Newswise — The American Educational Research Association (AERA) has selected Claude Steele, a Stanford University psychologist whose research has changed the way social scientists think about prejudice and stereotypes, to deliver the 2nd Annual Brown Lecture in Education this fall in Washington, DC. The lecture was inaugurated in 2004 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision of the U. S. Supreme Court that took scientific research into account in issuing this landmark ruling.
AERA President Marilyn Cochran-Smith announced his selection to the association's governing Council this week at AERA's 86th Annual Meeting in Montreal, Canada. More than 12,000 education researchers from the United States, Canada, and 51 other countries are expected to attend this meeting, which has as its theme Demography & Democracy in the Era of Accountability. The meeting runs through Friday, April 15.
AERA's Brown Lecture features significant scholarship that advances understanding of equality and equity in education. The 2005 Brown Lecture will be presented on Thursday, October 20, at 6:00 p.m. in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC.
A Stanford University faculty member since 1991, Professor Steele is the Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences. His research centers on the process of self-evaluation; the role of self-evaluation and identification in the school achievement of black Americans and women in the natural sciences; and the role of alcohol and drug use in self-regulation processes and social behavior. In the tradition of research to practice, he also has developed intervention programs to ameliorate the effects of stereotypes in schools.
Elected to the National Academy of Education and the National Academy of Science, Professor Steele has made professional contributions by serving as president of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and of the West Psychological Association. He also has served on the Board of Directors of the American Psychological Society.
Professor Steele, who was nominated by AERA members, was selected by the 2005 Selection Committee, chaired by Michael Nettles, who also chairs AERA's Social Justice Action Committee (SJAC). Other Selection Committee members were Evelyn Reid and Jorge L. Ruiz-de-Velasco, SJAC Members; Marilyn Cochran-Smith, AERA President; Gloria Ladson-Billings, AERA President-elect; M. Christopher Brown II, AERA Director of Social Justice and Professional Development; and Felice J. Levine, AERA Executive Director.
Edmund W. Gordon, director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, presented the first lecture on October 14, 2004, in Washington, DC In his address, entitled Education, Excellence and Equity: Toward Equitable Access to Excellence in Education, he analyzed the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education and its impact on education and society in general.
Professor Gordon maintained that the decision was more consequential for society than for education in that considerable progress has been made in race relations and considerably less in the achievement of equity in education. He also outlined the limitations of the focus on race and other single-issue approaches to public policy and argued for the affirmative development of academic ability as a more appropriate multifaceted and comprehensive approach to the achievement of excellence and equity in education.
The American Educational Research Association (AERA), founded in 1916, is the national research society for more than 22,000 members. AERA is dedicated to advancing knowledge about education, to encouraging scholarly inquiry related to education, and to promoting the use of research to improve educational processes and serve the public good.
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