Marilyn Cochran-Smith

Boston College

John E. Cawthorne Professor of Education,

Marilyn Cochran-Smith is the Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education for Urban Schools, Emerita, at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College. She was also Adjunct Professor of Education at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, and Adjunct Professor of Education at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Cochran-Smith has received three honorary doctorates, most recently from the Hong Kong Education University (2024) as well as from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) in 2012, and the University of Alicante (Spain) in 2012. Cochran-Smith is a past president of AERA, an inaugural AERA Fellow, an NEPC Fellow, and a Laureate Member of Kappa Delta Pi. She was the inaugural Chair of NAEd's Professional Development Committee, initiating multiple new development initiatives, and she is a previous member of NAEd's Research Advisory Committee and NAEd's Board of Directors. Cochran-Smith was co-chair of AERA's National Panel on Research and Teacher Education and co-editor of its report, Studying Teacher Education (2005), as well as Editor in Chief of the Journal of Teacher Education, 2000-2006, and co-founder/co-editor (with Susan Lytle) of the Teachers College Press series on Practitioner Inquiry, which features books by practitioner researchers and/or about practitioner research. Cochran-Smith was the inaugural Distinguished International Koh Chair at the National Institute of Education (Singapore) and a Scholar in Residence at the Mofet Institute for Teacher Development/Ministry of Education in Tel Aviv, Israel. Cochran-Smith has also received numerous AERA and AACTE awards, including AERA Division K's 2019 Distinguished Contributions to Research Award and AACTE's 2020 Best Book Award for Reclaiming Accountability in Teacher Education (Cochran-Smith, Carney, Keefe, Burton, Chang, Fernández, Miller, Sánchez, & Baker, 2018). She also received ATE's 2023 Distinguished Research Award for "Beyond 'best practices': Centering equity in teacher preparation evaluation," co-authored with Emilie Reagan (Education Policy Analysis Archives). Over the years, Cochran-Smith's research was supported by several Spencer Foundation major and small grants, and she also received Spencer's Senior Mentoring Award. Cochran-Smith is a frequent keynote speaker nationally and internationally, recently presenting keynotes in Norway, Finland, and Japan. She has written more than 200 articles, chapters, editorials, and policy briefs on social justice/equity in teacher education, practitioner research, and teacher education research, practice and policy. Over an academic career spanning more than 40 years, Cochran-Smith authored or co-authored 10 books, 7 of which won national awards.