The Cultural Historical Research Special Interest Group (SIG #30) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) is a diverse group of researchers who approach learning, development and social change from a cultural historical, socio-cultural and/or activity theoretic perspective. Common themes of research and conversation draw on Vygotsky, Luria, Leont’ev, Bakhtin, Mead (among others).

Drawing on these perspectives, members also engage with frameworks that are inclusive of, but not limited to critical, feminist, digital studies, and arts-based approaches to explore sociocultural, educational, pedagogical, and sociopolitical questions at the intersection of theory and practice. 

Chair: Elina Lampert-Shepel, Touro University

Chair-Elect: Shirin Vossoughi, Northwestern University

Co-Program Chairs: Jaakko A. Hilppö, University of Helsinki and Sharon Chang, Teachers College, Columbia University

Secretary/Treasurer: Yehyang Lee, Illinois State University 

Website/Communications Chair: Aireale J. Rodgers, University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Please see our Officer Profiles Below! 

 

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Click the link below to read the call for submissions to the 2024 AERA Annual Meeting, from Program Co-Chairs Patricia Martínez-Álvarez and Monica Lemos.

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Elina Lampert-Shepel
Associate Professor and Chair of the Education and Special Education Master's Degree Programs
Touro University 
elina.lampert-shepel@touro.edu

Dr. Elina Lampert-Shepel is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Education and Special Education Master's Degree Programs at Touro University. Prior to her current role at Touro University, she taught NYC Teaching Fellows and collaborated with urban teachers, focusing on bringing innovative theory and practice to inner-city classrooms to create meaningful, transformational learning experiences for culturally and socially diverse communities. As a Vygotskian scholar, Elina coordinated the development of a graduate teacher education program grounded in the principles of Vygotsky's cultural-historical psychology and activity theory at Eureka University, Moscow, Russia. Her research interests include cultural-historical psychology and activity theory, culture and cognition, learning as praxis, socially constructed and culturally mediated learning and development, communities of practice, and developing and sustaining transformational change in education. Elina has conducted cross-cultural research on the development of reflexivity as a higher psychological function, teachers' learning as praxis, and the development of teachers' transformative agency. She presented her research internationally and worked as a researcher and teacher educator in Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East, and Brazil. Dr. Lampert-Shepel is passionate about developing contexts for human development and innovative programs. She holds an M.Ed. and Ed.D. in Curriculum and Teaching/Teacher Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Selected Publications 
Lampert-Shepel, E., &  Zimmerman, A. (Eds.).  (2025). Collaborating for Transformative Change: Lessons from within a Teacher Education Coalition. Abingdon: Routledge.

Lampert-Shepel E., & Sullivan-Rubin S. (2023) Dare to Imagine: Creative Scaffolding for Transformative Teachers’ Praxis ISSN: 2189-1036 – The IAFOR International Conference on Education – Hawaii 2023 Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-1036.2023.29

 

 

        

Jaako Hilppö
Lecturer, Faculty of Educational Sciences
University of Helsinki  
jaakko.hilppo@helsinki.fi

Dr. Jaakko Hilppö currently holds a university lecturership at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki. His research focuses on children’s projects as manifestations of their agency and sites for their learning from a cultural-historical activity theory perspective. This work directly builds on his previous research on children’s sense of agency and doing co-participatory research with children. He has also studied compassion in children's peer interactions and cultures of compassion in early childhood and care contexts (University of Helsinki) as well as children’s learning and interest development within the FUSE Studio model, an innovative STEAM learning infrastructure (Northwestern University). He has also studied the national and international spread of the FUSE Studio model.

Dr. Hilppö is currently the country representative of Finland at the International Society of Cultural-historical Activity Research (ISCAR) and the secretary of the Finnish Educational Research Association's CHAT SIG. Dr. Hilppö is also a member of the editorial board of the journal Outlines - Critical Practice Studies and frequently reviews for central CHAT journals, like Mind, Culture and Activity and Learning, Culture and Social Interaction. Dr. Hilppö was also the chair for the Nordic-Baltic ISCAR 2022 conference held in Helsinki.

Selected Publications 

Hilppö, J., Suorsa, T., & Rainio, A. (2022). Transitional activities: Children’s projects in preschool. In M. Fleer, M. Hedegaard, E. Ødegaard, & H. Værum Sørensen (Eds.) Qualitative Studies of Exploration in Childhood Education. Cultures of Play and Learning in Transition, (pp. 163-182). Bloomsbury, England.

Hilppö, J., & Rajala, A. (2023). Children’s and Youth’s Civic Projects and Responsible Agency. In A. Sannino, & N. Hopwood (Eds.), Agency and Transformation: Motives, mediation and motion. Cambridge University Press.

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Sharon Chang
Senior Lecturer & Coordinator of Student Teaching/Practicum
Bilingual/Bicultural Education Program
Teachers College, Columbia University  
scc2168@tc.columbia.edu

Sharon Chang, PhD, is a senior lecturer and coordinator of student teaching/practicum in the Bilingual/Bicultural Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Using cultural historical activity theory, Dr. Chang's research investigates the educational inequities in language learning and supports teacher development in multicultural and bilingual settings to promote ethnolinguistic diversity.

Selected publications

Chang, S. (2024). Developing bilingual preservice teachers' transformative agency. Teaching and Teacher Education, 137. Article Number 104405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104405

Chang, S. (2024). Bilingual teachers' personal theorizing through art-mediated visual metaphors. Cogent Education, 11(1), 1- 16. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2024.2380629

Yehyang Lee
Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education
Illinois State University 
ylee46@ilstu.edu

Yehyang Lee, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education at Illinois State University. As a first-generation immigrant scholar, she is dedicated to exploring the intersectional oppressions faced by students at the crossroads of disability, race, language, culture, and other social markers. Her research specifically seeks to challenge systemic invisibility and foster the transformative agency of students with disabilities experiencing homelessness through collaborative research-practice partnerships. As a teacher educator, she is committed to nurturing future educators as culturally and linguistically responsive changemakers in the public education system. 

Selected Publications 

Lee, Y., Ko, D., & Lim, S. (2024). Marginalization at the intersection of language, culture, and disability: Systemic contradictions perceived by special education teachers in serving culturally and linguistically diverse students with disabilities in South Korea. Peabody Journal of Education.
https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2024.2307800

Ko, D., & Lee, Y. (2023). Culturally sustaining inclusive systemic design to address overrepresentation of students of color with and without dis/abilities in school discipline. Published Online First in Equity & Excellence in Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2023.2248482

     

Aireale J. Rodgers
Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis
University of Wisconsin-Madison
arodgers4@wisc.edu

Dr. Aireale J. Rodgers is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Drawing on frameworks from critical race studies and the learning sciences, Dr. Rodgers’ scholarship seeks to illuminate how people’s everyday (mis)understandings about race and racism shape learning across various higher education ecologies. Currently, she uses qualitative techniques to study faculty development programs, graduate student socialization processes, and classroom teaching and learning to better understand how educators can facilitate learning that advances critical race consciousness for faculty and students in postsecondary institutions.

Selected Publications 
Rodgers, A. J., & Liera, R. (2023). When Race Becomes Capital: Diversity, Faculty Hiring, and the Entrenchment of Racial Capitalism in Higher Education. Educational Researcher, 0013189X231175359.

Rodgers, A. J. (2022). Embedding Equity in the Design and Implementation of Digital Courseware. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 54(4), 18-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2022.2078150.