Call for Proposals:

AERA Special and Inclusive Education Research

Special Interest Group (SIER SIG)

Deadline EXTENDED TO July 20, 2021, at 11:59 PM PDT

The SIER SIG of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) invites paper, symposium, roundtable, and/or poster proposal submissions for the 2022 annual meeting.

AERA Annual Meeting

April 22-25, 2022

San Diego, CA

Cultivating Equitable Education Systems for the 21st Century

This theme is of significant importance for special and inclusive education researchers as our field has made a substantial impact on increasing educational opportunities and outcomes for students with disabilities. Yet, more attention is needed in remedying the systemic inequities that continue to negatively impact students with disabilities, paying particular attention to the “whole range of human experiences, identities, and practices such as language, Indigenous knowledges, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity, among others” (2022 AERA Presidential Program Theme). Researchers are invited to submit proposals to the SIER SIG that address educational inequities in special education and inclusive education, including those that acknowledge the roles special and inclusive education researchers play in ensuring access to equitable education opportunities for all students with disabilities, as well as in preparing special and inclusive educators for work in racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse P–12 schools and postsecondary institutions.

As members of the SIER SIG, we work to promote the study and dissemination of topics, research-based practices, and research methodologies related to access and inclusion of people with disabilities and their families, advancing equitable education opportunities, independence and economic self-sufficiency throughout the lifespan. We recognize the need for research that represents people across disability labels, race, socio-economic status, ethnicity, gender, language, and other areas of diversity and identity. We also recognize the need for conferences, such as AERA, that pull together ideas, research, and experiences that move towards the reimagining and creation of systems that view opportunity and education as a human right. 

As such, we look for proposals that:

• Empirically examine how special and inclusive education are used as a tool for both empowerment and dis-empowerment.
• Promote access to equitable and inclusive education opportunities, for all individuals with disabilities including those with extensive support needs.

• Explore areas of educational research of interest to special and general educators, including teaching strategies, learning strategies, instructional practices and barriers to these strategies and practices.

• Investigate intersections of disability and other identities, such as race/ethnicity, gender, class, and sexuality.
• Identify social structures, policies, funding structures, and approaches to schooling essential for equity.
• Examine the lived experiences of those within the field of special education, including students, teachers, families, administrators, and other related allies.
• Utilize systems-based and/or multi-level approaches to advancing equity for students with disabilities.
• Focus on research to increase our impact, such as advocacy, academic instruction including literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies, specially designed instruction, communication, community living, employment, executive functioning, higher education, identity, inclusion, independence, mental health, policy, positive behavior supports, postsecondary education opportunities, public understanding, and social supports.
• Identify potential instructional practices, policies, and research that have promise for improving social, academic, employment, and community opportunities and outcomes with a special emphasis on removing barriers faced by students of color with disabilities.
• Utilize meta-analyses and research syntheses to identify emerging and evidence-based research.

• Use critical quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods to advance equity.
• Share new methods to elicit qualitative voices, such as online multimodal tools.
• Consider quality indicators including those related to improved academic and social outcomes, long-term outcomes, implementation, generalization and maintenance.
• Contextualize autism from a neurodiversity perspective, and remove socially constructed obstacles to achieving quality of life aspirations.
• Take an asset focused approach to providing universally designed supports.
• Foster self-awareness, self-efficacy, and self-esteem.

We also encourage you to submit symposium, paper, roundtable, and/or poster proposals that fit our overall SIER SIG purpose for the 2022 AERA Annual Meeting. To learn more please visit our website at: https://www.aera.net/SIG113/Special-Education-Research-SIG-113

For more information regarding the 2021 AERA Annual Meeting program and the proposal submission process please visit the link: https://www.aera.net/Events-Meetings/Annual-Meeting/2022-Annual-Meeting-Call-for-Paper-and-Session-Submissions

Meghan Cosier

Program Chair, AERA Special and Inclusive Education Research SIG

Associate Professor of Special Education and Disability Studies

Director, Thompson Policy Institute

Chapman University

cosier@chapman.edu