The following statement and questions are taken directly or modified from the AERA 2018 Annual Meeting Call for Proposals http://www.aera.net/tabid/10208/Default.aspx.

Public education has the potential to be a central pillar of democracy and to foster civil deliberation. It is essential to democratic government, which both depends on and makes possible respect for diversity, justice, and human dignity. It has a crucial role to play in our divided world, bringing communities together to build an inclusive formation of “we the people.”

Even if you are not prepared to enter a proposal, consider responding to this post, based on your own experiences, insights, and knowledge.  These themes seem to guide academic scholarship for the next year.  It seems reasonable, therefore, to anticipate research calls that will reflect these questions and themes.  They have been added as individual Focus Questions in the CPRE Forum.  Each topic links to its specific location as a Forum topic.

1. What conditions are necessary to provide public education with the potential to be a central pillar of democracy and to foster civil deliberation in the global arena?
2. What is the role of education in the larger society and political contexts of education?
3. For whom, when, where, how, and why has public education been established? When and for whom has it succeeded, failed, or been reinvented?
4. What does research tell us about learning, instruction, and/or motivation within specific social or cultural context (e.g., groups, classrooms, informal learning environments)?
5. What are links between educational research and public policy?
6. What are the effects of colonial education, civic education, sexuality and gender in education, rural education, urban education, education and state formation, and community-based education?
7. What is your scholarship examining local contexts and settings of teaching and learning in both formal and informal venues?  This may include particular lessons, assessment practices, tasks, identities, structures, classroom interactions, and the language of social interaction in educational settings both in and out of formal schooling.
8. The current teacher shortages across the U.S. suggest that the profession of teaching has become a different and possibly less desirable profession than it was in the past.  How can we account for this phenomenon?  What are potential remedies?
9. What are the spiritual, moral, socio-political, affective, emotional dimensions of teaching?
10. How do legal and judicial issues in the United States and/or other countries shape educational policy and practice?  What are their consequences for equity and access?
11. In what ways do the politics and policies of curriculum and instruction in and/or outside of the United States affect performance, equity, and diversity, and other outcomes of interest?
12. What are the implications of the Common Core State Standards for students, teachers, leaders, and classrooms?
13. What are the intended and unintended consequences of these policies for students of color, children from low-income backgrounds, English learners, immigrants, LGBTQIA students, and other student groups?
14. Considering both the United States and/or other countries, what are the implications and effects of school choice, including charter schools, vouchers, private schools, tuition tax credits, homeschooling, and other means of providing students and parents with alternatives to traditional schooling options?