This issue of "Reading Research Quarterly" ("RRQ") marks the journal's golden (50th) anniversary and 200th published issue. Given this historic milestone, an understanding of the journal's content and impact might inform its readership about the field of literacy broadly and the contribution of "RRQ" in…

Acquiring argumentative reading and writing practices reflects a key component of recent curricular reforms in schools and universities throughout the United States and the world as well as a major challenge to teachers of reading and writing in K-12 and college writing classrooms. In this review, we consider the contributions of two research…

This review represents research employing discourse analysis conducted by scholars interested in literacy issues in education across the age span--preschool to adult--during the last 10 years. Drawing from more than 300 studies, we discerned that a common theme was understanding how the literacy education of all students can be successfully…

Scholars who are drawn to qualitative research methodologies represent a diverse group of disciplines and fields. They also represent themselves as researchers and the theoretical frameworks in which they work quite differently. Indeed, it was this diversity in representation that initially motivated us to propose a New Directions feature on…

Theories about reading have neglected basic differences in the developmental trajectories of skills related to reading. This essay proposes that some reading skills, such as learning the letters of the alphabet, are constrained to small sets of knowledge that are mastered in relatively brief periods of development. In contrast, other skills, such…

Scholars who are drawn to qualitative research methodologies represent a diverse group of disciplines and fields. They also represent themselves as researchers and the theoretical frameworks in which they work quite differently. Indeed, it was this diversity in representation that initially motivated us to propose a New Directions feature on…

This commentary discusses the methodological challenges of researching the intersection of online and offline activities of an adolescent girl engaged in instant messaging. If the New Literacy Studies stance that literacy practices are locally situated is accepted, a methodology for interrogating the multiple online and offline contexts that…

Describes two research frames, functionalist research and critical analyses, focusing on the different questions they raise about a study published in an earlier issue of this journal that investigated whether minimally-trained college students can effectively tutor children in reading. Suggests reading researchers must extend their tendency to…

Argues that literacy inquiry has often been less effective than it should be. Recommends pragmatism as a restorative tonic for the field. Offers 3 dimensions for researchers to use in reexamining with whom they do research; to reflect on selecting problems for inquiry; and to reconsider how research traditions and methodologies are defined and…

Presents results of 2 studies on mentoring teacher educators in literacy education. Models alternative ways of representing and evaluating research data. Articulates how these alternative forms of representing data capture the aesthetics of mentoring graduate students in literacy teacher education. Describes the quantitative survey study,…

Evaluates the methodological quality of 39 studies of phonological-awareness interventions in children. Finds only seven studies met two-thirds or more of all the evaluative criteria (internal and external validity), although all of these investigations demonstrated at least one fatal flaw. Suggests improvements for future intervention research.…

Provides a dialog about the evolution of qualitative research methodology and examines where it is headed in light of where it has been. Describes different phases in the development of qualitative research and briefly considers how qualitative research contributes to an understanding of educational phenomena and process. Suggests why such…

Proposes a list of studies that have influenced instructional practice. Considers how literacy instruction has changed. Discusses the role of literacy research in instruction. (PA)

Investigates the epistemology of reading theory, practice, and research. Examines the theories of knowledge implicit in two views of the reading process (L. Rosenblatt's and D. Rumelhart's). Concludes that differences between and among theories of reading, reading instructional approaches, and reading research paradigms often result from and…

Extends a conversation begun in response to issues the authors identified in their own work as writers of qualitative research and in the works of others. Discusses theory, methodology, representation and legitimation, and writing and write-up of qualitative research. (RS)