Rooted: Embracing the Social Foundations as Remembrances, Reinforcement, Reparative, and Rapturous During Uncertain Times
A Call For Participation & Proposals
American Educational Studies Association
November 4-8, 2026
Portland, OR
Foundation: the base or ground upon which something is built.
Rooted: the origin, source, or inception.
A foundation is a structure designed to provide support. A stable foundation, although often hidden from sight, provides an anchor and reinforcement to withstand forces that threaten its integrity. This is no less true for a physical edifice than for an individual, a concept, or a theory. A foundation is necessary for something or someone to stand on firm ground.
The history of AESA is rooted in a foundation: the social foundations, to be exact. From its beginnings, the social foundations provided a space of inquiry, curiosity, critique, witness, advocacy, and advancement. As a field born of contexts, histories, questions, appraisal, and imagination, it recognized and elevated the critical role of education and schooling, especially teachers and teaching, acknowledging these as necessary elements in the lifeblood of a democracy. To fully educate—in all its expansive spaces, shades, aims, and approaches—we must account for the sociopolitical and economic contexts that surround and inform educational processes. These contexts are complex, fluid, and all-encompassing of sociocultural considerations (Brown, 2014) and thus require inquiry rooted in the transdisciplinary field that comprises the social foundations. However, this is not all: the social foundations in education have always demanded that we ask incisive questions, pursue relevant inquiries, investigate thoroughly, and present arguments with intellectual integrity, veracity, humility, and conviction. This is needed now, more than ever.
This year’s AESA theme, Rooted: Embracing the Social Foundations as Remembrances, Reinforcement, Reparative, and Rapturous During Uncertain Times, is a clarion call to our past, present, and future as a field and an organization. This theme acknowledges the foundation where our organization was born and invites us to reflect on our origins, the journey we have taken, who we are today, what we need, and the futures we dream of, envision, and strive to build together in community. We are also excited to meet in tandem with the annual meeting of the History of Education Society (HES). Notwithstanding the integral disciplinary place of history in the social foundations, it also provides an invaluable lens to read education as prelude and possibility in this current moment.
We seek proposals that boldly embrace the disciplinary foundations where AESA is rooted: curriculum, philosophy, anthropology, history, sociology, policy, and cultural studies in education. Inquiries grounded in these, as well as interdisciplinary areas and diverse methodologies should address the conditions, challenges, and possibilities of education. Consider these questions:
- What perennial and emerging concerns plague education and our efforts to advance the democratic project and its educational aims? What advancements have we made? What barriers stand in our way? How do the social foundations enhance our understanding of these conditions and offer insights into how we forge a just education?
- What do disciplines in the social foundations tell us about education and the educational systems of thought and practice we embody, embrace, question, disrupt, discover, conceive, transform, and imagine? How have these fields expanded, transformed, and transcended their own disciplinary boundaries to theorize, understand, and investigate the problems and promise of education?
- How have the social foundations framed, nurtured, and sustained critical education work and vision across new terrains, difficult conditions, and challenging contexts? What do the foundations tell us about who we are, what we have built, what we have and need to transform and create? What do they suggest we do? Where do they suggest we go next?
- Where have diverse knowledge, voices, and standpoints expanded the contours of social foundations in education? How have these perspectives shifted the questions asked, knowledge generated, methods used, and arguments presented for education and schooling, past and present?
- What new questions, philosophies, theories, policies, and practices should we explore as our current social landscape experiences shifting sociopolitical transformations, rapidly changing technological advancements, a repudiation of equity and justice-centered policies, and diminishing public investment in education?
- How do the social foundations offer hope, joy, and inspiration as we promote democratic education in times of uncertainty, disruption, and transition?
We live in times of precarity and uncertainty, marked by questions, anxieties, and curiosities about the future of education. However, we also have a rich intellectual legacy to look to and learn from for inspired hope. We come to Portland, in community with the HES, to remember, inquire, and dream together. Roots and foundations can be strong or weak, able or incapable of withstanding cracks and blows to their structure. Let us draw from our legacy of the social foundations to remember, reinforce, repair, and find spaces of rapture in our consideration of education, past, present, and into the future.
References
Brown, K. D. (2012). Trouble on my mind: Toward a framework of humanizing critical sociocultural knowledge for teaching and teacher education. Race Ethnicity and Education, 16(3), 316-338.
Proposal Submission Information
All submissions are anonymously reviewed. Please remove identifying references from your proposal (for example, your name and/or publications that refer to you as the author/editor).
Please note that individuals may appear on the conference program a maximum of three times. Individuals should not submit or be included on more than three submitted proposals. As we ask that all submitters volunteer to review 2-3 proposal, please note that all submitters will be added to the reviewer pool.
Word limits on submissions are as follows:
- Titles should be no more than 15 words.
- Abstracts should be 150 words or less.
- Proposals for individual papers should not exceed 1,000 words (excluding references).
- Proposals for all other sessions should not exceed 1,500 words (excluding references).
AESA places value on human writing and human discourse. We value the environment and are deeply troubled by the environmental and human costs associated with GenerativeAI. Therefore, AESA strongly discourages the use of any Generative AI service(s) for submitting and reviewing conference proposals.
Proposal Types:
Presenters may submit proposals for (1) an individual paper, (2) a panel, (3) a roundtable, (4) a poster, (5) an alternative session, or the new (6) “Coffee + Co-lab” presentation. At the time of submission, presenters will be asked to rank up to 3 possible presentation modes. Presenters will also be invited to volunteer to be a chair for a session during the conference.
Individual paper. An individual paper submission is a single paper with one or more co-authors that is complete and finalized. The Program Chair groups individual papers into sessions with other papers that have similar themes or topics. In individual paper sessions, authors present abbreviated versions of their papers.
Panel. A panel is a collection of papers around a specific area of inquiry or theme, and each participant presents her/his/their own paper. The panel organizer/submitter should identify the Chair and discussant (could be the same person). There is a specific section to add individual paper titles along with the names of each individual paper presenters. A space is available to include a 150 word abstract for each individual paper but these abstracts are optional and will not be included in the program.
Roundtable/Working Papers. A roundtable presentation is a single paper with one or more authors that is considered “work in progress.” The Program Chair will group papers together that have similar questions, themes, topics, or methodologies. The goal of roundtable/working paper presentations is to share ideas that can move projects forward and develop professional networks with scholars working in similar areas.
Poster. A poster presentation is a graphic representation of a scholarly project that is well suited to a visual representation and may include drawings, photographs, charts, graphs, and other textual data.
Alternative Session. Alternative sessions are those that do not fit neatly into any of the above categories. Alternative sessions can be framed as thinking groups, working groups, town halls, performances, structured poster sessions, video and multimedia presentations, or other formats. Please include a chair and discussant, if appropriate (could be the same person) at the time of proposal.
Coffee + Co-lab. This year, we have added a new submission called Coffee + Co-labs. These sessions will be scheduled on the last day of the conference (Sunday, 11/09) with the goal of sparking critical, generative discussions on relevant topics focused on and related to the educational foundations. While we highly encourage senior scholars to submit, we will accept proposals from scholars across all levels.
Information About All Academic and Submitting Your Proposal
The All Academic site will be available to Friday, April 24, 2026, for submissions. When visiting the All Academic site, you will need to set up your account by creating a username and password. Follow the prompts to volunteer to be a chair or discussant, as well as submit your proposal. First, click on “Submit or Edit a Proposal” and then click on “Submit a New Proposal.” The next screen will ask you to rank your preference for Proposal Type (Individual Paper, Panel, Roundtable, Poster, Alternative Session, Coffee + Co-labs). On the following screen, you will include your proposal Title, Abstract, Keywords, Categories (see below) and any additional information needed for the Program Committee. Accessibility requests must also be included with the submission in the designated space.
Follow this link to the All Academic conference submission portal:
ALL ACADEMIC PROPOSAL SUBMISSION PORTAL 2026
You will be asked to upload your proposal. Please upload a PDF document and note the word limits (listed above). If you are submitting a proposal with multiple presenters, please make sure to include the name, affiliation, email address, and telephone number of each participant when prompted by the online submission website.
Individual paper, panel, roundtable/working paper, poster, and alternative session proposals should address the following components, using subheadings for each:
- Purposes, central questions or problems
- Contexts and Theoretical Framework(s) (discuss scholarly/practitioner conversations to which your work contributes)
- Primary sources or data sources
- Approaches, methods, strategies, or techniques for analysis
- Arguments/implications, or agenda, and, significance
For Coffee + Co-lab proposals please address the following components using subheadings for each:
- Overview of the co-lab topic, including its connection and relevance to the social foundations and the purposes, central questions, or problems the session will cover
- Contexts and Theoretical Framework(s) (discuss scholarly/practitioner conversations to which your work contributes)
- Arguments/implications, or agenda, and significance
- Guiding questions that will lead discussion and dialogue
When you upload your proposal, you will be asked to identify which categories relate to your work (for reviewer information). Please choose between 1-3 categories only that apply most closely to your proposal:
- Anthropology of Education
- Critical Black Studies
- Critical Indigenous Studies
- Critical Media Studies
- Critical Race Theory
- Critical Research Methodologies
- Cultural Studies of Education
- Culturally Responsive/Sustaining Pedagogies
- Curriculum Theory/Studies
- Decolonial/Anti-colonial theory
- Decolonizing Studies in Education
- Disability Studies
- Ethnic Studies
- Feminist and Gender Studies
- Higher Education
- History of Education
- LGBTQ+ Studies
- Philosophy of Education
- Politics/Policy in Education
- Social Contexts of Education
- Sociology of Education
- Sustainability and Education
- Teacher Education
Only the individual submitting the proposal will be notified of its acceptance or rejection. That individual will be responsible for communicating this information to all session participants.
Reviewers will use the following evaluation criteria to shape their commentary:
- Originality of thought
- Implications for the profession/field
- Clarity of purpose & connection to/critique of conference theme
Please remember that submitting a proposal in All Academic is not the same as conference registration or membership and that both are required to appear on the conference program.
PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION AND MEMBERSHIP
All questions should be directed to Keffrelyn Brown and the Program Team at email: 2026aesa@gmail.com (questions only, not proposals).
Acknowledgements: The Program Team thanks several scholars in AESA for their help in shaping this call and offering constructive insights on elements of the conference program.
Special Announcement for Graduate Students
Up to four $500 prizes will be presented with the Taylor & Francis Past President’s Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Paper at the annual meeting. Watch the AESA Weekly Roundup for the call for submissions, which will be due shortly after the conference proposal deadline. Graduate students are encouraged to apply for the award based on their conference proposals.
