Here is what our members have to say about the Educational Change SIG:
The AERA SIG on Educational Change is the most exciting venue anywhere for those scholars who are seeking out forward-looking, international, and inspirational colleagues. I've learned enormously from SIG members and encourage all AERA members who want a fabulous sense of community and true moral purpose to join the SIG immediately!
- Dr. Dennis Shirley (former Educational Change SIG Chair), Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Educational Change, Professor, Lynch School of Education, Boston College (USA)
The Educational Change SIG has been crucial to my professional career. Thanks to it, I met and deepened connections with some of the most influential thinkers and doers in the Educational Change field, such as Michael Fullan, Andy Hargreaves, Viviane Robinson, Dennis Shirley, Carol Campbell, Pasi Sahlberg, Amanda Datnow, and Beatriz Pont, among many others. Many of them have become close friends and mentors, and have supported in very concrete ways my professional growth and opportunities. Being a part of the Educational Change SIG has profoundly enhanced my experience of AERA. Most of the events I attend while at the conference are sponsored by this SIG - and they are almost invariably of very high quality!
- Dr. Santiago Rincón-Gallardo (former Educational Change SIG Program Chair & Secretary/Treasurer), Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, OISE, University of Toronto & Chief Research Officer, Michael Fullan Enterprises, Inc. (Canada)
The SIG ensures that the latest research evidence is shared and affords scholars around the world who are focused on educational change a collective and powerful voice.
- Dr. Alma Harris (former Educational Change SIG Chair) Professor, University College London (UK)
The Educational Change SIG is a valuable community in which to network and learn from leading and emerging scholars on broad issues related to educational innovation and improvement. The SIG has been an important space for me to connect and extend my work on student diversity, secondary English curriculum change, and teacher agency into a broader conversation on educational policy, practice, and reform spanning myriad issues and contexts, from the local to the global. I have also benefitted from working in a leadership role in the SIG, as program chair from 2009-2012. Whether you are a seasoned or new scholar of education, you will find the Educational Change SIG to be a stimulating community in which you can collaborate with others toward improving the practice of education, both in the US and around the world.
- Allison Skerrett (former Educational Change SIG Program Chair), Associate Professor, Department of Curriculum & Instruction, The University of Texas at Austin (USA)
The SIG on Educational Change is a prime venue for dissemination of cutting edge ideas in educational reform. The wide international membership of the SIG provides an opportunity for rich dialogue about the successes and challenges of educational change efforts across the globe.
- Dr. Amanda Datnow (former Educational Change SIG Chair), Associate Dean and Faculty Equity Advisor, Professor, Dept. of Education Studies, University of California, San Diego (USA)
As an applied researcher working “in the field”, I struggled to find my intellectual home. I found it in two places that have become the anchors for my professional work and safe places to learn and grow – the Educational Change SIG of AERA and "As an applied researcher working 'in the field,' I struggled to find my intellectual home. I found it in two places that have become the anchors for my professional work and safe places to learn and grow – the Educational Change SIG of AERA and ICSEI (the International Congress of School Effectiveness and School Improvement). Wonderful forums for discussion, support, laughter and professional camaraderie.
- Dr. Lorna Earl , Lorna Earl & Associates, President (Canada)
If one would like to be plugged into a network of global thought leaders in educational change, the AERA Educational Change SIG is where one would like to be.
- Dr. Pak Tee Ng, Head, PLS & Associate Dean, Leadership Learning, National Institute of Education (Singapore)
As a graduate student, it is easy to feel lost amid all the options that AERA offers. I am a member of several SIGs, but I am particularly thankful for the senior and emerging scholars in Educational Change who welcome those of us whose research interests are still developing. I attended my first SIG meeting in Chicago, where I found a home because I fit not only on the basis of conducting change-oriented and internationally focused research, but because nearly every member of that meeting approached me with a handshake, business card, and desire to collaborate.
- Michael Thier, Graduate Student, Educational Policy Improvement Center, Research and Policy Fellow; Center for Equity Promotion, Research assistant, University of Oregon (USA)