Leila Christenbury, EdD, is Commonwealth Professor of English Education at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). The author or coauthor of 12 books, she is a frequent speaker on issues of English teaching and learning and has been cited extensively in the national media. Dr. Christenbury has been honored with the David H. Russell Award and the CEE James N. Britton Award from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Additionally, she is a recipient of the Edward B. Fry Book Award from the National Reading Conference for the Handbook of Adolescent Literacy Research. She is a former editor of English Journal, a past president of NCTE, and past interim dean of the VCU School of Education.
Randy Bomer, PhD, teaches in the Language and Literacy Studies Program in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin, where he also directs the Heart of Texas Writing Project. Formerly a middle and high school teacher, he has consulted with urban school districts across the United States. The author of two books and many journal articles, Dr. Bomer is a past president of NCTE.
Peter Smagorinsky, PhD, teaches in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia. He currently chairs the NCTE Research Forum. Dr. Smagorinsky has received honors including the Raymond B. Cattell Early Career Award for Programmatic Research from the American Educational Research Association, the Janet Emig Award from NCTE’s Conference on English Education, and the Distinguished Research in Teacher Education Award from the Association of Teacher Educators. He has published 14 books and numerous journal articles.
"This handbook contributes significantly to the understudied--and misunderstood--domain of adolescent literacy. By attending to adolescents and their literacy practices within a variety of contexts, the editors and authors resist conventional assumptions about adolescents, literacy, and proficiency or struggle. I look forward to using this volume in my own research and in my work with graduate students and inservice and preservice teachers."--Elizabeth Birr Moje, PhD, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Education, University of Michigan
"At the very moment when policymakers are declaring a 'crisis' in adolescent literacy, this handbook offers a countervailing portrait of adolescents as deeply engaged in the literacies of their local and global worlds. This state-of-the-art collection turns adolescent literacy on its head, arguing that educators can learn a great deal from the new and hybrid literacies youth produce in their on/offline interactions. Schools have much catch-up work to do, and educators and policymakers will find themselves frequently returning to this volume as they begin to redesign policies, research, and curricula that take account of adolescents’ complex lives and literacies."--Marjorie Siegel, EdD, Teachers College, Columbia University"The study of adolescent literacies is undergoing a considerable transition, and we need the kind of self-reflexive examination that this handbook provides. The editors and contributors have boldly produced a provocative work that challenges received wisdom and current policy even as it catalogues important developments in the field. In a time of literacy 'crisis' discourse, when adolescents are tested and regulated more than ever before, the Handbook responds with richly contextualized images of youth acting purposefully and creatively with literacy, both in and out of school. The volume's images of diverse adolescents and their literacies, along with careful examinations of theory, policy, and pedagogy, position the Handbook as a significant resource for graduate education in literacy studies."--Kevin M. Leander, PhD, Department of Teaching and Learning, Vanderbilt University
"My doctoral seminar on adolescent literacy benefited greatly from the remarkable range of this volume. The chapters are comprehensive and insightful, and they suggest promising directions for research in the years ahead. Because this volume is the first all-inclusive review of the research on adolescent literacy, it is a breakthrough work. It is sure to be the 'thinking center' of the adolescent literacy research community for some time to come."--Douglas K. Hartman, PhD, College of Education, Michigan State University