This book and its contributors - all of whom view literacy research as explicitly political and potentially transformative - provide images and approaches that show how work with/in the local can and must be connected to global issues in order to effect political action. Researchers and educators are urged to take activist stances that directly affect and address the needs of all people across lines of race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender. The book is organized into three parts, each focusing on different aspects of literacy research for political action. These include theoretical considerations and methodological approaches that support this work; a reconsideration of the roles of participants as collaborators in this kind of literacy research; and finally, examples of projects specifically aimed at addressing global issues through local research for political action.
About the Author: The Editors: Mollie V. Blackburn is an Associate Professor in the School of Teaching and Learning at the Ohio State University. She completed her doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania in 2001, where she received an award for writing a dissertation that advocates for social justice. Her research is critical and activist in nature and works to explore the ways in which youth engage in literacy performances to construct their identities and work for social change. Her work has been published in such journals as Teachers College Record and Research in the Teaching of English (RTE) among others. She received the Alan C. Purves Award for an article in RTE deemed rich with implications for classroom practice.
Caroline T. Clark is an Associate Professor in the School of Teaching and Learning at the Ohio State University. She completed her doctoral work at the University of Michigan. Her teaching and scholarship focus on literacy learning across formal/school and informal settings and on community-based literacy research with young people for social action. She has published work in the American Educational Research Journal, Teachers College Record, the Journal of Literacy Research, and the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, among others. She has taught English language arts in both secondary and elementary settings and has worked with literacy learners in a variety of after-school programs.