My research has primarily focused on the resources linguistically and culturally diverse children bring to literate events, although I also conduct research on teacher-inquiry and pedagogies of equity. Over time, I have developed a particular interest in how young children understand issues of race, class, and faith. Classroom read-alouds have been valuable spaces in which teachers and I have been able to learn more about how children’s understandings of these topics are developing, how their inquiries into these topics are mediated, and how children use these understandings to support their emerging literary understandings. I have also participated in multiple teacher-inquiry communities, exploring methods to combat homophobia and heterosexism in classrooms and finding ways to better understand and increase the engagement of quiet or reluctant students. Students, classroom teachers, and I have jointly presented research at national and international conferences or co-authored research papers and book chapters as a result of our collaborative work. I welcome inquiries from IC students or local classroom teachers interested in exploring applications of social, critical, and experiential theories of reader response and/or qualitative practitioner-research together.
