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More than 60 Lynch School of Education professors, researchers and graduate students discussed their most recent research and issues confronting their field at the 2014 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Philadelphia.
Lynch School researchers participated in nearly 70 sessions at the largest gathering of education researchers, which took place April 3-7.
Lynch School of Education Dean Maureen Kenny said the conference offered the opportunity to highlight the school’s leadership not only in education research, but also in areas of policy, community partnerships and public service.
“Lynch School faculty have a strong presence at this conference in disseminating their research findings and policy analyses in dialogue with leading national and international scholars in the field,” said Kenny. “These interactions are a fertile ground for stimulating and advancing innovative research that promotes social justice and informs solutions to critical issues in educational practice and policy.”
Topics examined by Lynch School researchers included immigration, educational technology, classroom management, testing and evaluation, student supports, counseling and psychology, Catholic high schools, data-driven accountability, and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.
Some of the faculty presentations focused on new research findings.
Associate Professor Laura M. O’Dwyer and doctoral student Katherine A. Shields presented the findings of their study of remedial education courses at the two- and four-year college levels.
Associate Professor Katherine L. McNeill and doctoral student Rebecca Katsh-Singer discussed their study of barriers that hinder science teachers trying to use a new teaching practice called argumentation.
Others were intended to provoke a discussion on issues researchers have been reluctant to confront.
Professor Ana Martinez Aleman was invited to discuss the highly politicized debate surrounding the Trayvon Martin case and the implications for researchers who probe issues at the intersection of race, gender and economic status.
“It’s a call to researchers to really come to terms with the fact that race is not a stand-alone category,” Martinez Aleman said of her talk. “Race and racial violence are informed by gender and many other issues. Unfortunately, we tend to pull back from those types of analyses. They are difficult and complex analyses to do. But these identities intersect and those intersections have serious implications for social policy — education included.”