COEHD faculty, students present at AERA annual meeting

The 2023 American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting will take place April 13–16 in Chicago. The conference is the world’s largest gathering of education researchers and practitioners, and a showcase for groundbreaking, innovative studies in a variety of areas.

As previously announced, University of Maine executive vice president for academic affairs and provost John Volin was co-principal investigator on a project that is set to receive a 2023 Outstanding Conference Submission Award at AERA.

Here’s a look at some other presentations, panels and events featuring UMaine faculty and students:

Thursday April 13

• Assistant professor of curriculum, assessment and instruction Rebecca Buchanan will participate in the Lives of Teachers Special Interest Group (SIG) business meeting, reception and awards ceremony.

Friday April 14

• Associate professor of educational leadership Ian Mette will present at a roundtable session on “Reconceptualizing Supervision and Instructional Leadership in Complex Contexts.” Mette and colleagues Dwayne Ray Cormier (Virginia Commonwealth University) and Yanira Oliveras-Ortiz (University of Texas at Tyler) will present their paper titled “Culturally Responsive Instructional Supervision as an Emancipatory Framework.”
• Assistant professor of educational leadership Esther Enright will present at a roundtable session on “Centering Youth Voices in Education Research.” Enright and colleague William Toledo (California State University, Fullerton) will present a paper titled “Considering the Public Good During COVID-19: How Elementary Students Conceptualized Safety and Equity During the Pandemic.” The study was published in The Journal of Social Studies Research.
• Senior lecturer of education Tammy Mills, assistant professor of curriculum, assessment and instruction Rebecca Buchanan, and lecturer in mathematics/adjunct instructor in women’s, gender and sexuality studies Kevin Roberge will present at a roundtable session on “Examining Innovative Teacher Education Practices Through Self-Study.” Their paper is titled “Vulnerability and Assessment: A Collaborative Interrogation of Ungrading.”
• Associate professor of curriculum, assessment and instruction Asli Sezen-Barrie will present at a National Science Foundation Directorate for STEM Education Program Officers Roundtable event. Sezen-Barrie is co-lead of NSF’s Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) program, one of the largest funders of education research on PK-12 STEM teaching, learning and assessment, including funding for studies on broadening participation in STEM fields. She will co-present with colleagues Joan M.T. Walker (Pace University) and Jessaca Spybrook (Western Michigan University) on the DRK-12 program’s core efforts to build capacity in STEM education research.

Saturday April 15

• College of Education and Human Development postdoctoral fellow Joo-Young Lee will present at a roundtable session on “Student Cognition and Reasoning in Mathematics.” Lee and colleagues Elizabeth Hughes and Paul Riccomini (Pennsylvania State University) will present their paper titled “Development and Validation of a Mathematical Writing Measure.”
• Assistant professor of curriculum, assessment and instruction Rebecca Buchanan will present at a roundtable session on “Teacher Education and Advocacy: Creative Approaches and Agentive Induction.” Buchanan and Margaret Clark (Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts) will present their paper, “Developing Critical Capacities Through Creativity.”
• Associate professor of curriculum, assessment and instruction Asli Sezen-Barrie will co-chair the Environmental Education SIG business meeting.

Sunday April 16

• Associate professor of educational leadership Catharine Biddle will present at a symposium on “Advancing the Field of Rural Education Research: Research Agendas for Scholars, Practitioners, Policy Makers, and Funders.” The symposium will feature the major findings from two national research teams tasked with constructing research agendas for the future of equity-centered rural education scholarship. One team, sponsored by the Spencer Foundation’s Convening on Equity and Rural Education, conducted an interdisciplinary examination of race and educational equity in rural contexts that combines community-based participatory research, critical research review, and critical policy analysis. The second team, which Biddle is part of, is funded by the National Rural Education Association. The group investigated the intersection of equity and access with policy and funding, teacher/leader recruitment, retention, and preparation, college/career trajectory, community partnerships and relationships, and health/wellness. Each team will present two papers to detail methods, findings, and research agendas. An expert discussant will synthesize the research and facilitate a discussion with attendees.
• Associate professor of educational leadership Ian Mette will chair the Supervision and Instructional Leadership SIG business meeting.
• Assistant professor of special education Melissa Cuba will present a paper at a session on “Defending Against Inequity for Multilingual Learners: How Does Policy Implementation Impact Access to Courses/Programs?” Cuba and Michael Broda (Virginia Commonwealth University) will present their research, “An Intersectional Analysis of Disproportionality: Examining Multilingual Learner Representation in Special Education.”
• Professor of higher education Elizabeth Allan, assistant professor of higher education Kathleen Gillon and UMaine alum David Kerschner ‘21 Ph.D. will present at a paper session on “Violence on Campus and Forces for Change.” Allan, Gillon and Kerschner, with colleagues Cameron Beatty (Florida State University) and Cristobal Salinas Jr. (Florida Atlantic University) will present their paper, “Troubling Rigor: Exploring Intersections of Campus Hazing and White Supremacy.”
• Associate professor of higher education Leah Hakkola and M.Ed. student in higher education Jade Laplante will present at a roundtable session on “A Critical Examination of Inequity, Race, and Justice in the Academy.” Hakkola and Laplante’s paper is titled “Examining Equity-Minded Search Committee Training to Mitigate Bias and Ensure Equity.”
• Assistant professor of educational leadership Esther Enright will present at a roundtable session on “Social Studies in Elementary and Early Childhood Education.” Enright and colleagues William Toledo (California State University, Fullerton) and Katherine Landau Wright (Boise State University) will present their paper titled “Supporting Elementary Students in Developing Their Civic Perspective-Taking Through Disciplinary-Specific Writing Activities.” The paper is currently in press in the Journal of Writing Research.