February 2012

This month, AERA releases the 2012 volume of Review of Research in Education (RRE), coedited by Kathryn M. Borman, Arnold B. Danzig, and David R. Garcia. The volume is titled “Education, Democracy, and the Public Good,” and it explores how the three constructs interconnect and are applied in the United States and around the world.

The volume uses a variety of lenses and perspectives to examine how education and schools serve purposes beyond the realm of the individual. Applying sociological, anthropological, and policy constructs, the 12 chapters provide a broad exploration of how schooling can serve a greater public good, on both local and global levels.

“There could hardly be a topic of greater importance to educators than the one addressed in this year’s RRE,” noted AERA Journal Publications Committee chair William Cope. “With even greater intensity since the beginnings of our current economic crisis, crucial public discussions have pivoted around the antinomies of public-private, government-market, citizen-consumer, collective-individual and social-self. This volume explores the nuanced complexities of establishing the public good and defining democracy in education today, and is full of new ideas and evidence that advance our thinking in this area of central concern for contemporary educators.”

A session at the 2012 AERA Annual Meeting will examine the new volume and will feature comments by the editors and by field experts, including Lorraine McDonnell (University of California – Santa Barbara) and Jennie Oakes (Ford Foundation). The session will be Saturday, April 14, 2:15 p.m to 3:45 p.m.

RRE is available to both members and nonmembers of AERA. Members who have chosen RRE as their benefit subscription will automatically receive the new volume in print next month, and members who did not choose RRE when they renewed their membership may do so now. All subscribers can access the new volume online the week of February 20. Nonmembers may subscribe to RRE or purchase a single copy through Sage Publications.

RRE provides an annual overview and descriptive analysis of selected topics of relevant research literature through critical and synthesizing essays. The journal promotes discussion and controversy about research problems, in addition to pulling together and summarizing the work in a field. The RRE 2013 coeditors are Jamal Abedi and Christian J. Faltis; the volume’s topic will be “Extraordinary Pedagogies for Working Within School Settings Serving At-Risk Students.” The RRE2012 editor team will be joined by Terrence G. Wiley in developing RRE 2014, on the topic “Language Diversity and Language Policy and Politics in Education.”