2026 Outstanding Book Award

• In Event: 2026 AERA Awards Ceremony and Luncheon

Abstract

The 2026 Outstanding Book Award is presented to Dr. Gabrielle Oliveira for her brilliant and moving study, Now We Are Here: Family Migration, Children's Education, and Dreams for a Better Life. On the pages of this extraordinary work of ethnographic scholarship, the experiences of children and parents of 16 migrant families from Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are probed deeply and memorably. It is an inspiring story of immigration as an act of parental care and investment in their children's future, but also a heartbreaking tale of that quest being disrupted by crises of border detention and family separation. Oliveira documents the failures and successes of schools involved in immigrant education, offering important lessons on how teachers can more effectively understand the needs of migrant children.

Authors

• Gabrielle Oliveira, Harvard University

• Ebony O. McGee, Johns Hopkins University