March 2019

AERA and the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) have announced the 2019–2021 cohort of the AERA-SRCD Early Career Fellowship in Middle Childhood Education and Development. The fellowship is a collaborative initiative between AERA and SRCD that provides an opportunity for early career scholars to participate in a research network of their peers with senior scholars who study middle childhood education and development.

The 22 selected postdoctoral-level fellows represent some of the strongest early career scholars conducting research that cuts across middle childhood education and development. (See a listing of fellows at the end of this story.)

Through the fellowship, AERA and SRCD seek to build a cohort of scholars with integrative interests and expertise at the nexus of child development and education and learning in their broader social context. The program leverages the expertise and convening capacity of both organizations to create a context for early career scholars to expand their research competencies and enhance their research programs.

The program aims to create new knowledge in areas that are sometimes understudied among developmental and education researchers. The focus on middle childhood is the second phase of the collaboration between AERA and SRCD. The 2017 pilot fellowship focused on early childhood, and a future cohort will address adolescence.

AERA and SRCD have designed this cohort’s fellowship experience to foster communication, collaboration, and exchange over the next two years. During the AERA Annual Meeting the fellows will attend an AERA-SRCD special joint symposium: “Middle School Student Learning and Middle Childhood Development—Connecting the Two” (Sunday, April 7, 8:00 to 9:30 a.m., Metro Toronto Convention Centre, 100 Level, Room 103 A&B).

The education research community is encouraged to join the fellows and other leading experts for this symposium.

The fellows also recently participated in the 2019 SRCD Biennial Meeting and attended a session where leading scholars presented research on the challenges and opportunities students encounter in their middle childhood years. The session focused on the enormous social and biological changes that occur during middle childhood .

It is anticipated that the fellows will publish their research in peer-reviewed journals, policy reports, and book chapters across both child development and education research. The 2020 AERA Annual Meeting will allow for continued fellow-mentor collaboration and fellow research presentations at an invited poster session; and the 2021 meetings of the two associations will serve as capstone events for fellows to present their work, feature common projects or outcomes made possible through the fellowship experience, and consider next steps and future opportunities building upon the fellowship.

“We are pleased that AERA and SRCD can enter this next phase of their collaborative professional development around the intersection of child development and education research,” said Felice J. Levine, AERA executive director and member of the AERA-SRCD Advisory Committee. “The early career scholars studying these issues will add to the knowledge base and methods used to study middle childhood.”

AERA-SRCD Early Career Fellows in Middle Childhood

Development and Education

2019–2021 Cohort

 

Cecilia Cheung University of California, Riverside	Megan Kuhfeld Northwest Evaluation Association
Lixian Cui New York University, Shanghai	Kamilah Legette University of North Carolina
Natalie Davis Northwestern University	Eva Oberle University of British Columbia
Adam Dube McGill University	Leoandra Onnie Rogers Northwestern University
Shereen El Mallah University of Virginia	Christopher Osterhaus International Doctoral School REASON
Jenna Finch University of Nebraska, Lincoln	Emily Phillips Galloway Vanderbilt University
Rachel Flynn Northwestern University	Shana Rochester Boston University
Charity Griffin Winston Salem State University	Teomara Rutherford North Carolina State University
Johari Harris University of Virginia	Jingjing Sun University of Montana
Maciel Hernandez Portland State University	Chezare Warren Michigan State University
Caroline Hornburg Purdue University