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2025 Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award Lecture

Speaker: Robert C. Pianta (University of Virginia)

Title: Actionable and relevant education science: Focus on People, Processes, and Contexts That Foster Students’ Learning and Development

The lecture draws on more than two decades of research on the measurement and improvement of teacher-student interactions in tens of thousands of classrooms—across grade levels, cultural and economic contexts, students, and teachers. This work bridges developmental and education science to create resources relevant locally and at scale. By grounding education scholarship in the science of human development, Dr. Pianta argues that education research be oriented around a view of learning that is both comprehensive and personalized, and the relational, personal, and educational processes that support it.

2025 Early Career Award Lecture

Speaker: Raquel Muñiz (Boston College)

Title: Research at the Intersection of Law and Education Policy: Conditions, Strategies, and Mechanisms that Shape Educational Equity

Restrictive law and policy contexts have increasingly become the norm across the U.S. In this lecture, I draw attention to how systemic contexts shape educational (in)equity. I draw attention to two interrelated areas. First, I discuss how law and education policy are mechanisms that have over time shifted the discretionary bounds for practitioners, establishing restrictive conditions that hinder educational equity for students who have experienced substantial adversity. Second, I discuss how research use operates as a strategy and mechanism that informs educational equity policy debates in courts and policymaking contexts. I conclude with potential pathways to shape and leverage conditions, strategies, and conditions in furtherance of educational equity.

2025 Social Justice in Education Award Lecture

Speaker: Gloria Swindler Boutte (University of South Carolina)

Title: Beyond Learned Powerlessness to Educational Liberation

Echoing Alice Walker’s reflections on learned powerlessness, this lecture invites educators and researchers to reclaim the agency that has always been ours. At a moment when oppressive forces continue their attempts to diminish the human spirit, this session calls us to not only do no harm but to unapologetically do good and get into “good trouble”—nod to Ancestor John Lewis. Guided by an African diasporic vision for educational justice, the lecture draws upon the Akan principle Fawohodie, symbolizing freedom, independence, emancipation—and the profound responsibilities that accompany them. Through this lens, the session traces how systemic silencing has been strategically cultivated, and why, in the words of Audre Lorde, “our silence will not protect us.” Rather than accepting narratives of powerlessness, participants will be invited to imagine and enact collective agency. Concrete strategies rooted in community, culture, and resistance are highlighted.