Chicago-Themed Sessions</br>at the 2015 Annual Meeting



Sessions are listed chronologically

Thursday, April 16


Roots of Education for Social Justice on the Near West Side of Chicago: Jane Addams's Hull House

Thursday April 16 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Jane-Addams Hull-House Museum, 800 S Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60607

Relating to the AERA's 2015 meeting theme of Social Justice through Culture, Action and Research, this "off-site" event will discuss the historical roots of and contemporary innovations in education and social action to realize social justice in Chicago.  Professor Mary Jo Deegan, who is the author of Jane Addams and the Men of the Chicago School1892-1918, will speak.  She will discuss how Jane Addams’ pioneering work in what we now call qualitative methodologies was incorporated by professors of sociology at the University of Chicago and shaped approaches to research and social action.  There will be ample time for discussion.  This will be followed by brief presentations by organizers of current social justice projects dealing with civic involvement, community psychology and with first generation college students in these neighborhoods.   A tour of the Hull House Museum will be included (and an optional Dutch treat lunch in Greektown will follow the event).

How to register or add an event to existing registration


Friday, April 17

 
Community Resistance to School Closings: Defending Public Education in Chile and Chicago

Friday April 17, 8:15 to 9:45 a.m. 
Marriott, Seventh Level - Grand Salon III

Cosponsored with Division B - Curriculum Studies

This roundtable is focused on how communities have experienced and resisted school closings in Chicago and Chile. Communities in these areas have experienced this phenomenon as an imposition. The roundtable could initiate an international comparative research team to analyze larger social processes in order to promote and protect public education.

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Improving Life Chances of Poor Children: Experimental Evidence from Chicago

Friday April 17, 10:35 a.m. to 12:05 p.m.
Swissotel, Event Centre First Level - Zurich AB

Cosponsored with Division L - Educational Policies and Politics

Despite the growing importance of schooling attainment and achievement for labor market success, high school graduation rates have not changed much over the past 40 years and inequality in achievement test scores by income seems to have increased. This session presents the results of a portfolio of randomized experiments from the city of Chicago that address intervention strategies related to educational challenges targeted at different stages of a child's life course and to students at different predicted risks of school failure. 

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Chicago and Spoken Word

Friday April 17, 12:25 to 1:55 p.m.
Marriott, Fifth Level - Chicago E

Cosponsored with the Graduate Student Council


For this event, the Graduate Student Council is hosting a group of spoken word artists to perform a series of poems and narratives and engage in a dialogue about some of the issues that are of concern to them. These students will speak from their hearts on their perspectives, views, and ideas about what it means for them to experience their worlds. 

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Connected Learning in Chicago Public Schools

Friday April 17, 4:05 to 5:35 p.m. 
Hyatt, East Tower - Green Level - Plaza A

Cosponsored with the Media, Culture and Curriculum SIG

Much of the research documenting connected learning—a peer-supported, interest-driven approach to education that capitalizes on networked media to engage youth and bridge their formal and informal learning—has focused on after- or out-of-school sites rather than examining how schools can support such work. Four research papers will be presented that document various aspects of the implementation of a whole-school reform model with connected learning principles at two high-need, low-performing public schools in Chicago. 

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"We All We Got." Reclaiming Our Humanity With Genealogy Research, Reducing Gang Violence With Neighborhood Basketball: Chicago Community Perspectives on Youth Vulnerability in the Context of Extreme Impoverishment

Friday April 17, 4:05 to 5:35 p.m. 
Hyatt, West Tower - Gold Level, Regency D

Chicago natives, internationally recognized genealogist, Tony Burroughs, founder of the Center for Black Genealogy, and NBA All-Star Isiah Thomas, will present practical interventions with youth—the power of community-family genealogical research and a youth basketball program that reduces gang violence.

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Saturday, April 18

The Art of Complicated Conversation: Narrative Approaches to Enacting Social Justice in Chicago High Schools

Saturday April 18, 8:15 to 9:45 a.m. 
Hyatt, West Tower - Gold Level - Atlanta

Cosponsored with Division B - Curriculum Studies

The papers in this session work across the adjacent fields of curriculum studies and art education to (a) observe and theorize the tensions and complexities that arise in social justice conversations between students and their teachers in four Chicago high schools, and (b) suggest how aesthetic approaches create contexts in which complexity and tensions can become the basis of personal and collective investigation in local sites. 

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The Consortium on Chicago School Research: Taking Stock of 25 Years of Research–Practice Partnership

Saturday April 18, 8:15 to 10:15 a.m.
Hyatt, West Tower - Gold Level - Regency C

This session will examine the CCSR model of a place-based research-practice partnership, its evolution over 25 years, as well as its benefits, shortcomings, and challenges. The goal of this session is to consider influences of the CCSR model has had on the Institute of Educational Sciences and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the pros and cons of expanding research-practice partnerships.

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Closing Neighborhood Schools and Opening Charter Schools: The Restructuring of Public Education in Chicago

Saturday April 18, 10:35 a.m. to 12:05 p.m.
Marriott, Fifth Level - Kansas City

Cosponsored with Division G - Social Context of Education


This session brings together a set of papers that examine the current restructuring of urban education. In particular, the papers examine the coupling of two school actions that have been prominent in Chicago and other cities: closing neighborhood schools and opening charter schools. 
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Community-Based Educational Activists and Teacher Educators Unite! Chicago as a Site of Change

Saturday April 18, 2:45 to 4:15 p.m.
Marriott, Fifth Level - Chicago FGH

Cosponsored with Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education


Chicago has been a site of significant organizing by students, parents, teachers and university professors on various hot-button issues, including the closing of community schools, the narrowing of the curriculum, and school safety. This session opens with a panel of Chicago education activists describing the past, current, and future landscape for Chicago public schools. 

Link to session

Sunday, April 19

Teacher Preparation Partnerships for Mutual Benefit: Insights from Chicago

Sunday April 19, 8:15 to 10:15 a.m. 
Marriott, Fourth Level - Belmont

Cosponsored with Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education

This workshop analyzes Loyola University Chicago’s field-based program and its aim to cultivate mutually beneficial partnerships with local educational institutions. Partner institutions, drawn from among public schools, cultural institutions, and community organizations, collaborate to more effectively prepare urban teachers and, in the process, address common educational concerns. 

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Is Restorative Justice Possible in Chicagoland and Beyond? Sand Creek, Settler Colonialism, and Education

Sunday April 19, 10:35 a.m. to 12:05 p.m.
Hyatt, West Tower - Gold Level - Regency AB

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Navigating the Terrain of Teacher and Principal Education Reform: A Conversation With Chicago-Area Deans

Sunday April 19, 10:35 a.m. to 12:05 p.m.
Hyatt, West Tower - Gold Level - Regency D

This session will provide researchers and current and future leaders of education colleges with insight into the diverse array of leadership skills and perspectives that have shaped significant institutional and organizational change in Chicago and are laying the foundation for improvements in student learning in the future. 

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How Multiple Stakeholders Are Using Research about Chicago's Teacher Evaluation System

Sunday April 19, 12:25 to 1:55 p.m.
Marriott, Fourth Level - Clark

Cosponsored with the Research Use SIG


This symposium will use studies of teacher evaluation in Chicago to motivate a discussion of how research is used by various constituencies and how repeated interactions between researchers and stakeholders can enhance that usage. Panelists representing members of the research team, the teachers’ union, and the state will share their experiences in connection with how and under what conditions research evidence was most useful.

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Listening to Voices From Chicago: Reaffirming Our Commitment to Local Knowledge Through a Joint Session With Community-Based Organizations

Sunday April 19, 12:25 to 1:55 p.m.
Marriott, Fifth Level - Chicago ABC

Cosponsored with Division G - Social Context of Education


This session affirms our commitment as an academic community to maintain a dialogic relationship between AERA and the communities that are often the subjects of our research. It provides a forum for attendees to connect directly and purposefully with local groups working with Chicago families and children and to support local knowledge through service.

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Town Hall Meeting: Chicago Teachers Union, Education Researchers, and New Orleans and Chicago Community Activists

Sunday April 19, 12:25 to 1:55 p.m. 
West Tower - Gold Level, Regency AB

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Urban Educational Reform in the Belly of the Beast: Lessons and Reflection from Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia

Sunday April 19, 2:15 to 3:45 p.m. 
Marriott, Sixth Level - Indiana/Iowa

Cosponsored with Division G - Social Context of Education

Join researchers and community leaders as they reflect and share their experiences of how they grapple with attempting to change urban education from the inside.

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Urban Indigenous Land-Based Pedagogies and Community Educational Design Research

Sunday April 19, 2:15 to 3:45 p.m. 
Hyatt, West Tower - Gold Level - Regency AB
 
Cosponsored with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas SIG, Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific SIG, Division B, Action Research SIG, Committee of Scholars of Color in Education

This session features the work of a Chicago-based research collaborative including elders, parents, and youth members of the inter-tribal Indigenous community. Presenters have worked together over the past several years to design learning environments that would meet the present and future needs of their community. Presenters will speak from their own perspectives and roles in this longitudinal, intergenerational study. Two critical discussants will provide commentary about the larger implications of this approach to educational research, the implications of recovering Chicago as Indigenous land, and pose questions to the participants before opening the floor for questions from the audience. 

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Monday, April 20


The Landscape of Education Policy and Politics in Chicago: Neoliberalism, Race, Resistance and Justice

Monday April 20, 10:35 to 12:05 p.m.
Marriott, Fifth Level - Chicago FGH

Cosponsored with Division G - Social Context of Education


Chicago has been a focal point and laboratory for neoliberal education policy and organized resistance; and race, justice, and the right to the city have been central. This symposium critically examines the landscape of education policy and politics in Chicago, highlighting contentious politics of neoliberalism and urban space, recognizing that schools are central to community heritage and place-making and the quest for justice. 

Link to session