This year, the Institute positions the concept of truth as fundamental to the work of social justice in education. “Truth” harbors multiple meanings within education and educational research. First and foremost, schools, curriculum, teachers, teaching, and learning owe their very purpose to truth in knowledge. Second, the research and scholarship produced within the academy relies on qualifiable philosophical stances about what constitutes truth. Within the academy, there is an on-going debate about the singularity of truth as opposed to the multiplicity of truths—the competing conceptualizations that speak to the ‘politics of reality.’ And, yet, distinctions must be made between the multiplicity of truths and lies. The Institute theme endeavors to fully engage the current socio political moment, including competing discourses related to “the Big Lie” of the 2020 election, the congressional hearings on January 6th, local debates on critical race theory in school curriculum, the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade ruling, as well as the distrust fomented around public health before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

In exploring the fracturing of our social relations and systems, specifically in education, the Institute aims to deal substantively with the question of truth. The current moment begs for education research to answer not only how people come to understand and believe different systems of knowledge across various disciplines, but also how people come to misunderstand and disbelieve in various systems of knowledge.