Peabody faculty and alumna honored at AERA annual meeting

Following Ilana Horn’s selection earlier this year as a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, she was inducted on Friday, April 12, at the AERA 2024 annual meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“At the heart of Lani’s work is a sincere desire to improve mathematics education for all students, especially for those historically marginalized by education systems. The AERA Fellowship reflects the impact of her work not only on the field of education research but on the instructional practices of countless educators. I congratulate her on this distinct and most deserved honor,” said Camilla Benbow, Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development.

Two additional faculty members and an alumna of Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development also received honors at AERA’s annual conference.

Bethany Rittle-Johnson, professor of psychology and the Anita S. and Antonio M. Gotto Chair in Child Development, won AERA’s 2024 Sylvia Scribner Award. Chezare Warren, associate professor of equity and inclusion in education policy, won the Charles DeGarmo Lecture Award from the Society of Professors of Education and gave the DeGarmo Lecture at the Society’s annual meeting during the AERA conference.

Alumna Mariah Deans Harmon, PhD’23, BS’12, assistant professor of teacher education at Pennsylvania State University, won the Outstanding Dissertation Award from AERA Division K: Teaching and Teacher Education for her dissertation, From Object to Subject: Exploring the Experiences and Developmental Needs of Black Women Pre-Service Teachers.

“Bethany, Chezare, and Mariah are exceptional leaders in education research and truly worthy of these honors. Bethany’s research empowers novel instructional methods for improving children’s mathematics knowledge, Chezare’s research advances our understanding of the conditions that enrich Black education, and Mariah’s dissertation challenges how policies have historically treated Black women educators and explores their unique learning needs as pre-service teachers,” Benbow said.

Sylvia Scribner Award

The Sylvia Scribner Award recognizes a scholar whose recent work—published within the last 10 years— significantly influences the field of learning and instruction. Sylvia Scribner studied issues within the fields of cognition, learning, and education, specifically the relationship between cognition and culture.

“I’m really honored to receive the Sylvia Scribner Award that honors Scribner’s legacy,” Rittle-Johnson said. “My own scholarship on the bi-directional and iterative development of conceptual and procedural knowledge illustrates how some theoretical debates can be resolved by integrating ideas, rather than putting them in competition with each other.”

Charles DeGarmo Lecture Award

According to the Society of Professors of Education, “the Charles DeGarmo Lecture is an annual statement on a problem or issue of special current concern to the education professoriate, offered by a prominent and distinguished figure in American education.” Charles DeGarmo was a professor of the science and art of education and the first president of the National Society of College Teachers of Education in 1902.

“I’m grateful to my colleagues for such generous recognition of my work and scholarly contribution. To be selected as this year’s DeGarmo Award winner in the long line of previous recipients including Linda Darling-Hammond, Sonia Nieto, Edmund Gordon, and Bettina Love to name a few, is a deeply humbling honor,” Warren said.

Outstanding Dissertation Award, AERA Division K: Teaching and Teacher Education

The Outstanding Dissertation Award “recognizes a dissertation of exemplary conceptual, methodological, analytical, and writing quality on a topic of key significance in teaching and teacher education,” AERA’s website says. This marks Harmon’s third outstanding dissertation award, having previously received the James D. Anderson Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and the Robert F. Schuck Distinguished Dissertation in Teacher Education Award from the Association of Teacher Educators. Harmon earned her Ph.D. in Peabody’s Department of Teaching and Learning (DTL).

“This recognition has encouraged me to continue working towards more inclusive and equitable teacher education practices, centering the needs of minoritized teacher candidates,” Harmon said. “I am so grateful to my DTL family, particularly my advisor, Lani Horn and my generous committee members, for pushing me to explore my ideas and supporting me throughout the dissertation process.”