About the Book
A 2022 SPE Outstanding Book Award Winner How do ideas change practices and people? In Ideas That Changed Literacy Practices, 32 influential scholars in literacy education get personal about how they have worked on ideas and how those ideas have worked on them. Together, the essays offer never-before revealed personal histories of the authors' published writing about ideas that have shaped the field of literacy education. As a collection, the essays highlight some of the major themes that have guided and changed literacy practices over the last few decades. They also offer a rare glimpse into the complex ways histories of research emerge alongside personal and political influences on policy and practice.
The volume includes an introductory chapter by Sumara and Alvermann in which they detail the processes they used in creating a context for the significance of this work. They begin with the premise that most literacy scholars rarely, if ever, reveal their personal and intellectual investments in ideas that have animated their research and other scholarly endeavors. That this observation rang true for all of the contributors was evidenced in their responses to the invitation. For example, some replied by saying this was the most exciting project they had engaged in because it required reflection on what motivated them to write the requested 3,500-word essay; others mentioned they were looking forward to reading what their peers would share.
Ideas That Changed Literacy Practices is a unique collection of autobiographical essays that situates literacy learning and teaching in a rich context of personal and professional knowledge that highlights and celebrates the vibrant complexities of the field of literacy education. It is a unique and valuable resource for researchers and educators, whether in K-12 or higher education.
Perfect for courses such as: Introduction to Literacy Research ӏ Literacy Research and Methods ӏ Language, Literacy and Culture ӏ Literacy Policy and Practice ӏ Narrative Research ӏ Interpretive Inquiry ӏ Research Methods in Education ӏ Foundations of Literacy Education ӏ Research Methods in Language and Literacy ӏ Popular Culture in Literacy Classrooms ӏ New and Digital Literacies ӏ History of Literacy Practices ӏ Educational Philosophy ӏ Reading and Language Arts ӏ Critical Theory ӏ Poststructuralism ӏ Digital Media Education ӏ Creative Writing ӏ Politics of Literacy
About the Author :
Dennis Sumara is Dean Emeritus and Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Calgary. His areas of research and teaching include literacy education, queer studies in education, curriculum theory, and teacher education. His scholarly work has critiqued problematics associated with normativity in literacy education, curriculum studies, and teacher education. It also has informed creating productive ways to make schooling more inviting to the many individuals and groups who have in the past found themselves excluded. In so doing, he has been able to demonstrate how critically analyzing conceptions of normal and normativity in teaching and learning can create more inclusive and productive situations for everyone. Sumara was co-founder of the Journal for the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, former Editor of Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, and currently is Editor of Teaching Education Journal. He was awarded the 2003 Ed Fry Book Award by the National Reading Conference for his book Why Reading Literature in School Still Matters and the 2019 Canadian Association for Teacher Education Award for Distinguished Research Contributions. Donna E. Alvermann is the Omer Clyde and Elizabeth Parr Aderhold Professor in Education and Distinguished Research Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia. Her interests include developing historical-autobiographical methods for uncovering silences that keep literacy research and scholarly writing from masking more than they disclose. Alvermann's research focuses on young people's critical digital literacies, their uses of popular culture, and a Foucauldian approach to genealogy involving historical texts. She is lead editor on the 7th edition of Theoretical Models and Processes of Literacy, and has published in the field's leading research journals, including, Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Literacy Research, and the American Educational Research Journal. She is the recipient of numerous awards and was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame in 1999. From 1992-1997, Alvermann directed the National Reading Research Center at the University of Georgia (https: //orcid.org/0000-0001-6881-0657).
Review :
"When Dennis Sumara and Donna Alvermann publish an edited collection on impactful literacy practices, students and scholars of literacy education pay attention. ...Quite simply, Sumara and Alvermann's collection of first-person narratives provides a personalized historical analysis of literacy practices in education. The authors of this collection show how literacy education has pivoted from measurement to empowerment. By connecting the body, its emotions and physical conditions, to the mind, this collection of narratives highlights the social practice that is literacy and literacy education." (Read the full review in Teachers College Record, Sept. 20, 2022.)--Reviewed by Taylor Norman for Teachers College Record (9/20/22)
"...this volume makes important contributions to the field of literacy, especially for teacher educators. Readers will gain an appreciation of many of the ideas that have shaped the field and, even more interestingly, of the stories and personalities behind those ideas." (Read the full review at English Education Journal, June 2023.)--Benjamin N. Lathrop, Purdue University
"Ideas That Changed Literacy Practices is so much more than just a superb introduction to the field of literacy studies. These writers' journeys through the field are fascinating stories of ideas and concepts gained and lost, assembled and taken-apart, lived and professed. There are lessons here about how the field came to be, about how these scholars and ideas struggled to make a difference, and about the urgent task of assembling a diverse tool kit for these difficult times and strange days."--Allan Luke, Emeritus Professor, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
"Ideas That Changed Literary Practices is a volume that comes at a crucial time. As scholars and educators re-imagine literacy work during multiple pandemics, we grapple with the purpose of our work to enact change. This volume centers the power of story, identity, and inquiry in literacy scholarship by showing the humanity in research and researchers in first-person accounts. We hear the stories behind the development of frameworks and models, in narratives that help us understand how ideas emerge, circulate, and evolve over time. We learn how researchers pursue questions--in collaboration with youth, teachers, families, communities--and find themselves changed in the process. A wonderful resource to generate dialogue about the multiple trajectories one can follow in becoming a literacy scholar."--Silvia Noguerón-Liu, Associate Professor, University of Colorado-Boulder
"The collection of accounts in Ideas That Changed Literacy Practices is profoundly scholarly and provocative, a mix of breakthroughs and inspirations and historical accounts of influences--people and events, questions and discoveries. The collection portrays a range of inquiries via autobiographical accounts of literacy scholars charged with reading themselves through the lens of an idea key to their thinking. Thanks to Dennis Sumara and Donna E. Alvermann for imagining the possibilities that would emanate from the quest they set for authors, as well as their trust in the treasures that these authors would provide. These varied and multifaceted autobiographical explorations illuminate the rich and diverse ecology of our literacies as well as the passions of many of the esteemed scholars who contributed."--Robert J. Tierney, Professor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus, University of British Columbia
