As a research collective, our purpose is to:
- Examine systematically educational realities that impact SC and influence how literacy is embedded and supported in secondary content courses
- Address educational stakeholders’ competencies and confidence in interpreting and implementing mandates from state and federal legislation
- Create a cadre of educational stakeholders driven to improve literacy education and increase teacher agency
- Serve as a reciprocal conduit between instructional practice and literacy research
- Create a network of educational stakeholders to leverage information, expertise, and resources in practitioner spaces
- Lead and engage in research-based initiatives to improve education in SC
As a research collaborative, our goals are to:
- Determine existing and perceived content area literacy needs within practitioner spaces
- Provide resources (i.e. access to technology, time, personnel) for teachers and administrators regarding content area literacy, reading, and writing
- Provide professional growth opportunities for educators as participants as well as provide spaces for educators to lead professional growth opportunities
- Create a reciprocal research-practice bridge
- Create and enhance existing action research networks
- Develop connections with other state/regional organizations such as, but not limited to: SCIRA, SCCTE, and SCEPUR
- Propose and provide pre-conference and during-conference strands focused on content area literacy learning
- Consider developing our own conference (vs. “piggybacking” on existing conferences)
- Develop a listserv consisting of interested stakeholders to help form content area literacy communities
- Write grants and seek additional funding sources to raise money to enable community participation in conferences and professional growth opportunities
To make these goals a reality, we are currently developing and validating a needs assessment to identify teachers’ competencies and confidence in embedding content area literacy practices.
