Handbook of Adolescent Literacy Research

I. Overview

Biography

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

-

Teachers might find it hard to imagine that reading a research handbook could possibly equate to feeling, and breathing-in, a blast of fresh air....But such a feeling awaits you—it really awaits you—if you care to pick up and read the Handbook of Adolescent Literacy Research....Truthfully, I don't remember reading and enjoying this type of text in my lifetime as an educator—not as a teacher, researcher, educational writer, college professor, or visiting scholar. The Handbook is carefully divided into four parts, not by our traditional reading, writing, listening, and speaking demarcations, but rather by the contexts in which literacy develops: in school, out of school, and in the multiple words of individual identities....The Handbook will help you and your peers clear the air of the Superman mentality we're living in by enriching your knowledge base and inspiring your own passions. You will deservedly feel the breeze from this Handbook window, while gaining new insights that will affect you on Monday morning...and for years to come.

--Cateweb.org, 7/4/2010ƒƒ

Literacy Studies has been in need of a handbook on current topics in the field, and this one rewards with a thoughtful and troubling survey of pertinent issues.

--Teachers College Record, 7/4/2010