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Exemplary Dissertations in Education Research

Planning a Dissertation in Education Fields

Awards

  • The American Educational Research Association (AERA), a national research society, strives to advance knowledge about education, to encourage scholarly inquiry related to education, and to promote the use of research to improve education and serve the public good. AERA, founded in 1916, is concerned with improving the educational process by encouraging scholarly inquiry related to education and evaluation and by promoting the dissemination and practical application of research results. 
  • International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry is a congress held annually at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Its mission is to facilitate the development of qualitative research methods across a wide variety of academic disciplines. In addition, it provides leadership to demonstrate the promise of qualitative inquiry as a form of democratic practice, to show how qualitative inquiry can be used to directly engage pressing social issues at the level of local, state, national and global communities.
  • Association for Institutional Research (AIR) is the world's largest professional association for institutional researchers. The organization provides educational resources, best practices and professional development opportunities for more than 4,000 members. Its primary purpose is to support members in the process of collecting, analyzing, and converting data into information that supports decision-making in higher education.
  • Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is the statistics, research, and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education. It's independent and non-partisan and its mission is to provide scientific evidence on which to ground education practice and policy and to share this information in formats that are useful and accessible to educators, parents, policymakers, researchers, and the public.
  • The Spencer Foundation was established in 1962. It received its major endowment upon Spencer's death in 1968 and began formal grant making in 1971. Since that time, the Foundation has made grants totaling nearly $500 million. It's intended, by Spencer's direction, to investigate ways in which education, broadly conceived, can be improved around the world. 
  • National Academy of Education advances high-quality education research and its use in policy formation and practice. Founded in 1965, the Academy consists of U.S. members and foreign associates who are elected on the basis of outstanding scholarship related to education. Since its establishment, the Academy has undertaken research studies addressing pressing issues in education, which are typically conducted by members and other scholars with relevant expertise. In addition, the Academy sponsors professional development programs to enhance the preparation of the next generation of education scholars.