The American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference is one of the larger annual academic conferences centered around educational research. In 2026, the conference took place in Los Angeles, California. Here are Spartans who were celebrated for their research contributions and achievements.
Faculty
Associate Professor Noreen Naseem Rodríguez received an Exemplary Research in Teaching and Teacher Education accolade from Division K. In a congratulatory letter, the committee noted Rodríguez’s “research record and focus on teachers of color, which opens up new lines of inquiry.” They also celebrated her book that provides elementary teachers guidance on social studies best practices in the classroom. Rodríguez will be formally honored on April 9.
Students
- Utku Caybas, a doctoral candidate in the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology program, received the Paul R. Pintrich Memorial Award from the Motivation in Education Special Interest Group. The award recognizes Caybas’ work on a paper he is presenting at AERA: “From Conversations to Comparisons: The Importance of Peers for Math Motivation.” Part of his larger dissertation project, the paper examines “how middle school students’ motivation in math develops through their everyday interactions with pers.” In this mixed methods study, Caybas used a combination of interviews and surveys to investigate how peers shape students’ motivation in math. Caybas will defend his dissertation this April. The Pintrich award celebrates the renowned scholar who was a professor of education and psychology and associate dean for research at the University of Michigan’s Marsal Family School of Education.
- William Van Luven, a doctoral student in the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology program, received the Graduate Student Excellence Award from AERA’s Division C. The award celebrates Van Luven’s paper “Higher Education is Complex: Exploring the Dynamic Interplay among Belonging, Competence Believes, Role Identity and Achievement in Engineering Students” for its “rigor, merit and exceptional contributions to the field of education, particularly learning and instruction,” according to Division C. While other studies have denoted the impact of psychological processes identified in Van Luven’s title, few “have examined these constructs as dynamic and interdependent,” the paper says. The study aims to “understand how these psychological processes and achievement interacted ... [and] contributed to a complex web of direct and indirect associations ... [and highlight] how patterns of associations shift within students over time.” Van Luven’s work is still in preparation as of spring 2026.
Alums
- Johnathan Hill, Ph.D. ‘25 (Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education) is a recipient of the Outstanding Dissertation Award from Division G. Hill’s dissertation is titled “A Black Rurality of Education: The Intersections of Story, Life and Education in a Black Rural School Community.” The work “offers a spatial framework for understanding Black life as geographically meaningful and pedagogically powerful, recasting rural Black communities as vital to both educational justice and geographic scholarship.” Hill’s advisory committee included Dorinda Carter Andrews, Sheneka Williams, Terrance Burgess from the MSU College of Education and Ezekiel Joubert from California State University (Los Angeles). Hill is the Mississippi STEM Education Alliance Program coordinator for the Center for Math and Science Education at the University of Mississippi.
- Allison Phillippe, Ph.D. '25 (Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education), is a co-recipient of the Graduate Student Award for Literacy Research Excellence from the Research in Reading and Literacy Special Interest Group (SIG). Phillippe was recognized for her dissertation work on "Integrating Transformative SEL and Literacy with Read Alouds: A Design-based Study" in 2025. In the study, Phillippe used qualitative data analysis to "integrate transformative social-emotional learning with interactive read-alouds to simultaneously support elementary students' social-emotional and literacy development." Phillippe's thesis advisors were Associate Professor Laura Tortorelli and Professor Anne-Lise Halvorsen; University Distinguished Professor Patricia Edwards and Associate Professor Joanne Marciano also were on Phillippe's doctoral committee. Phillippe is now an assistant professor at Grand Valley State University.
Beyond awards bestowed during the AERA conference, Spartans leverage AERA resources to bolster their academic journeys. Education Policy doctoral student Matthew Guzman was one of several AERA-NSF (National Science Foundation) Dissertation Grantees announced in March 2026. The $27,500 one-year stipend supports professional development and training opportunities. Guzman will present work on his dissertation — “The Relationship between Local Property Taxes and Special Education Services: Evidence from Michigan” — at the 2027 conference in Toronto, Canada. MSU John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor Barbara Schneider is the chair of the AERA-NSF Grants Program Governing Board
Join us in the celebration: Include your achievement in this compilation! Get in touch with coemedia@msu.edu for further information.