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2015 American Educational Research Association Conference

The annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2015 held in Chicago, IL was well-attended by William & Mary’s School of Education faculty and students.  Members from our community of scholars traveled to Chicago to participate in research and scholarly paper presentations, roundtables, symposia, seminars, and poster sessions. 

Professor Megan Tschannen-Moran received the Division A 2015 Excellence in Research Award.  This award is given to a scholar with significant contributions to the field of education and is a testament to the esteem Dr. Tschannen-Moran holds nationally. 

A total of 17 research studies were presented by William & Mary faculty and students, individually and collaboratively at the AERA conference in Chicago.  The William & Mary presentations included the following:

"A [Construct] by Any Other Name": School Districts' Contextually Shaped Conceptions and Implementations of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)  (Symposium paper)
Judy Harris, Professor

Troubling Leadership: Recrafting the Future of Community Colleges (Roundtable)
Regina Garza Mitchell, and Pamela Eddy, Professor

Lies, Myths, Stock Stories, and Other Troupes: Understanding Race and Whites’ Policy Preferences in Education
(Invited Speaker Session)
Jamel K. Donnor, Professor

Design Thinking, Participatory Culture, and Creative Problem Solving in the Higher Education Learning Environment
(Paper session)
Julie Marsh, Doctoral candidate

Walking the Walk: Assessment and Reflective Practice in the Development of a College Teaching Certificate
(Roundtable)
Pamela Eddy, Professor, and Jamison Miller, Doctoral student

Science Motivation Profiles Using Latent Profiles Analysis With the High School Longitudinal Study: 2009
(Paper session)
Lori Andersen, PhD’13, and Jason Chen, Professor

Internationalization Efforts on Campus (Symposium Paper)
Pamela Eddy, Professor

Self-Efficacy of African American Women in STEM (Paper session)
Reginald Johns, Doctoral student

Understanding the Public Good: New Tools, New Methods (Roundtable)
Angelo Letizia, PhD’14

Epistemic Frames for Democratic Education in the Digital Age (Roundtable)
Jeremy Stoddard, Professor

Validation of a New Statewide Teacher Evaluation System: What's Working, and What's Not? (Roundtable)
Leslie Grant, Professor, Xianxuan Xu, James Stronge, Professor, and Tom Ward, Professor

A Feminist Poststructural Discourse Analysis of Inaugural Addresses by Presidents of High-Profile Research Universities (Paper session)
Tehmina Khwaja, PhD’15

An Examination of Curriculum Policies and Practices in Gifted Education (Roundtable)
Kimberly L. Chandler, Professor

Building Shared Meaning: Bringing the Theoretical Framework to the Participants in a Qualitative Study (Roundtable)
Tehmina Khwaja, PhD’15, and Kerri Mahoney, Doctoral candidate

Race and Rhetoric: An Analysis of College Presidents' Statements on Campus Racial Incidents (Paper session)
Eddie Cole, Professor, and Shaun Harper

National Culture, Creativity, and Economic Productivity: What's the Relationship With Student Achievement? (Poster)
Xianxuan Xu, Leslie Grant, Professor, James Stronge, Professor, and Tom Ward, Professor

Distributed Scaffolding in a Service-Learning in Literacy Education Class (Structured Poster Session)
Peter Smagorinsky, University of Georgia, and Lindy Johnson, Professor

The William & Mary participants also took advantage of the research and scholarly paper sessions, symposia, roundtable sessions, orientations, graduate student seminars, receptions and poster sessions to increase their knowledge with the latest research taking place in the field of education, and network with professors and peers from around the country and the globe.

Adam Brown was selected as an 'emerging scholar' with his assigned mentor, Dr. Dan Gibton from the University of Tel Aviv. Adam is a student in our Executive Ed.D. program and the principal of Virginia Beach SECEP at Windsor Woods Elementary. The Politics of Education Association and the University Council for Educational Administration hosted doctoral students to the Boyd Workshop which aims to connect doctoral students and recent graduates with mentors in order to share their expertise and experiences in the discipline.

Educational Policy, Planning, and Leadership (EPPL) higher education doctoral student Jamison Miller on his experience as a first time attendee at AERA: "I had been warned to brace myself for the sheer enormity of the AERA meeting. However, I found this to be exhilarating. The incredible diversity of topics and approaches across the field of education that are represented at AERA led to fascinating insights and discoveries. I enjoyed the engaging dialogues, including fresh perspectives from high-profile veteran scholars, new graduate students, and everyone in between."

Another first time attendee was EPPL gifted education doctoral candidate Keisha Baylor.  Keisha reflected on her time at AERA: "The opportunity to learn from prominent scholars in the field was inspiring. The discourse surrounding current research in education was timely and valuable for me as a doctoral candidate and K-12 practitioner. I look forward to continuing the tradition in 2016 for the centennial celebration!"

First time presenter at AERA, EPPL gifted education doctoral student Reginald Johns on his experience presenting at AERA: "I participated in a paper session for Division C, 'Toward More Equitable Science Learning Experiences'. In my paper, 'Self-Efficacy of African American Women in STEM', I reported on the experiences that positively and negatively affected the self-efficacy of my sample as they pursued STEM careers. I enjoyed having the opportunity to speak with others who were investigating ways to increase minority participation in STEM careers and learn the other approaches the researchers and students have used to investigate ways to make STEM more inclusive."

Another first time presenter at AERA, curriculum and educational technology doctoral candidate Julie Marsh shared her experience presenting at AERA as well as her recommendations for students planning to attend AERA: "The AERA experience is one that any SOE student should have at some point in his/her time here at William & Mary.  It can be overwhelming at first because there are typically 20,000+ people who attend the conference every year.  Reach out to colleagues who are attending, and make plans to find people while attending the conference.  It is such an incredible learning opportunity to engage with other researchers in your field.  This year was my second year attending and first year presenting at AERA.  I presented a research study on Design Thinking in higher education at a paper presentation for the Special Interest Group, Design and Technology.  I was able to not only present my own research, but hear others' research with design and education.  My paper presentation led to multiple conversations, some of which will hopefully lead to future collaboration and research with others from different institutions."

The School of Education co-hosted a reception at AERA that included all Virginia colleges and universities. Good news from the SOE was reported out, including the announcement of the hiring of three new assistant professors.  These new faculty include:

Stephanie Blackmon who is joining the Educational Policy, Planning, and Leadership department in our higher education program.  She spent two years as an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma where she was also the coordinator for OU’s graduate College Teaching Certificate program.  Dr. Blackmon’s research area is teaching and learning in higher education contexts, with a current emphasis on technology in teaching and learning.

Kristin Conradi who is joining our Curriculum and Instruction (C&) department this fall after four years as an assistant professor at NC State.  This is a homecoming for Kristin as she is a William and Mary alum, and received her master’s and doctorate from UVA.  Her research centers on understanding children who struggle with reading beyond the primary grades and on reading motivation.

Meredith Kier is also joining our C&I department.  She is joining us from Howard University as an Assistant Professor of Science Education.  Her research focuses on increasing minority participation in STEM through building partnerships and communities of practice between K-12 teachers, STEM professionals, and STEM teacher educators.

The 2016 AERA meeting is scheduled to be held in Washington, D.C. from April 8-12, 2016.