2021 AERA Presidential Address Citizen-Scholars Accepting Educational Responsibility for Eradicating Evil From Democracy and Schools

This address begins by acknowledging contemporary social problems plaguing the United States: mass deportations and the separation of immigrant families, school shootings, police murders of unarmed Black Americans, and violence against transgender, Jewish, Muslim, and Asian American people, to name a few. Also presented are several examples of “educational evils”—curricular, testing, and experiential harms that diverse students, educators, and families too often experience in K–12 and postsecondary contexts. A study of 14 education schools is used to highlight the insufficient preparation of practitioners and scholars to address racial problems in classrooms and elsewhere on campuses. Also, a social and digital media campaign emerging from a class project aimed at raising consciousness about workplace sexual harassment is presented as an example of how faculty members can assume greater responsibility for preparing students to disrupt harm. The address concludes with an articulation of who citizen-scholars are and the presentation of some specific actions they take.