We May Well Become Accomplices

Abstract

Research on education and society is the focus in discussing four essays of AERA past presidents, Newton Edwards, Maxine Greene, Linda Darling-Hammond, and William F. Tate, IV. The title, “We May Well Become Accomplices . . . ,” is taken from Greene’s speech to foreground inherent moral obligations of scholars when racial and social justice is a goal of education research on education and society. The essay begins with a prologue situating the author’s personal and professional biography within the span of time in which these essays were published. Progress and challenges with respect to race and racism in relation to learning for freedom and democracy and research on education and society are displayed in thematic timetables organized to contextualize the intellectual issues and the social times surrounding the presidential publications. The conclusion discusses a role for AERA in supporting new possibilities for collaborative learning relative to morally engaged research as democratic educational practice.