Bryan A. Brown, an associate professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education, has been awarded the 2021 Outstanding Book Award from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), a national alliance focused on preK-12 teacher preparation.

Brown was recognized for his 2019 book Science in the City, which examines the role that language and culture play in science education.  

The award is given annually to recognize a book that offers a new perspective on teacher preparation and shows potential for significant impact on policy or practice.

The committee praised Brown’s “thoughtful, vital and specific focus on dialect and language in the classroom,” noting that the book provides relevant, actionable strategies in an accessible way. Brown “perfectly illustrates the continuing need for educators to bridge the gap between students’ culture and the classroom,” said Lynn M. Gangone, AACTE president and CEO, in a statement announcing the award.

Brown has studied science education in urban communities for more than two decades, exploring the relationship between student identity, classroom culture and academic achievement. For the past nine years, Brown has also run a weeklong science camp at Stanford for fifth- and sixth-graders from inner-city schools, offering students a hands-on introduction to biology, physics, chemistry and engineering.

A former high school science teacher in Long Beach, Calif., Brown joined the Stanford GSE faculty in 2003. He currently directs the GSE's Race, Inequality and Language in Education (RILE) doctoral program. He also served as associate dean for student affairs at the GSE from 2014 to 2020.

Read a 2019 interview with Brown about the book.