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Message from the SIG Chair/Board

We write to you today to add our voices to the growing chorus demanding systemic and systematic change in our society following the murder of George Floyd.

We write to you today to express our grief, our horror and our outrage. The fact that George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Breonna Taylor and far too many others have died as a result of state-sanctioned violence is impossible to reconcile with a country founded upon the principle of "justice for all."

We write to you today to acknowledge the reality of long-standing systems of oppression and violence against Black, Latinx, and Indigenous peoples. We understand that the events of the past weeks are just the most recent incarnations of systems and structures designed to maintain the privilege of White people.

We write to you today to proclaim that Black Lives Matter. After centuries of oppression, it is long past time for change.

And we write to you today with humility as we know that we do not have answers or solutions.

Instead we commit today to listening, opening our eyes and interrogating our own practice.

We commit today to using the tools of our profession to look for answers. We will encourage and highlight research that unmasks hidden structures of racism, as well as research that guides us towards a more equitable system of education.

We commit today to joining with others to search for solutions. As educators and scholars of the PDS Research SIG, our work is embedded in partnerships, and we must use our focus on relationships to build communities grounded in shared inquiry and equal access to power and privilege.

We commit today to creating a space for reflection, and a community that reaches out and welcomes teachers, teacher educators, scholars, researchers and students of color. An important new initiative of our SIG will be a mentoring program designed to support doctoral students from marginalized groups.

We commit today to redoubling our efforts to create equal educational opportunity for every child. We know that well-prepared teachers and teachers who center their practice in culturally sustaining pedagogies vastly improve the educational experiences of children. We therefore commit to supporting and preparing teachers to engage in culturally sustaining pedagogies.

We commit today to participating in the on-going struggle for freedom and equality, especially for those for whom this has been an elusive quest.

Respectfully,

AERA PDS Research SIG Board Members

 

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