UW–Madison’s Jahyun Yoo, a PhD candidate in the School of Education’s Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education, has received the 2026 Graduate Student Award from the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Cultural-Historical Research special interest group (SIG).
The national award recognizes Yoo’s original and independent contributions to cultural-historical research and praxis, as well as the promise of her emerging scholarly leadership in the field.
Yoo’s research centers on advancing inclusive education for students with disabilities through the lens of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). Her recent peer-reviewed publications include a systematic literature review examining the systemic contradictions that hinder implementation of inclusive education in U.S. elementary schools. Her work highlights how CHAT provides powerful analytic tools for moving beyond individual-level explanations to understand how historically and socially mediated activity systems shape educational practice.
Yoo’s dissertation, “Beyond Legal Literacy: Co-Designing Transformative Advocacy with Immigrant Parents of Children with Disabilities,” further extends this work through critical design ethnography. The study documents how immigrant families and educators collaboratively transform tensions between the legal promise of parental participation and the lived realities of racially and linguistically marginalized communities. Through a parent-driven learning space, Yoo’s research illustrates how contradiction and expansive learning can become generative resources for collective advocacy and systemic change.
Yoo is advised by Professor Aydin Bal, whose research focuses on culturally responsive systems transformation and Learning Lab methodologies. Bal noted that Yoo’s work exemplifies the next generation of community-engaged scholarship emerging from the School of Education.
The Cultural-Historical Research SIG award includes a $500 honorarium and an invitation for Yoo to present her work at the SIG business meeting during the 2026 AERA Annual Meeting.
Yoo’s recognition highlights the School of Education’s continued leadership in preparing scholars who bridge rigorous theory, community partnership, and transformative educational practice.