Education Researchers, AERA Presidents, and Reforming the Practice of Schooling, 1916–2016

Abstract

For a century, AERA has had as its mission using research to improve K–12 and higher education practices. Born in a period of reform, the Association’s mission—reformist both in spirit and the letter—has been articulated time and again by its elected presidents. As different reform movements have swept across U.S. schools, as demographics and contexts changed, elected presidents reflecting those shifting reforms, contexts, and demographics have adhered to the founding mission of the Association. Using presidents’ addresses across the century, I show that the belief in using research to improve practice has remained stable yet contested in recent decades.