Program Information—AERA 2025 Annual Meeting
 
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Learn From Leading Scholars

Vanessa Siddle Walker
Distinguished Lecture

Janelle T. Scott
Presidential Address

William Penuel
Wallace Foundation Lecture

 


Program Information

#AERA2025 Insider
View the daily highlights from #AERA2025 here:

April 23 | April 24 | April 25 | April 26

View the 2025 Annual Meeting Program
Click here to view the program without logging in.

Click here to view and download a PDF of the program.

Key Sessions and Speakers
Information on key sessions and speakers is forthcoming and will be featured here.

Professional Development Courses 
AERA will offer a robust program of professional development courses for the 2025 AERA Annual Meeting.

AERA i-Presentation Gallery
The AERA i-Presentation Gallery provides Annual Meeting presenters a user-friendly vehicle to present their papers in a dynamic format that allows for an overall narration as well as audio or video capture within any slide as part of their display.

Meet the Editors
AERA Meet the Editors are informal sessions designed to facilitate journal editors' communication on a one-to-one basis with reviewers, authors, and potential authors.

With more than 2,500 sessions to choose from, the 2025 Annual Meeting provides a dynamic experience with opportunities to learn from prominent scholars, discover the latest research, engage in stimulating conversations, and foster professional relationships.

Program Snapshot

The 2025 Annual Meeting offers a rich array of sessions and events for all attendees.

Major events such as the Opening Keynote Lecture, the AERA Presidential Address, the AERA Distinguished Lecture and the Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture, the AERA Awards Ceremony and Celebration, and more, should be on every attendee’s schedule. Along with AERA Awards Lectures, these premier sessions offer unparalleled opportunities to hear from thought leaders, exemplary researchers, and champions of education research.

Tied to the 2025 Annual Meeting theme “Research, Remedy, and Repair: Toward Just Education Renewal” the AERA Presidential Sessions provide rich and compelling content designed to engage attendees on key issues in education research, policy, and practice.

The Research and Science Policy Forum will offer a series of sessions focused on important issues at the intersection of education research and science policy. Presenters include policy leaders from key federal science offices and agencies, foundation heads, and important scholars.

In addition to major lectures and high-profile AERA-wide sessions, hundreds of paper, roundtable, and poster sessions and symposia will be held by AERA divisions, SIGs, and committees. Be certain to check out the sessions offered by those AERA units that align with your research interests.

Among the special features are e-Lightening Ed-Talks, where selected poster session authors will present their research in the form of a rapid-fire and engaging presentation in the Exhibit Hall. Presentations are a maximum of four minutes long followed by up to two minutes of Q&A. 

In collaboration with the World Education Research Association and numerous other international organizations, the Annual Meeting not only spotlights research from around the globe but also supports and advances the worldwide impact of the field.

AERA is also pleased to showcase again this year the Graduate Student Research-in-Progress Roundtable Series and the Research Engagement and Development with Youth (READY), formerly known as Youth Teams in Education Research, which were both successfully pilot-tested at the 2023 Annual Meeting.


Highlights

Please check this page regularly for updates. Dates, times, and locations will be added as they become available. All times are in Mountain Time.

Major Talks

Presidential Address
Learn from the wisdom and knowledge of AERA President Janelle Scott. The Presidential Address, titled "Education Research for a Time Such as This," is an annual “can’t miss” event, where the state and future of the field are examined and attendees are inspired.
Friday, April 25, 5:10 pm to 6:40 pm
Colorado Convention Center, Terrace Level - Bluebird Ballroom Room 1BC

2025 AERA Opening General Session: The Future of Higher Education in Polarized Times
This panel will explore the future of higher education, particularly schools and departments of education, in an era of political polarization where their core functions are increasingly scrutinized and under attack.
Chair and Moderator: Janelle T. Scott (University of California, Berkeley)
Participants: Shaun R. Harper (University of Southern California), Danielle Holley (Mount Holyoke College), Bryan Brayboy (Northwestern University), OiYan A. Poon (University of Maryland, College Park), Sarah Willcox (Scholars at Risk)

Wednesday, April 23, 6:10 pm to 7:40 pm
Colorado Convention Center, Terrace Level - Bluebird Ballroom Room 1BC

AERA Distinguished Lecture
Vanessa Siddle Walker will deliver the Distinguished Lecture, "Erasures and Mappings in African American Education: Tag, You Are It."
Thursday, April 24, 3:35 pm to 5:05 pm
Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom Level - Mile High Ballroom 2BC and 3BC

Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture
William Penuel will deliver the Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture, "Education for Flourishing: Building Initiatives and Partnerships for More Just and Sustainable Futures."
Saturday, April 26, 11:40 am to 1:10 pm
Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom Level - Mile High Ballroom 2BC and 3BC

Special Events

 

2025 Awards Ceremony Luncheon
The newly revived Awards Ceremony Luncheon, with an emphasis on community, will be a highlight of the 2025 AERA Annual Meeting. AERA encourages Annual Meeting participants to add the luncheon to their registration and to help honor notable accomplishments and achievements, across career stages, in education research.
Thursday, April 24, 11:40 am to 1:25 pm
Colorado Convention Center, Terrace Level - Bluebird Ballroom Room 1BC

Leveraging Research for the Public Good: A Scholars' Roundtable Honoring the Contributions of Felice J. Levine
A core dimension of AERA's mission is "the use of research to improve education and serve the public good". This session gives tribute to the laudable intellectual vision, leadership, and organizational contributions of Felice Levine, AERA Executive Director, to AERA’s mission and to the field. It will focus on the central questions: What is the role of evidence and research in supporting the public good? And what does that look like in this moment? and will highlight major areas of inquiry and research advanced by Dr. Levine during her tenure as AERA's Executive Director.
Thursday, April 24, 1:45 pm to 3:15 pm
Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom Level - Mile High Ballroom 4AB
Stock image of people watching a presentation

AERA Welcoming Orientation for New Members and First-Time Attendees
New members and first-time meeting attendees are invited to an orientation session that offers an opportunity to learn more about the association and the benefits of being a member, as well as navigating the Annual Meeting.
Wednesday, April 23, 7:10 am to 8:40 pm
Colorado Convention Center, Meeting Room Level - Room 207

Stock image of back of man at podium speaking to an audience

Closing Ceremony
The closing ceremony features the official transition of the association’s presidential leadership.
Sunday, April 27, 9:50 am to 11:20 am
Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom Level - Mile High Ballroom 4AB

Graduate Student Research-in-Progress Roundtable Series

The Graduate Student Research-in-Progress Roundtable Series will return as a special component of the Annual Meeting that will give accepted graduate students the opportunity to share and discuss their work in progress on site in Denver. The roundtable series features graduate students who are actively engaged in research but were not yet ready to advance a paper submission in response to the 2025 Call for Submissions.

In the Exhibit Hall

e-Lightening Ed-Talks
Nearly 250 e-Lightening Ed-Talks will feature selected poster authors presenting their work in the form of brief and engaging presentations. These 4-to-7 minute long talks will be held throughout the day on every day of the meeting in the Exhibit Hall.

Graduate Student and Early Career Poster Sessions
The Annual Meeting will feature the work of recent dissertation fellows and early career scholars in two poster sessions, "AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research" and "Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work."

AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research
Friday, April 25, 11:40 am to 1:10 pm

Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work
Saturday, April 26, 11:40 am to 1:10 pm

2025 AERA Undergraduate Fellows Research Poster Fair
This poster session provides an opportunity for the undergraduate students who are participating in the Undergraduate Student Education Research Training Workshop to visually display their work and receive comments and guidance from the education research community.
Friday, April 25, 3:20 pm to 4:50 pm
 
Diverse group of middle school aged kids next to locker smiling at camera

READY Program Poster Session
High school students, grouped in teams led by education researchers, will present their work in a featured poster session after participating in a mini-workshop at the meeting where they will discuss their research projects, issues consequential to them, and potential opportunities for continuing to pursue research engagements.
Thursday, April 24, 3:35 pm to 5:05 pm


Opportunities for Presenters

i-Presentation Gallery
All authors are encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity to be part of the innovative i-Presentation Gallery. Creating an i-Presentation and being part of the Gallery offers authors a web-based product with a citable and discoverable asset. It also offers networking opportunities through this open access portal. Authors with papers accepted for poster presentations must create their poster presentations with the Gallery. The Gallery accommodates PowerPoint and other traditional presentation formats.
Online Repository
Authors are encouraged to participate in the voluntary AERA Online Paper Repository and share their papers widely with other scholars in an open access environment. The Online Paper Repository authenticates and time-dates all uploaded papers and assigns a digital object identifier (DOI). The repository also allows citation to subsequent publication to be added.