Centers, Institutes, Labs and Programs

The Culturally Responsive Instructional Supervision Practices (CRISP) Lab uses the development of critical consciousness, the use of physiological data to understand what happens to the body when discussing practices that lack cultural responsiveness, and artificial intelligence (AI) to inform culturally responsive instructional supervision strategies for both teachers and principals to help produce equitable academic outcomes for students who are marginalized, minoritized, and otherized. We seek to support and develop innovative professional development and training for PK-12 educators to assess, implement, and develop cultural competencies through AI collaboration and feedback, which can inform leadership development, organizational decisions, and help improve team dynamics to ensure the implementation of culturally responsive instruction. Through the collection of data through wearable physiological devices, the CRISP Lab studies how AI can support the development of equity-oriented educational leadership and inform communication patterns regarding classroom instruction that can revolutionize how practitioners, policymakers, and researchers work together to generate real solutions for a more equitable and just US education system. As such, we seek to leverage interdisciplinary perspectives and cutting-edge methodologies to help address educational and instructional issues at the local, state, and federal level by bringing together experts in educational leadership, computer science, sociology, and beyond.

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The University at Buffalo's Open Education Research Lab's core mission is to actively engage and support the study of SUNY’s Open Education efforts. We provide consultation and research to the plethora of SUNY Open Educational efforts, with the aim of developing research that creates a better understanding and improvement of Open Education.

We believe there is a current opportunity to move beyond best practices and individual projects across SUNY Open Education. Education research has verified the value of empirical based evidence for improving education (McMillan, 2012) and a number of researchers have studied how individual Open Education innovations have improved learning outcomes (Laman & Hilton, 2012; Fischer, Hilton, Robinson, & Wiley, 2015). However, there is little research on how Open Education can systematically change and improve institutions of higher education, and how benefits may be applied or “scaled up” system wide. 

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Leveraging artificial intelligence’s (AI) transformative potential in early childhood education (ECE), the PlayfulAI Learning and Design Lab focuses on fostering responsible, effective, and equitable AI learning and tool design for young children (ages 5-8). The team is planning to integrate our ongoing and future research into three interconnected areas: (1) AI Literacies Framework and Experiences in ECE; (2) AI Literacies Curriculum, and (3) Child-Centered AI Design. 
 
In collaboration with community partners, the interdisciplinary team of researchers across ECE, AI, and computing education strives to:

• generate AI-powered innovations in child development, early education, and child-center AI design
• guide caregivers, educators, and designers to support and prepare young children for AI-driven future; and 
• disseminate information to help public and policy makers make informed decisions and policies on AI in ECE

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Tackling Mental Health and Assistive Technology Barriers in Underrepresented Populations with Disabilities: Let’s Be “S.M.A.R.T” About It!
 

The Rehabilitation Counseling and Mental Health programs of the Department of Counseling, School, and Educational Psychology are proposing to develop a Services, Mental Health, Assistive, Rehabilitation Technology (S.M.A.R.T) lab for equity-oriented transformative research. The main focus of the proposed S.M.A.R.T lab will be to generate new knowledge about barriers that hinder underrepresented populations with disabilities from engaging in traditional mental health counseling services and utilizing assistive technology (AT) in various life domains. We know these two areas represent significant needs for underrepresented populations, our target population (i.e., individuals who are marginalized based on race, ethnicity, language, gender and sexual identity, income, immigrant status, geographic location disadvantages concurrent with disability) based on research.  
 

The S.M.A.R.T Lab will conduct transformative research that helps in better understanding three areas: (a) barriers underrepresented populations with disabilities experience in seeking mental health services and AT; (b) perceptions held by mental health (MH), rehabilitation, and school counselors in training about these barriers; and (c) what could facilitate the development of interventions and strategies to overcome these challenges. These areas represent outcomes that relate to equity because they will serve to level the playing field for the target population in these two domains (MH services and AT use). They are transformative because their achievement will serve to augment substantial positive change in the quality of life of this target population.

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The Black Liberation in Education (BLESS) Co/Lab is dedicated to harnessing the power of research and evaluation to advance Black liberation in education, specifically for Black youth and the networks of families, communities, and schools that support them. 

The team's overarching vision is to establish a collaborative network comprising both researchers and practitioners committed to identifying and dismantling the deeply ingrained system of institutional AntiBlackness. They generate, share, and use knowledge as a tool for action for school and community practitioners to reduce and eliminate harm to Black students, center Black joy and healing, and advocate for liberatory practices and policies.

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The Visualizing Brilliance for Equity in STEAM with Video (ViBES with Video) Lab will advance equity and social justice in STEAM education by pioneering innovative methodologies with new forms of video recording technology. Tools and technologies for studying learning influence what can be seen and studied, and therefore have the power to center the voices and points of view of racially, linguistically, and culturally diverse learners in dynamic and situated learning environments, disrupting past methodologies that privilege decontextualized, individualistic, and logocentric views of what counts as learning.

ViBES with Video Lab will be the first of its kind to transform current approaches to STEAM educational research by;

• building a culturally responsive and sustaining asset-based analytic framework for video research in partnership with communities and participants
• expanding and developing our skills and foundations as researchers with new technologies and methodologies around this framework, and
•  sustaining this approach by apprenticing new researchers into this framework and seeking external funding. The lab will be supported in the future by a vibrant portfolio of individual and collaborative funded projects.
  

Meet the faculty involved with the lab: