Welcome to the Society of Professors of Education Website.  Founded in 1902, the Society of Professors of Education (SPE) is a professional and academic association open to all persons engaged in teacher preparation, curriculum studies, educational foundations, and related activities. The Society’s primary goal is to provide a forum for consideration of major issues, tasks, problems, and challenges confronting professional educators. SPE is an interdisciplinary organization. Its members include both scholars and practitioners in education.

Founding members included John Dewey, Charles DeGarmo, and Walter B. Jacobs.  Several other noteworthy early members were William Kilpatrick, George S. Counts, Elwood P. Cubberley, Harold O. Rugg, Edward L. Thorndike, and George Herbert Mead, symbolizing the diverse interests and ideological variety of the organization.  Its current members include several award-winning theoreticians, researchers, and practitioners in education.

At this moment in time, it is especially important that scholars of education engage in dialogue about education and the future of our worlds.   The membership of SPE strives to continue the spirit of socially engaged and responsible inquiry that the founders of the organization envisioned.  The Society offers a variety of opportunities for its members to share their work with the educational community, including two peer-reviewed journals and a conference held in conjunction with the AERA annual meeting.  SPE also recognizes significant work in the field with five awards.

Visit the the Library to view the SPE Constitution and Bylaws, membership lists from the early 20th century, and other archival materials. Photographs and other visual materials can be found in the Gallery.

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ANNUAL MEETING 

SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2024 

LOCATION UPDATE:

8:00AM TO 4:00PM 

Confronting the Responsibilities of Professors of Education: Cultivating Educational Futures While Contending with Local and Global Challenges

THEME DESCRIPTION

Globally, across institutions of higher education, we are experiencing assaults on academic freedom, austerity measures, and declining enrollment, amid divisive local and state politics, global violence and civil unrest. Given these realities, what is our role as a society of professors of education? Join us at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society of Professors of Education, as we examine our responsibilities to the larger field of education in the midst of this landscape. At this critical juncture, how are we activating our research and practice to contend with and confront this present while maintaining an element of educated hope (Giroux, 2007)?

What might a radical revisioning of education within the higher education landscape look like? In what ways must our work engage with and transform the public sphere? What is the future of teacher education? What might we need to cast off to build anew? Whether drawing on historical, contemporary, global and/or national perspectives, we invite presentations that contemplate, confront, and/or reimagine our role in and responsibilities toward the larger field of education. We welcome all presentations that speak to this sociopolitical moment, educational climate, and the urgent issues facing today and tomorrow’s educators.

Join us for the awards ceremony & Charles DeGarmo Lecture

12:30pm–2:00pm: Awards Session and Charles DeGarmo Lecture with Chezare Warren

• Martha Allexsaht-Snider Award: Shuang Fu, University of Georgia
• Mary Ann Raywid Award: Robert J. Helfenbein, Mercer University
• William H. Watkins Award: M. Fran Huckaby, Texas Christian University
• Richard Wisniewski Award for Teacher Education: Loyola University Maryland, M.A. Program in Curriculum and Instruction for Social Justice
• William H. Schubert Award: João M. Paraskeva, University of Strathclyde, Scotland
• Charles DeGarmo Award: Chezare Warren, Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University
• Charles DeGarmo Lecture: Empathy in Black: Race and the Spectacle of Human Connection