Message from SIG Chair


Special and Inclusive Education Research SIG #113

 

 

 Welcome to AERA’s Special and Inclusive Education Research SIG! 

We are an active and welcoming network of researchers with a shared focus on promoting positive outcomes for the diverse population of students in special and inclusive education settings. Specifically, we promote the study and dissemination of topics, research-based practices, and research methodologies related to implementation, access, equity, progress, and outcomes in the education of people with disabilities/disabled people and their families. Our aim is to advance equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency throughout the lifespan. 

Through the 2023-2024 academic year, we aim to think critically about what the 2024 annual meeting theme, Dismantling Racial Injustice and Constructing Educational Possibilities: A Call to Action, means for the field of special education. We will do this through programming that helps our members consider intersectional understandings and research approaches attending to disability, race, gender and other sociocultural identities with a focus on how to support K-12 student learning, experiences, agency and voices in special and inclusive education systems. 

In terms of SIG membership, we plan to continue expanding mentorship opportunities for graduate student members, and to use our committee space to build opportunities and networking. Our SIG presently has two committees: an emerging graduate student committee and the Neurodiversity and Autism Research in Education Committee (NAREC). Members are encouraged to reach out to SIG leadership to get involved and/or to suggest additional committee formation. In the upcoming years, we aim to continue our work around increasing diversity reflected in the field of special education research and in our SIG leadership and active membership. We will continue to focus on highlighting and supporting the research of Black, Indigenous, and people of color in our field as well as the work of neurodivergent researchers and disability self-advocates. 

Thank you for all you do in the area of special and inclusive education research and please stay connected and informed through our listserv, webpage, and Facebook page.

Best regards, 

Taucia González, PhD

Chair, Special and Inclusive Education Research SIG 

tauciagonzalez@arizona.edu