2022-2023 Award Winners

Building an Anti-Racist GSE

In recognition of the lack of both anti-racist methodological training and introduction to anti-racist literature offered by the GSE, students have organized a group to explore anti-racist pedagogies and methodologies, review field-relevant literature on anti-racist theories, and actively work at promoting anti-racist practices within the GSE. We do so by engaging in syllabus consultations with faculty in order to inform faculty of the diversity of their current syllabi, provide services to help them incorporate more voices into their coursework, and provide a thought partner to reimagine course pedagogy to be more equitable and proactively antiracist. When applicable, we also disseminate resources for faculty and/or students to inform their own research practices and perspectives.

CATE: Critical Approaches to Teacher Education

Critical Approaches to Teacher Education (CATE) will provide a space for graduate students to explore critical approaches to preservice teacher education that center intersectional justice, racial literacy, and abolitionist pedagogies. Through a book club and speaker series, participants will engage in conversations to develop an understanding of critical approaches to teacher education in terms of pedagogy and program design; reflect on ways of implementing these approaches in our own practice; and build community with each other and critical teacher education scholars in and beyond Stanford.

CHAT: Cultural Historical Activity Theory

Although CHAT is one of the most influential theories of human learning and development, there are very few opportunities for students to engage with the theory through graduate level courses within the GSE. Although seminal readings make part of some courses (especially of LSTD courses), CHAT is a very complex topic that requires deeper and more careful examination. We seek to provide a space for such examination through a monthly reading group and two sessions with guest speakers.

Data Driven Educators

The Data-Driven Educators’ mission is to foster the use of data to promote teaching based on learning science, address inequalities in education and provide insights about the data science practices in the field of education. We create and sustain communities, programs, and solutions that enhance the use of responsible data science in education and transform traditional learning to technology-based education. Participants include a diverse and inclusive cohort of students who are interested in becoming future education data scientists, learning analysts, and leaders in the field. With events ranging from workshops, faculty and industry speakers to networking events, the Data-Driven Educators seek to cultivate a robust intellectual and collegial exchange.

EPIC: Education Practitioners and Innovators of China

Established in 2018, EPIC: Education Practitioners and Innovators of China is one of the most focused and influential public interest platforms for education in China among top U.S. institutions of higher learning. Our aim is to build a platform linking education practitioners, scholars, policy makers and elite leaders from all walks of life in China and the U.S. to discuss how to support education practice through technology-enabled education. Through a combination of online and offline, we will invite pioneers and practitioners who are exploring the field of education technology as guest speakers in March 2023. We wish to explore the gains and losses of education technology after the epidemic, and interpret the future development trend of education technology from different perspectives of business and academia.

FAST: Foster/Adoption Studies Team

FAST is a reading group for people interested in learning about adoption and foster care systems, relevant policy environments, and the experiences of youth affected by out-of-home placement care. FAST seeks to connect individuals in the community through research, reading, and advocacy. We will read texts about adoption/foster care, the experiences of youth affected by the adoption and fostering systems and their families, and seek out potential speakers to invite to talks.

Freedom Dreaming in Education Collective

The Freedom Dreaming in Education Collective (FDEC) brings intergenerational scholars together to learn, theorize, and operationalize abolition in education. Justin Coles defines abolition as “a disruption to the myriad of violences experienced by those deemed marginal to society’s functioning.” Angela Davis further clarifies that abolition has a dedication to “building up [and] creating new institutions.” Thus, with the support of the Dean’s Collaborative Learning Fund FDEC aspires to spark deep intellectual engagement that helps us radically reimagine our educational institutions. Through our monthly workshop group we seek to convene, innovate, and better understand how abolitionist studies can impact educational research.

GSE Design Collective 

GSE Design Collective is focused on fostering the GSE community's culture of design. As design becomes indispensable in education day by day, we believe a learning community centered on design is crucial to equip the broad GSE community to best leverage the knowledge and opportunities from the design world. The GSE Design Collective activities include design talks by experts, practical workshops, brainstorming sessions, and design critique sessions. Through this project, we hope to channel the strengths of the GSE and Stanford Design community to best catalyze the learning at GSE in the intersection of design and education.

Improving the Labor Landscape for Teachers: A speaker series on improving working conditions for teachers

The Creative Solutions Coalition consists of current students from the Teacher Education (STEP), Policy, Organization & Leadership Studies (POLS), International Comparative Education (ICE), and Learning Design & Technology (LDT) graduate programs, collaborating to improve educational opportunity by improving working conditions for teachers. Our speaker series draws in perspectives from a wide range of stakeholders in order to seek real-world solutions to the problems that teachers face in the workplace. Through conversations with the Stanford community that will feature policymakers, union leaders, advocates, and educators, our quarterly events seek to serve as a breeding ground for ideas and actions that will make a massive impact.

Intergenerational Learning Journeys

First-year students and latter-year PhDs of the GSE come together on a quarterly basis to share their learning journeys across cohorts. A learning journey exercise maps the experiences and influences that have shaped one's trajectories. An academic learning journey will be a bit more targeted in that it measures how those experiences and influences have shaped the learners we were, have become, and hope to be.

With each engagement, we share new connections and insights made through sharing our journeys. With representation across academic departments, an additional aim is to map these insights and explore parallels, tensions, and pathways to collaborative learning and impact.

“Know-It-All” Colloquium: Nobody Knows Everything, But Together We Know A Lot

In the Know-It-All colloquium, GSE students (PhDs, Master’s, and Undergraduates) can present a short, fun, and interactive 10-minute presentation about one thing they learned from a GSE class. During the last 30 minutes of the event, a quiz game will be held, where participants can win prizes for correctly answering questions about content that was covered throughout the entire colloquium. Prizes will be GSE and Stanford swag.

This colloquium is designed to help students in different areas of concentration learn about all that the GSE has to offer and thus encourage interdisciplinary discussions.

Resilient 1st Gen

Resilient 1st Gen (R1G) is an intentional community-building effort to connect all self-identified first-generation graduate students, staff, faculty and allies within the Graduate School of Education and with other first-generation communities across Stanford. Our group defines first-gen students as the embodiment of intergenerational dreams. Our main goals are to foster a strong sense of belonging for the first-gen community in the GSE, to promote academic collaboration efforts and scholarship that celebrate our unique challenges with a compassionate conscious awareness, and to lay the foundational resources for the first-gen students that will come after us.

SAEN: Sociology and Education Network

SAEN is an interdisciplinary community of doctoral students in sociology of education from the GSE and School of Humanities & Sciences at Stanford. SAEN members meet several times per quarter to workshop research, talk about relevant issues in the field and foster interdisciplinary networking and professional development. We achieve this through research seminars, faculty guest speakers, and networking events.

The Literacy Collective

The Literacy Collective’s mission is to provide a forum for GSE graduate students currently conducting literacy-related research to engage with each other, faculty members, and the extant community on issues related to literacy. This forum will establish a network of seasoned and emerging scholars drawn together by shared interests to present and receive feedback on current literacy-related research projects during workshops aimed at addressing current and future research. Additionally, we meet to explore the scholarship of literacy experts both in and beyond Stanford during scholar talks aimed to foster knowledge of current areas and opportunities for literacy research.

Women of Color Collective

The Women of Color Collective (WoCC) is a student-led initiative that promotes visibility, collaboration, and community for gender marginalized scholars of color. With events ranging from workshops and community building gatherings to invited guest speakers, the WoCC seeks to foster robust academic and collegial exchange. We provide a platform for students in different academic areas and at various stages in their program trajectories to learn, collaborate, and build relationships with each other and to further enhance opportunities for collaborative learning.