Graduate School of Education scholars to share research at AERA conference

More than 50 faculty, staff and student scholars from across the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education will present their research at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), being held in person in Chicago, IL, from April 13-16. The conference will also offer a virtual component that will be held May 4-5.

“Interrogating Consequential Education Research in Pursuit of Truth” is the theme of this year’s conference.

“I am delighted that GSE will be well-represented once again this year at AERA, the preeminent educational research organization,” said Suzanne Rosenblith, PhD, GSE dean and professor. “It is a testament to the high-quality research with which our faculty are engaged. I am also very pleased to see so many of our graduate students represented on the program as well.”

Rosenblith will present in Chicago alongside GSE researchers, including Elisabeth Etopio, PhD, Julie Gorlewski, PhD, Erin Kearney, PhD, Hailey A. Maza, EdM, and Amanda Winkelsas, PhD. Their session, “Pairing Mentor Teachers and Residents: A Pivotal Component in Experience, Development, and Teacher Preparation,” will explore the process of pairing novice teachers with partnering mentor teachers in a university-based, community-focused, urban teacher residency program. Kamontá Heidelburg, PhD, Ohio State University, and Amanda Seccia, PhD, University of Chicago, are also presenting authors.

In addition, Rosenblith will present “Exploring Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Self-Efficacy and Social Justice Beliefs Among Teacher-Residents” during the virtual component of the conference alongside several of the aforementioned scholars. Their research examines teacher candidates’ culturally responsive classroom management self-efficacy and teaching for social justice beliefs in one urban residency program, and suggests that teacher residency programs hold particular potential for developing culturally responsive classroom management self-efficacy and social justice orientations in teacher candidates.

A host of GSE students are also scheduled to speak. Among them are:

• Abygail M. Anderson, PhD student in the Department of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology, will present “What Works for Whom, Why, and How? Toward Critical Race-Conscious Education Policy/Program Evaluation for Equity” with Jaekyung Lee, PhD, professor in the department.
• Kristina Collier, Giambattista Davis and Danielle V. Lewis, PhD students in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, will present “From Comprehensive Services to No Support at All: How Institutional Agents Shape Student-Mothers’ Academic Success” with Margaret W. Sallee, PhD, associate professor in the department.
• Alexandra LaTronica-Herb, PhD student in the Department of Learning and Instruction, will present “Identity, Agency, Parenthood, and Balance: Examining Influential Factors on Practitioners’ Decisions to Leave Pre-K–12 Education” with Tiffany Karalis Noel, PhD, clinical assistant professor in the department.

In addition to giving presentations, participating in poster sessions and contributing to roundtable discussions, GSE’s students and faculty will also be honored for their contributions to the field of education.

Kate Steilen, PhD student in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, received the GSE Dean’s Student Research Award. The award—made possible through the Gregory J. Dimitriadis PhD Dean’s Excellence Fund—provides support to students participating in the in-person event.

“I am thrilled to receive the Dean’s Student Research Award. This award is an honor, and I’m excited to attend AERA for the first time, participate in the Clark Seminar, conference with other scholars and students, and present my own research on leading through crises,” Steilen said.

While attending the conference, Steilen will present a paper entitled “‘There Wasn’t A Guidebook For This:’ Caring Leadership in Crisis” and participate in a “Research in Progress Roundtables Program” for graduate students.

She is also the recipient of the AERA Educational Change Special Interest Group’s Student Travel Award.

Jasmine Alvarado, PhD, assistant professor of educational leadership and policy, will receive two awards at the conference: the AERA Latinx Special Interest Group’s Outstanding Dissertation Award and the AERA Family-School-Community Partnerships Honorable Mention for Outstanding Dissertation. “These awards are only possible because of the support, collective learning and care that I experienced from participants, loved ones and mentors when developing the dissertation,” said Alvarado. “I will always be grateful for their wisdom, rigorous expectations, understanding and cultivating moments of joy.”

During the conference, Alvarado will present “Latinx Siblings’ Resistance to Pathology Within Family–Bilingual School Relations,” focusing on how multiply-minoritized Latinx siblings in a bilingual program contest deficit-based conceptualizations within family-school relations. The presentation will showcase how siblings’ experiences and relationships present expansive possibilities of what relationships among and with families can be in schools.

AERA, a national research society founded in 1916, is concerned with improving the educational process by encouraging scholarly inquiry related to education and evaluation and promoting the dissemination and practical application of research results.

The annual conference is one of the largest nationwide for education researchers. A full schedule of UB’s contributions to the annual meeting can be found on AERA’s website.