Explores complexities that arose as the author engaged in feminist literacy research in a fifth-grade classroom where the author worked collaboratively with the teacher to implement literature discussion circles. Notes the need to disrupt her own assumptions regarding power, the expert position, and her need for maintaining comfort. Sheds light on…

Examines effectiveness of a teachers-as-readers discussion group in (1) suggesting how teachers can use multicultural literature to foster an ethical respect for others and (2) engaging teachers in conversations about multicultural literature that challenge prevailing patterns of school literature discussions. Suggests success of the second aim…

Describes how literacy is placed within a social and political context and the present predominant conceptualization of literacy necessarily insinuates a democratic context. Defines a theoretical construction of self, community, and citizenship, and articulates the link between education, literacy, and democracy. Describes a model practical…

Examines how students' participation in the process of constructing portfolios may affect their motivation for and engagement in literacy learning. Uses vignettes of students from an urban high school to lay out initial understandings of portfolios, and articulates an emerging theory around process portfolios. Suggests a broadening of the focus of…

Explores how two students participated in classroom talk about written text. Finds students participated in talk in complicated, devolving ways over a school year--one participated in class talk about text with an assumption of expertise, only to lose credibility when his teacher expected richer insights; the other participated with such talk with…

Notes undergraduate students read both a one-sided text on educational reform and a two-sided nonrefutational text on the V-chip; and that they completed topic-specific beliefs, knowledge, and interest measures and reacted to specific text characteristics. Finds that although both forms of texts affected readers, the effects varied by the type of…

Examines reflections of 71 preservice teachers as they tutored literacy in a predominantly Hispanic American, low-income school. Finds the experience of working one-on-one with a student positively influenced preservice teachers' content and procedural knowledge and self-confidence as teachers. Suggests tutors' strong emotional ties with students…

Argues that the preparation of novice literacy researchers should change in response to the growing diversification of epistemologies and methods employed in literacy research. Suggests ways in which coursework related to research methods and epistemologies, research apprenticeships and mentoring, and the reading and writing of literacy research…

Explores the nature of first-grade students' oral narratives and the connections between teachers' instructional practices and students' narratives. Presents six case studies that describe students' school achievement, their oral narratives, and teachers' practices. Finds certain classroom practices, which either support or narrow opportunities…

Examines native Spanish-speaking students' participation in a dynamic literacy practice in a primary-grade English immersion class established by Proposition 227, which mandates English-only instruction. Elaborates three principles that enable the analysis of literacy acquisition as a process dependent on the commingling of social relations,…

Explores a writing-project teacher's premises about writing and illustrates how those underlying principles drove her instruction, influenced children's work, and created a particular theory of writing in her classroom culture. Finds that writing conferences are important instructional conversations for teaching writing; learning to write involves…

Investigates reliability of two approaches for estimating text difficulty at the first-grade level: the Scale for Text Accessibility and Support and the Fountas/Pinnell system. Supports the predictive validity of the two rating scales with performance data. Suggests potential benchmarks for first-grade performance: 95% accuracy; 80 words per…

Explores the authors' complicity as white liberal literacy researchers in the social and political dynamics that support continued inequities in school-based literacy success. Reviews what noted scholars say about race, racism, and white liberalism. Describes four deleterious patterns within the tradition of white liberalism. Critiques the…

Examines the degree to which United States adult literacy programs use materials and activities reflective of real-life literacy functions and degree to which relationships between teachers and students reflect mutuality and shared power. Finds the majority of programs involve students in literacy activities that do not reflect real-life literacy…

Provides a comparative analysis of 54 studies (18 literacy; 36 general teacher education) of preservice teacher reflection. Produces descriptive observations that highlight similarities and differences between the two data sets and five interpretive patterns that characterize researchers' conceptualizations and problem solving. Recommends…