41.012 - Practitioner Inquiry and Educational Equality/Inequality: The Next Generation

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

This session is based on the premise that although practitioners are often identified as the linchpins in educational reforms of all kinds, including those intended to increase equity and access to opportunity, practitioners are usually positioned as implementers of other people’s knowledge, rather than as legitimate generators of knowledge themselves. This session highlights the work of researchers who are engaged in close, everyday work with people who have not had equal access to educational opportunities, including marginalized students, families, communities, and those served by human rights organizations. One point of the session is that the knowledge generated by these researchers and their partners is essential, but generally missing, from larger efforts to understand and challenge inequality and to enhance the opportunities and outcomes of all students, families, and community members. Practitioners and their partners are key players in the educational enterprise who know first- hand the impact of poverty and inequity on learning opportunities and who understand the complexity of circumstances related to children, families and communities that are underserved. Consistent with ideas related to the 2017 AERA theme, this session suggests that part of the educational community’s historical difficulty in challenging educational inequality arises from its lack of attention to the meanings and interpretations of concepts such as access, equity and school quality that are generated by practitioners and their partners. Working with families and community members in a wide variety of educational contexts, including schools but also groups such as immigrant rights organizations, practitioners and their partners can generate new knowledge by engaging simultaneously in inquiry and action, learning through collaborative work what it means to strive for equality of opportunity and outcomes.

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chairs

• Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Boston College

• Susan L. Lytle, University of Pennsylvania

Participants

• Maria Paula Ghiso, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Beth Myers, Syracuse University

• Shawn Savage, Boston College

• Melissa Kapadia-Bodi, University of Pennsylvania

• Patricia Cruice, School District of Philadelphia

• Alicia Rusoja, University of Pennsylvania