erica D. McCray, I am committed to curating scholarship that reflects this complexity and possibility—research that dares to confront and imagine, that uplifts the knowledge of those long excluded, and that builds toward collective liberation.

This is not the work of a single conference cycle. It is the ongoing, intergenerational, and intersectional work of reimagining what teaching and teacher education can become.

I am honored to walk with you in this struggle—and in this sacred labor.

With gratitude, resolve, and hope,
Kimberly A. White-Smith, Ed.D.
Vice President, Division K
Dean, School of Leadership and Education Sciences
University of San Diego

Dr. Kimberly A. White-Smith is Vice-President of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division K (Teaching and Teacher Education). She serves as Dean and Professor at the University of San Diego’s School of Leadership and Education Sciences and is a nationally recognized leader in teacher education and educational equity. With over 30 years of experience, she has advanced inclusive, high-impact teaching practices and worked alongside marginalized and economically oppressed communities to expand educational access. A Black woman and former foster youth, Dr. White-Smith brings a powerful perspective to leadership that centers justice, identity, and transformation in education. She is the 2024 recipient of the AACTE Edward C. Pomeroy Award for outstanding contributions to teacher education.