AERA 2025 Annual Meeting

The AERA Annual Meeting is the world's largest gathering of education researchers and a showcase for groundbreaking, innovative studies in an array of areas. The 2025 Annual Meeting is a place-based conference being held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania April 11-14.
Using the App
Make the most of the 2025 AERA Annual Meeting with the mobile app! With the app, you can:
• Create a personal schedule within the mobile app.
• Stay organized with up-to-the-minute Speaker, Exhibitor, and Event information
• Receive important real-time communications from AERA
• Find attendees, schedule meetings, and chat with colleagues
• Locate sessions and exhibitors on the venue maps
• Visit the Virtual Exhibit Hall in addition to the placed-based Exhibit Hall
• Stay in-the-know through the AERA Social Wall
• Post your event photos and share your experiences on the Activity Feed
• Find local Philadelphia restaurants, shopping, medical facilities, and places of worship
• And much, much more!
Meeting Theme: Dismantling Racial Injustice and Constructing Educational Possibilities: A Call to Action
“As education researchers, scholars, and practitioners, it is our responsibility to examine the most complex issues and challenges facing the spectrum of educational contexts and to report our findings, discoveries, and insights. We perform this craft in manners that require us not to avoid but to embrace the most vexing problems that individuals and communities face in the pursuit of education. . .” Read more about this year’s theme on AERA’s website>
Meeting Highlights
Major events such as the Opening Keynote Lecture, the AERA Presidential Address, the AERA Distinguished Lecture and the Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture, the AERA Awards Ceremony and Celebration, and more, should be on every attendee’s schedule. Along with AERA Awards Lectures, these premier sessions offer unparalleled opportunities to hear from thought leaders, exemplary researchers, and champions of education research.
The Opening Keynote Lecture will be given by Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, a pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights, critical race theory, Black feminist legal theory, and race, racism, and the law.
Tied to the 2025 Annual Meeting theme are 38 AERA Presidential Sessions which provide rich and compelling content designed to engage attendees on key issues in education research, policy, and practice.
The Research and Science Policy Forum will offer a series of sessions focused on important issues at the intersection of education research and science policy. Presenters include policy leaders from key federal science offices and agencies, foundation heads, and important scholars.
In addition to major lectures and high-profile AERA-wide sessions, hundreds of paper, roundtable, and poster sessions and symposia will be held by AERA divisions, SIGs, and committees. Be certain to check out the sessions offered by those AERA units that align with your research interests.
In collaboration with the World Education Research Association and numerous other international organizations, the Annual Meeting not only spotlights research from around the globe but also supports and advances the worldwide impact of the field.
The “Spotlight on Philadelphia and the Region” Series will delve into research focused on pressing education issues in the Philadelphia area, including public school reform, educator diversity, culturally relevant instruction, and more.
Among the special features this year are e-Lightening Ed-Talks, where selected authors will present their research in the form of a brief and engaging presentation in the Exhibit Hall. AERA is also pleased to showcase again this year the Graduate Student Research-in-Progress Roundtable Series and the Youth Teams in Education Research Program, which were both successfully pilot-tested at the 2023 Annual Meeting.