Excellence in Education Research from an Early Career Scholar

Roderick L. Carey, associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) and CEHD Faculty Scholar, has received three distinguished early career awards from national educational organizations this spring. Carey is the recipient of the 2025 Early Career Award from the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education (AABHE), the 2025 Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA)’s Division G: Social Context of Education and the 2025 Scholars of Color Early Career Contribution Award from AERA.

The AABHE Early Career Award recognizes individuals who have made significant research contributions to the understanding of issues that disproportionately affect minoritized populations and/or the advancement of Black people in higher education.

The AERA Division G Early Career Award recognizes research on the social contexts of education from an individual in the early stages of their career, no later than 10 years after receipt of the doctoral degree.

And the AERA Scholars of Color Early Career Contribution Award recognizes 1) a scholar within the first 10 years of their career who has made significant contributions to the understanding of issues which disproportionately affect minority populations and 2) a minority scholar who has made a significant contribution to educational research and development.

Carey’s interdisciplinary research seeks to make sense of the school experiences of Black and Latinx adolescents in urban contexts, drawing upon critical theories, sociological tools and constructs from developmental and social psychology. His articles have been published in the American Educational Research Journal, the American Journal of Education, Education and Urban Society, Educational Administration Quarterly, the Harvard Educational Review, the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology and Urban Education, among others.

Carey’s projects include the Black Boy Mattering Project, which seeks to understand how Black boys conceptualize their worth, and Finding Future Selves, which focuses on how Black and Latinx adolescent boys and young men conceptualize their post-secondary school futures and enact college-going processes. His research has also expanded to include the perspectives of girls and young women of color on factors that shape their perceived worth or mattering.

“Dr. Carey is incredibly deserving of these honors,” said Laura Desimone, L. Sandra and Bruce L. Hammonds Professor in Teacher Education and director of research in CEHD. “Dr. Carey’s theoretical and empirical work on Black and Latino boys’ mattering is groundbreaking in both its contribution to shaping thinking about how Black and Latino boys and young men matter to themselves and others across multiple settings, as well as to our understanding of how our education institutions and actors shape, support or hinder Black and Latino boys’ and young men’s development of comprehensive mattering.”

A recent article published in The American Educational Research Journal illustrates his work. In “The Postsecondary Future Selves of Black and Latinx Boys: A Case for Cultivating More Expansive Supports in College-Going Schools,” Carey offers a rich, ethnographic case study on how Black and Latinx boys imagine their postsecondary futures. With attention to the students’ first-person narratives about their school experiences and personal aspirations, Carey shows how their high school — a Mid-Atlantic college preparatory school in the United States — ultimately fails to understand and support their college, career and personal aspirations for life after graduation.

Carey has also been invited to deliver speeches, lectures and research presentations locally, nationally and internationally. He has appeared on numerous podcasts and has been invited to write blogs about his research for outlets like the Forum of the American Journal of Education, and for the Official Blog of Kappa Delta Pi. He has been featured for his expertise by Diverse: Issues in Education, NBC News and WHYY, among other outlets. He has also consulted with independent schools, summer camps and organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center on issues related to race, justice and education. He serves on the Board of Trustees for Salesianum School, the region’s premier school for boys.

“Dr. Carey is a committed contributor to service for his department, college and community and a devoted and excellent teacher,” Desimone said. “His simultaneous excellence in teaching, service and scholarship, and the way he integrates his scholarship in other aspects of his work, is truly remarkable and much admired by his colleagues.”

In recognition of his early career research, teaching and service, Carey was also named an Emerging Scholar by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education in 2022, and he received the Dr. Carlos J. Vallejo Memorial Award for Emerging Scholarship from AERA’s Multicultural/Multiethnic Special Interest Group in 2024.

Carey received the AABHE Early Career Award during the organization’s annual conference on March 31, 2025 in National Harbor, Maryland. He will receive the AERA Division G Early Career Award and the AERA Scholars of Color Early Career Contribution Award during AERA’s annual conference from April 22-27, 2025 in Denver, Colorado.

To learn more about Carey’s work and CEHD research on student experiences in K-12 education, visit CEHD’s research page.

Article by Jessica Henderson. Photos courtesy of Roderick L. Carey and by Evan Krape.