The American Educational Research Association (AERA) has awarded Division G awards to two Teachers College faculty members in recognition of their outstanding contributions and advancement in research in the social context of education. María Paula Ghiso, Professor of Literacy Education, will receive the Luis Moll Outstanding Book/Creative Work Award, while Beth C. Rubin, Professor of Social Studies Education, will receive the AERA Lifetime Achievement Award. Both Ghiso and Rubin will be honored, along with other distinguished recipients, at the AERA annual meeting in Los Angeles this April.
In her critical work at Teachers College, Ghiso examines literacy development within multilingual and transnational settings, early literacy, children's literature, and participatory, community-based research methodologies. She was honored with the inaugural Luis C. Moll Book/Creative Work Award for coauthoring, with Professor Gerald Campano, “Methods for Community-Based Research: Advancing Educational Justice and Epistemic Rights.” The award celebrates creative works that embody Dr. Moll’s vision by illuminating the deep knowledge systems found within families, communities, and everyday life. The award pays tribute to Dr. Moll’s profound influence, while also inspiring future scholarship, storytelling and artistic expression that emphasize teaching and learning through a community lens.
“It’s the privilege of a lifetime to receive an award that honors Dr. Luis Moll’s legacy,” Ghiso said. “His groundbreaking approach to foregrounding the strengths of communities was formative not just for my own intellectual development, but continues to shape generations of scholarship. The families, youth, and community leaders I have been fortunate to research alongside have drawn on their rich social and cultural resources to bring about more just educational futures. TC has been a place where I could pursue my ongoing scholarly commitments to cultivating horizontal partnerships in research and practice.”
The book is grounded in a 15-year research partnership through the Communities Advancing Research in Education (CARE) Initiative, which unites immigrant-origin families, families of color, community leaders and university collaborators.
For more than two decades, Rubin has championed civic education—first at Rutgers University and, more recently, for the last three years, at Teachers College, where she serves as the Director of the Social Studies Education program. Collaborating closely with educators and students, she explores how civic identity, historical understanding, and democratic practices are shaped in classrooms and communities. Her research illuminates how young people grow as citizens and learners within the layered contexts of schools, communities and society, with an emphasis on how civic identity develops amidst historical and contemporary inequalities.
Rubin will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award which recognizes a senior scholar or group who has made distinguished contributions to the systematic examination of the role of social context in education. “Receiving the AERA Division G Lifetime Achievement Award is deeply meaningful to me—it feels less like an individual recognition but more so a reflection of many collaborations over the years with educators, young people, community partners and fellow scholars,” shares Rubin. “My work has always been grounded in a simple question: ‘How do young people come to see themselves as participants in civic life?’”
She is also known for her collaborative work designing and studying curricular and pedagogical innovations rooted in this critical, sociocultural approach to youth civic learning. Her latest initiative, the Civically Engaged Districts Project (CED), promotes active, youth-centered civic learning by integrating youth participatory action research (YPAR) into K-12 classrooms. In her most recent book, "Youth Participatory Action Research in Your Classroom: Teaching and Learning for Active Citizenship," Rubin synthesizes decades of collaboration with educators and young people into a usable guide to the whys and hows of YPAR. Register here for an April 17 professional development opportunity hosted by the CED Project and supported by Civics for All.
If you or another TC community member you know will be honored at AERA 2026, please let us know here. Additional coverage related to AERA to come.