The American Educational Research Association’s Division B will be honoring Madison’s own Gloria Ladson-Billings with a Lifetime Achievement Award at their Annual Meeting April 13-17 in New York City.
The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is a national research society that strives to advance knowledge about education, to encourage scholarly inquiry related to education, and to promote the use of research to improve education and serve the public good. Division B is a diverse group of scholars who raise questions, study issues and explore possibilities related to curriculum.
Just last year, Ladson-Billings was awarded a Presidential Citation at the AERA Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, which recognized her distinguished service and significant contributions to education research. Ladson-Billings led the 25,000-member American Educational Research Association as president from 2005-06.
Ladson-Billings was a faculty member with the UW-Madison School of Education from 1991 until her retirement in January of this year. She held the Kellner Family Distinguished Chair in Urban Education and was a professor with the departments of Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Policy Studies, and Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. She continues to serve UW-Madison and the School of Education as a professor emerita.
Ladson-Billings is recognized across the United States and beyond as a pioneer whose work on culturally relevant pedagogy and critical race theory has altered how educators approach their teaching. She is perhaps best known for her book, “The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children,” which was first published in 1994 and continues to be used in teacher education programs around the country.
