Photo Gallery

UC Davis Addresses Equity at 2025 AERA Annual Meeting

Two photos: On the left, five women pose around an AERA welcome banner. On the right, three people wearing lanyards, gather together for a selfie.A woman stands at a podium and speaks into a microphone. Behind her, the presentation screen says "Person, Place, and Politics: Considering Context in Online Learning and Online Proctored Exams"Two women pose together in front of an oversized "AERA" display. The woman on the left holds a sign that reads "I stand for education research."Two photos: On the left, Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica stands at a podium and speaks into a microphone. On the right, Marcela Cuellar stands at a podium, turning to the side to gesture toward a projector screen.A person stands at a podium and speaks to an audience. Behind them, the presentation screen reads "Material and Identity Play in a School-Based Maker Space"Two photos: On the left, three women wearing lanyards pose against a tan wall for a photo. On the right, two women take a selfie photo while standing against an AERA display.A woman stands at a podium and speaks into a microphone.Two women lean against a pink wall that reads "The Museum for Black Girls"A woman stands at a podium and speaks into a microphone. Behind her, a presentation screen reads "Reimagining Excellence"Two photos side by side of two women standing at podiums and speaking into microphones.

UC Davis School of Education faculty, students, and alumni highlighted the importance of educational equity at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting.  Their presentations explored teacher retention, dual language learning, systemic approaches to bullying, and redefining excellence at Hispanic-Serving Research Institutions—aligning with the conference theme, “Research, Remedy, and Repair: Toward Educational Renewal,” and emphasizing the transformative power of student-centered pedagogy.

For many UC Davis doctoral students, AERA marked their first experience at the world’s largest gathering of educational researchers. The conference offered valuable opportunities to share their work, connect with experts, and expand their professional networks. Joined by UC Davis faculty, they participated in up to five days of symposiums, paper sessions, roundtables, poster presentations, and a UC-wide reception for schools of education.

People-First Presentations

“Our teachers learned to ask ‘Who is this curriculum written for, and how can I adapt it to serve my community and my students?’” said Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica, addressing an audience of nearly 100 people. Her presentation “On Healing Linguistic Wounds: Bilingual Latinx Maestres Expanding Biliteracies Through Critical Pedagogies and Humanizing Methodologies” reflected on Rodriguez-Mojica’s research grant El Proyecto BBILY, concluding that bilingual teachers who use translanguaging, Critical Race Theory, and humanizing pedagogy in their classrooms can confidently advocate for multilingual students.

While Rodriguez-Mojica explored how bilingual educators can implement culturally relevant pedagogy, Prof. Cynthia Carter Ching and Ph.D. candidate Jade Yeon Lee addressed the inequities of test proctoring during COVID-19. During their paper session, Carter Ching and Yeon Lee explained how they interviewed undergraduate students to understand how their performance on tests was affected by their home setting, especially for exams that required students to leave their microphones on for the entirety of the assessment. They concluded that online proctoring techniques used during the pandemic were an attempt to control students and their home environments, and that students have a “rightful presence” to higher education and their own homes—a thought that should guide online test development practices moving forward.

Prof. Lee Martin and Ph.D. student J.C. Leapman also led a paper session, addressing the Maker Movement and their work in the Beta Lab to cultivate students’ sense of identity as scientists. Leapman described a student who had originally thought that she couldn’t participate in a robot-building project because she didn’t see herself as a scientist. Over the course of six months, she learned to follow prompts, overcome failure and confusion, ask questions, and complete the project on her own. “I never thought I could do STEM, but then I made this robot,” the student shared with Martin and Leapman.

Other presentation topics included:

  • “The Transition to College for Gender Minority Youth: Survey Evidence from California”—Dr. Alexandria M. Hurtt, Prof. Michal Kurlaender
  • “Decolonizing Sound: Intersections of Reggaeton, Hip Hop, and Social Justice”—Prof. Darnel Degand
  • “What is the Cost of (Math) Wars?”—Prof. Charles E. Wilkes
  • “Illuminating College Access: Shedding Light on College Readiness and Transition Experiences”—Ph.D. candidate Stephanie Luna-Lopez
  • “Bridges to The Future: College and Career Readiness and The Self-Efficacy of Underserved Adolescents”—Ph.D. student Shahin Pamatmat, Prof. Lauren Lindstrom, Prof. Kevin A. Gee
  • “Challenging Racialized Burdens: Financial Aid Experiences of First-Generation, Low-Income Latinx Students in California”—Ph.D. candidate Jaime Ramirez-Mendoza

Prof. Yuuko Uchikoshi Tonkovich was recognized by the AERA Vocabulary Special Interest Group with the Notable Vocabulary Researcher Award for her work on the language and literacy development. Her work focuses on young children from linguistically, culturally, and economically diverse backgrounds and the effects that instruction and parental involvement have on school-age children’s language and reading development.

“At AERA 2025, we have a valuable platform where researchers, educators, and community partners can share research findings and strategies that elevate multilingual learners,” Uchikoshi Tonkovich said. “We can feature research that examines vocabulary development across languages and studies that explore culturally and linguistically responsive instructional practices. Collectively, we can push the field even further to benefit the vocabulary development of all children, monolingual and multilingual.”

Creating New Pathways Forward

At a time when educational equity and access are under scrutiny, the School of Education’s contributions to AERA showed a dedication to making learning environments more inclusive. From analyzing the impact of virtual test proctoring to supporting children’s identities in STEM coursework, UC Davis scholars amplified the voices of students, teachers, parents, administrators, and even community members, shedding new light on groups that have historically been left out of educational research and policy decisions.

See the full list of AERA 2025 presentations to learn more about the presenters and topics covered.

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