The Education and Social Imperative for Responsibility and Partnerships: Can Children and Their Families Count on Us?

• In Event: 2020 AERA Distinguished Lecture: Vivian L. Gadsden

Abstract

As the theme of this year’s annual meeting suggests, those of us who wear the label of education professional—as researcher, scholar, practitioner, or policymaker—assume responsibility to ensure that the spaces in which we work and inhabit are in fact spaces that advance positive change and elevate the humanity of children and families. Our sense of responsibility is advantaged by a personal sense of duty but enhanced with a collective and shared commitment emboldened through partnerships. Over the past 25 years, such partnerships and the meaning and responsibility out of which they unfold and grow have contributed to a robust set of efforts that range from new conceptualizations of research to redefining what counts as change and for whom does it matter. Recent attention to young children and their families has been at the center of these efforts, as new programs and studies are designed to help us identify pathways to opportunity and engage communities. However, there is considerable evidence that much is still left to be done—by the systems intended to serve children and families and structures that too often restrict their learning. The distinguished lecture will focus on longstanding and shifting definitions of responsibility in both education discussions and the public sphere and on the ways that research partnerships can and do embrace this responsibility especially for the youngest and most vulnerable and those who care for them. It will highlight two guiding questions: whether and how our field responds to the call to fulfill our commitment to the well-being of children and their families and how we will demonstrate that they can count on us to dream with them and to act with purpose in their best interests.

Author

• Vivian L. Gadsden, University of Pennsylvania