Diversity Research in Action

Diversity in Research in Action is an essential resource for educators and policy makers who are committed to transforming and invigorating public education in the United States and around the world.

There is almost universal agreement that we cannot go back to a pre-Covid world. Our capacity to shape the future for all our children will depend upon our re-imagining the ways in which they are educated. Their prospects and the realization of their potential require that we develop new approaches to pedagogical practices that are participatory, ensure empowerment, and revalue the importance of care in all human societies.

In Diversity in Research in Action, Bobbie Kabuto, a great woman scholar herself, writes on diversity, white privilege, inclusion, and equity in her introduction of Denny Taylor, Anne Haas Dyson, and Catherine Compton Lilly, who are the eminent social scientists whose research is featured in the book. Kabuto and the featured scholars encourage us to pursue a humane re-imagining of public education and how teachers can support children who are learning to read and write.

Taylor, Dyson, and Compton-Lilly address the massive power asymmetry and advocate for a culture of social rights as the foundation of public education that rejects long-held reductionist ideologies and concomitant practices of tests and measurement. They encourage us to establish more equitable educational pathways and provide evidence-based, proven approaches to teaching and learning that harness the dynamism of this time when there are so many tremendous challenges.

Professor Emerita, Denny Taylor is the co-founder of Garn Press, and a global scholar and activist. She was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame in 2004. In 2019 she received Columbia University's Distinguished Alumni Award and also the NCRLL Distinguished Scholar Award. James Paul Gee writes, Denny is, in my view, one of the most brilliant and important scholars of sociocultural approaches to literacy in the 20th century-a field to which I contributed as well. Her work on literacy combines technical sophistication about language and a deep commitment to human dignity and social change. She has always worked at the intersection of human development both in terms of the development of language, literacy, and learning in children, but also in the sense of the development of more humane people, institutions, and societies. Since 1977 Denny has been continuously engaged in research with families living in extreme poverty, and in regions of armed conflict and weather related catastrophes. The concept of family literacy originates in her doctoral research at TC, Columbia University. Today, there are family literacy initiatives in most UN Member States established to build more just, peaceful and inclusive societies. Family literacy has become a conduit for many local and regional initiatives to address poverty and hunger, public health emergencies, gender inequality, and strengthen partnerships to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Most recently Denny has used her evidence-based research on family, literacy and learning to focus on existential risks and science based macrostrategies for achieving the SDGs and human survival. Her many books span the sciences, and include novels and children's books as well as research texts. Accounts of her research on families, literacy and catastrophic events are available on her website together with many of her publications on family literacy in global contexts.

Anne Haas Dyson, Ph.D., is Faculty Excellence Professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She began her career in education as an elementary school teacher at the El Paso Catholic Diocese in El Paso, Texas in 1972. She received her Ph.D. in Education from the University of Texas in Austin, Texas in 1981. In 1984, she published her first book with her good friend and colleague Celia Genishi titled Language Assessment in the Early Years. Since this first publication, she has published 12 books. Her most recent book was an edited volume titled Child Cultures, Schooling, and Literacy: Global Perspectives on Composing Unique Lives, which was published by Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group in 2016. Her latest book features her collaborative global research project on children learning to write. In addition, she has written over 100 journal articles and book chapters all regarding children's writing. In 2015, along with Celia Genishi, she received the prestigious Outstanding Educator of the Year Award from NCTE. This award recognizes their distinguished careers and their major contributions to the field of English Language Arts.

Catherine Compton-Lilly is the John C. Hungerpiller Professor at the University of South Carolina. As a professor in the College of Education, Dr. Compton-Lilly's research has focused on family literacy practices, particularly the literacy practices of children from communities that have been underserved by schools. In her initial work, she documented the home and school literacy practices of eight of her former first grade students as they moved from elementary school through high school. In a current study, now in its tenth year, she is exploring the family literacy practices of children from immigrant families. She has edited or authored eight books and has authored multiple articles related to family literacy in major literacy journals including the Reading Research Quarterly, Research in the Teaching of English, The Reading Teacher, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, Written Communication, Journal of Literacy Research and Language Arts. She has a passion for helping teachers to support children in learning to read and write. Her interests include early reading and writing, student diversity, and working with families. She has a strong interest in teacher education and is currently documenting the exceptional teacher education practices at the University of South Carolina. She holds emerita status at the University of Wisconsin Madison.