EdPrepLab at AERA 2021
12:00 PM ET
6:30 PM ET
The American Educational Research Association's (AERA) annual meeting takes place this year virtually from April 8th - 12th. We are excited that several EdPrepLab institutions will be presenting over the course of the conference. See below for a list of session titles and descriptions, presenters, dates, and times. If you are a faculty member at one of our EdPrepLab member institutions and would like to add information about your session, please email Beatrice Benavides at bbenavides@bankstreet.edu.
EdPrepLab-affiliated institutions are indicated with: 
Considering the Arts in School Turnaround
Thursday, April 8, 2021 | 5:00 pm ET
Cara Faith Bernard, University of Connecticut 
Ryan Shaw, Michigan State University
Arts education programs have been explored as a means to an end, given their purported ability to affect non-arts outcomes. This study focuses on an arts-focused school turnaround model, the Turnaround Arts (TA) program. Through multiple case study design, we interviewed stakeholders and analyzed policy documents from the Kennedy Center and two school districts in the US. Findings suggested that a flexible framework allowed schools to align arts-integration strategies with school improvement goals, increasing the program’s sustainability.
Co-teaching to Enhance Math Discourse and Respect for Diverse Voices
Friday, April 9, 2021 | 9:30 am ET
Mary Truxaw, University of Connecticut
Rebecca Eckert, University of Connecticut
Part of Studying Language in Mathematics Classrooms Round Table Session: This session incorporates four papers that explore different aspects on language in mathematics classrooms. Topics include diverse voices, equitable communication, multi-language learners, and English as Second Language Learners.
Using Disability Studies to Critically Close Read Children’s Literature
Friday, April 9, 2021 | 9:30 am ET
Laurie Rabinowitz, Bank Street College
Amy Tondreau, Austin Peay State University
This paper investigates how K-5 classroom teachers describe their beliefs, concerns and planning process for enacting read alouds featuring characters with disabilities.
Disrupting Racism and White Supremacy in Teaching and Teacher Education Policy/Practice and Research
Friday, April 9, 2021 | 10:40 am ET
Bree Picower, Montclair State University
Dorinda Carter, Michigan State University
Cati de los Rios, University of California, Berkeley
Rita Kohli, University of California, Riverside
Morgan Faison, University of Georgia
How does white supremacy/racism live within teacher education and/or teaching?
Dying to Fit In: Black and Latino Boys' Experiences with Gun Violence and Mass Consumption
Friday, April 9, 2021 | 10:40 am ET
Nicole Limperopulos, Bank Street College
This study explores the ways that Black and Latino young men navigate two discrete yet interconnected structural elements – the confluence of mass consumption and poverty and the relationships with and police in South Mountainside. Two central questions guided the study: How do Black and Latino young men make sense of their identities in a culture of consumption? How do Black and Latino young men make meaning of their experiences in a culture of mass consumption and with police in South Mountainside?
Developing a Framework for Equity-Oriented Principal Preparation Programs
Friday, April 9, 2021 | 4:10 pm ET
Nicole Limperopulos, Bank Street College
The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the perspectives of aspiring leaders as they make sense of an equity framework that Urban School Leaders Institute (USLI) implemented in order to prepare equity-oriented urban school leaders.
Symposium: Disrupting Systemic Inequities: Why Teacher Residency Stipends Matter (and Are More Feasible Than You Think)
Friday, April 9, 2021 | 4:10 pm ET
Karen DeMoss, Bank Street
Cyrus Driver, National Public Education Support Fund
Maria Hyler, Learning Policy Institute
Cathy Yun, Learning Policy Institute
Annamarie Francois, University of California, Los Angeles
We need to reconceptualize teacher preparation in structurally radical ways for educators to have the capacity to take "educational responsibility" for the deeper learning outcomes that schools need to support. Aspiring teachers need time to learn and reflect on their own lives and actions to be grounded educators who can navigate the complex ideological world we live in. Residency preparation can offer that—if they’re high quality, equitably accessible, sustainable, and focused on justice and equity in addition to content pedagogy. This session will provide a framework for understanding the economic, quality, and equity issues that teacher residencies must address; in so doing, future teachers will be better able to heed the call of the AERA theme, "Accepting Educational Responsibility."
A Developmental Continuum of Social Justice Leadership: Findings From a Large-Scale Qualitative Study
Saturday, April 10, 2021 | 2:30 pm ET
Jessica Blum-DeStefano, Bank Street College
Ellie Drago-Severson, Teachers College, Columbia University
Deborah Brooks-Lawrence
Drawing from in-depth qualitative interviews and formal developmental assessment interviews with fifty educational leaders from across the country, this paper describes a newly-articulated, developmental continuum of social justice leadership. Centering on leaders’ real-life stories of leadership success and challenge, this paper describes how participants’ developmental ways of knowing (i.e., internal meaning making systems) influence their leadership on behalf of social justice. By mapping social justice leadership as a developmental continuum—influenced by leaders’ sense-making and scope of vision—this research illuminates underexplored dimensions of social justice practice and offers implications for leadership preparation and in-service professional learning.
Abolitionist teacher education: Anti-racist Praxis, Critical Perspectives, and Humanizing Pedagogies
Saturday, April 10, 2021 | 4:10 pm ET
Bree Picower, Montclair State University
Tanya Maloney, Montclair State University
Farima Pour-Khorshid, University of San Francisco
Betina Hsieh, California State University, Long Beach
Melanie Acosta, Florida Atlantic University
Annamarie Francois, University of California, Los Angeles
This panel examines how we might "burn it down and rebuild" teacher preparation instead of tinkering around the edges to "fix" an inherently inequitable and racist system. It will challenge teacher educators and scholars to examine the influence of beliefs and values, identity and positionality, on the design and implementation of teacher education programs to make schools more liberatory spaces for teaching and learning. We question how reimagined teacher education programs move beyond “feel good multiculturalism” to center anti-racist praxis in key dimensions of teacher preparation: recruitment and support for teachers of color; centering the research and perspectives of scholars of color; culturally and linguistically responsive and sustaining curriculum and pedagogies; clinical practice partnerships; mentor teacher development; and faculty professional learning.
Building a New Table: Tracing the Pedagogies of Early Career, Women of Color Teachers during the Pandemic
Saturday, April 10, 2021 | 4:10 pm ET
Grace Player, University of Connecticut
Danielle Filipiak, University of Connecticut
This paper examines a multi-year, auto-ethnographic coalition dedicated to honoring and amplifying the experiences of pre-service and early career, Women of Color (WoC) teachers, in order to cultivate and sustain a diverse teaching force. We discuss the challenges and successes participants faced as they sought to leverage their experience-based knowledge to engage pedagogies of healing, belonging, and joy during their first years teaching, and the ways that these pedagogical commitments shifted when moving from in-person to online instruction.
Decentering Whiteness and Monolingual/Monoglossic Ideologies, Practices, and Identities in an Elementary Teacher Education Program
Saturday, April 10, 2021 | 4:10 pm ET
Teddi Beam-Conroy, University of Washington
Cristina Betancourt, University of Washington
Patricia Ferreyra, University of Washington
Grace Gonzales, University of Washington
Renee Shank, University of Washington
Rachel Snyder Bhansari, University of Washington
Manka Varghese, University of Washington
Patricia Venegas Weber, Seattle University
Recent critiques of pre-service teacher education programs in the United States have centered on "the overwhelming presence of whiteness" and what others have also identified as the intersection of racial and linguistic normativity in terms of whiteness and standardized American English in these programs. The objectives of this symposium are to document the rationale and outcomes of an elementary program engaging in a shift to decenter whiteness and monolingualism/monoglossia. The symposium will provide documentation of various dimensions of these efforts, including the addition of a bilingual subgroup embedded within the cohort. The symposium consists of five brief presentations followed by discussant remarks and then the audience choosing to interact with one of the presenters in a small group activity.
Reimagining Literacy and Language Education with Girls of Color
Sunday, April 11, 2021 | 10:40 am ET
Grace Player, University of Connecticut
Mónica González, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
Tracey Flores, Autumn Griffin, Dywanna Smith, Nora Cisneros, Carol Brochin, University of Arizona
Tamara Butler, College of Charleston
Ruth Nicole Brown, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
Claudia Cervantes-Soon, Arizona State University
Victoria Gill, University of Pennsylvania
Valerie Kinloch, University of Pittsburgh
Cinthya Saavedra, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Teachers College, Columbia University
This panel will reveal how the study of Girls of Color (GOC) literacies allows education scholars to engage an asset orientation towards GOC to see how they are engaging in literacies through a variety of modes and practices such as digital, visual, oral, relational, and embodied literacies. Taking up these issues in education can help illuminate both the ways GOC are connected and how they are different, dependent on their dynamic identities and contexts. Re-framing literacies and GOC in this way opens opportunities for the exploration of the ways that GOC are leveraging their intersectional identities, cultural knowledge, and experiences toward consuming and creating meaning in beautifully varied ways.
Building a Common Agenda for the 2020’s and Beyond
Sunday, April 11, 2021 | 10:40 am ET
Casey Cobb, University of Connecticut
Mariela Rodriguez, University of Texas, San Antonio
Muhammad Khalifa, Ohio State University, Columbus
Katherine Rodela, Washington State University
Karen Seashore Louis, University of Minnesota
Daniel Spikes, University of South Carolina
Angela Urick, Baylor University
As we now enter the spring of a new year and era, now is also a time to contemplate the future of our research in educational administration and leadership. What pressing questions or issues might researchers prioritize over the next five and ten years? These questions may touch upon issues such as community engagement, leadership preparation, cultural responsiveness, and methodology. This session is intended to spark renewal and to help build an agenda for heading into the future.
Symposium: Identifying & Navigating the Curriculum & Instructional Equity Fault lines of the COVID-19 Crisis
Sunday, April 11, 2021 | 10:40 am ET
Lora Bartlett, University of California, Santa Cruz
Judith Warren Little, University of California, Berkeley
Alisun Thompson, Lewis & Clark College
Lina Darwich, Lewis & Clark College
Iris Hinds Weaver, Santa Cruz Schools
Riley Collins, University of California, Santa Cruz
Lila Hart, University of California, Santa Cruz
Jessica Charles, Bank Street College
Coralie Delhaye, Stanford University
Hilda Borko, Stanford University
Matthew Wilsey, Stanford University
Emily Reigh, Stanford University
Jonathan Osbourne, Stanford University
Jennifer Lin Russell, University of Pittsburgh
Drawing on disaster theory, five empirical papers explore the educational equity fault lines revealed by the metaphorical earthquake of COVID19. This symposium concerns itself with this crisis as a policy focusing event with respect to inequity exposed in students’ differential access to academic content, instructional guidance, social and emotional support, and in teachers’ working conditions. Employing a disaster theory heuristic that emphasizes the social construction of crises, this session looks at how local and systemic responses amplified or mitigated the risk of educational inequity. Using a range of research designs and methods, and drawing from multiple educational contexts, the papers collectively point to specific social conditions and institutional actions that may inform equity-focused policy formation in times of crisis.
Cacophony of Silencing: Examining How Teacher Educators Address Hate and White Supremacy
Sunday, April 11, 2021 | 2:30 pm ET
Carol Battle, High Tech High
Joni Kolma, California State University, San Marcos
Laura Vernikoff, Touro College
Jenna Kamrass Morvay, Quinnipiac University
Hate and white supremacy are at the core of the many "isms" endemic to our society and teacher preparation programs have often fallen short in addressing them. This paper reflects a qualitative inquiry into how silencing shapes the ways teacher educators address hate and white supremacy with teacher candidates.
Cultivating Truth-Telling With Descriptive Inquiry: Confronting Habitus for Racial Equity
Sunday, April 11, 2021 | 2:30 pm ET
Cecelia Traugh, Bank Street College
Cara Furman, University of Maine, Farmington
This paper is premised on James Baldwin's claim that racism is deeply and widely entrenched in our culture and on Pierre Bourdieu’s findings that we operate within complex networks of habituated practices. Within this framework, we ask how do we disrupt these calcified, complex, and racist ways of being? Specifically, we explore how teachers are habituated into particular ways of seeing and acting. We argue that conscious cultivation can promote greater equity and that Truth Telling is a necessary part of this cultivation if norms are to be disrupted. In doing so, we draw on a practice, Descriptive Inquiry, to promote Truth Telling and look at the ways that it led to changes in three urban public elementary schools.
Panel: Reframing the Economics of Education to Center Equity: Exploring Collaborative Approaches to Promote Finance Policies for the Public Good.
Sunday, April 11, 2021 | 2:30 pm ET
Karen DeMoss, Bank Street College
Bruce Baker, Rutgers University
Cyrus Driver, National Public Education Support Fund
Solana Rice, Liberation in a Generation
Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers
While early research in the economics of education centered equity concerns, the past few decades embraced efficiency and accountability, based largely on a belief that money was not a driving factor in educational outcomes. New research increasingly demonstrates that money does matter, offering the field a chance to redirect discussions about education finance to better support equity. The panel--including non-profit, union, and academic leaders--will engage the historic and emerging assumptions behind the economics of education and explore how researchers and organizational stakeholders can promote stronger policies for equity.
Let the Teacher-Buyer Beware: What Metrics Predict Expert-Evaluated Quality in TeachersPayTeachers.com Resources?
Sunday, April 11, 2021 | 2:30 pm ET
Lauren McArthur Harris, Arizona State University
Catharyn Crane Shelton, Northern Arizona University
Leanna Archambault, Arizona State University
This study aimed to identify metrics predicting expert-evaluated quality within a popular online educational marketplace. Experts rated overall quality across TeachersPayTeachers.com’s (TpT) 100 best-selling 11th grade U.S. activities, finding that 30% scored a 3 or 4 (4-point scale). Meanwhile, 100% of these activities were rated a 3 or 4 by buyers. Further analysis showed expert ratings for these best-selling activities were not correlated to other variables such as the number of ratings a resource had or its rank on TpT. However, price and the number of followers were positively correlated with expert ratings, albeit weakly. These findings suggest that teacher-buyers must beware of online marketplace materials. Implications for teacher education and online educational marketplace accountability are discussed.
Representation, Response-ability, and (Re)Traumatization: What Are the Ethical Considerations of Using Simulations in Teacher Education?
Sunday, April 11, 2021 | 4:10 pm ET
Elizabeth Self, Vanderbilt University
Barbara S. Stengel, Vanderbilt University
In this conceptual paper, we posit a framework to guide the ethical considerations of using simulations with preservice teachers. We explore ethics of representation, response-ability, and (re)traumatization as facets of this framework, noting examples of where these concerns present themselves in current simulation work.
Two Paradigms for Formative Assessment and Their Consequences for Opportunity to Participate in Science Learning
Sunday, April 11, 2021 | 4:10 pm ET
Erin Furtak, University of Colorado, Boulder
Clarissa Deverel-Rico, University of Colorado, Boulder
This is a conceptual paper that argues for the importance of enacting classroom assessments with a dialogic stance on student ideas.
From the Teacher to the Superintendent: Building Educational Systems to Support Racial Equity
Sunday, April 11, 2021 | 4:10 pm ET
Maria E. Hyler, Learning Policy Institute
Darion Wallace, Learning Policy Institute
Jennifer Robinson, Montclair State University
Ebony Green, Institute for Student Achievement
Marjorie Wechsler, Learning Policy Institute
This symposium connects complementary research studies that focus on preparing and developing leaders and teachers to build and sustain systems to support racial equity in pre-k-12 classrooms, schools, and districts. The research projects describe promising best practices, reflect upon opportunities for growth, and challenge barriers to advancing racial equity in pre- and in-service educator preparation. Moreover, these studies coalesce often distinctive bodies of research (e.g., teacher, principal, and superintendent studies) in order to facilitate a more expansive, system-level discourse around the possibilities for enhanced racial equity in a more interconnected educational system.
Symposium: Finding Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perspectives from Different Stakeholders in Schools
Sunday, April 11, 2021 | 4:10 pm ET
Soraya Sablo Sutton, University of California, Berkeley
Rebecca Cheung, University of California, Berkeley
The outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the U.S. and the subsequent changes brought to the school system (i.e., school closure, distance learning, and transition to school re- opening) have caused increased stress and job-related demands among different school stakeholders. While an emerging body of literature has examined the negative consequences caused by pandemic to school systems, there is a lack of synergized discussion on the wellbeing and resilience of different school stakeholders during the pandemic. To address this research gap, we will present five empirical studies focusing on giving different groups of school stakeholders (i.e., principals, classroom teachers, school social workers, students, and families) to understand their unique challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. The symposium will also explore the protective factors, resilience process, and intervention strategies that could help alleviate the negative consequences caused by this unprecedented public and social crisis.
Toward a Framework for Culturally Sustaining Teacher Educator Pedagogy
Monday, April 12, 2021 | 9:30 am ET
Darlene Lee, University of California, Los Angeles
Josephine Pham, California State University, Fullerton
Building on Paris’ (2012) culturally sustaining pedagogy framework and using grounded theory to develop anti-racist theories of teacher education (Charmaz, 2006), in this paper, we conceptualize Culturally Sustaining Teacher Educator Pedagogy as a framework for supporting the preparation of K-12 teachers committed to social justice. Specifically, we discuss how Curriculum, Critical Literacies, Practice/Action, and Context serve as critical factors that shape teacher educator pedagogy and K-12 teacher learning.
Creating Mixed-Reality Avatar Simulations to Prepare Teacher Candidates for Equity-Focused Instruction
Monday, April 12, 2021 | 4:30 pm ET
Pamela Hickey, Towson University
Matthew Iannone, Towson University
This paper examines the process of creating mixed reality simulations to support teacher candidates as they enact instructional practices while attending to linguistic diversity, including language variation and multilingualism.