Chair: Shirin Vossoughi

Associate Professor of Learning Sciences

Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence

Northwestern University School of Education & Social Policy

Core Faculty, Middle East & North African Studies Program

Co-Editor in Chief, Cognition & Instruction 

shirinvossoughi@gmail.com

Dr. Shirin Vossoughi is an educator, mother, writer and associate professor of Learning Sciences at Northwestern University, where she draws on ethnographic and interactional methods to study the cultural, socio-political, and ethical dimensions of human learning. Vossoughi’s research centers on learning environments that support young people to develop, question and expand disciplinary and artistic knowledge in ways that nourish educational self-determination. She is particularly concerned with understanding the forms of pedagogical mediation, ethical relations, and developmental trajectories that take shape within these settings. Her current work looks closely at teaching and learning in making/STEAM environments, literacy learning in the context of political education, intergenerational learning within Iranian families with a history of political activism, and the conditions that support justice-oriented educator learning. She takes a collaborative approach to research and design, partnering with teachers, families, and students to study the conditions that foster educational dignity and possibility.

Selected Publications:

Vossoughi, S. (2014). Social analytic artifacts made concrete: A study of learning and political education. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 21(4), 353-373.

Vossoughi, S., Marin, A., & Bang, M. (2023). Toward just and sustainable futures: Human learning and relationality within socio-ecological systems. Review of Research in Education, 47(1), 218-273.

Chair-Elect: Peter Hick

Professor of Inclusive Education, Evaluation & Policy Analysis Unit

Edge Hill University

Visiting Research Fellow, Institute for Children's Futures, MMU

Educational Psychologist CPsychol, AFBPsS, HCPC

Peter.Hick@edgehill.ac.uk

I am honored by the opportunity to contribute to the AERA Cultural Historical Research SIG in the role of Chair-Elect, and I look forward to collaborating with many of you. My current role is as Professor of Inclusive Education at Edge Hill University, in the northwest of England. My funded research focuses on developing approaches to building more inclusive practices at a whole school level across the UK; and on critically evaluating universal design for learning as inclusive pedagogy, in Ireland. I have a particular interest in the racialisation of disability in relation to schooling and disciplinary practices; and am developing this work in a European context. My path to Cultural Historical Activity Theory lay through studying Marx and Vygotsky; practicing as an Educational Psychologist; and teaching and researching in special education at the University of Manchester and at the University of Birmingham. Since meeting many scholars of CHAT at the ISCAR conference in San Diego in 2008, I have always been drawn to this field. I continue to engage with ISCAR and the Cultural Praxis network and feel that cultural historical approaches have much to offer, both as theoretical tools for untangling the complexities of social justice issues, and in relation to other critical theories addressing intersectional experiences. I participate in the editorial team developing a ‘Handbook of Cultural Historical Research: Overcoming Injustices Through Education and Learning’, which will be timely in highlighting the importance of cultural historical research in striving for equity and social justice in education.