69th MRA Conference

Building from my previous experiences as a secondary ELA/ESL teacher, ESL program coordinator, and literacy coach in Metro Detroit and teacher educator at Michigan State University, University of Michigan, and Wayne State University, I am committed to advancing equity, inclusion and social justice in language literacy education for all learners through three principles:Preparing teachers to enact equitable, inclusive and just language and literacy pedagogies requires the development of their critical consciousness of self and society. Positioning teachers and learners alike as insiders within literacy communities involves teaching as apprenticeship. The development of teachers’ critical consciousness and empathy must result in bottom-up praxis, or action. These three principles are central to my work as a teacher educator and researcher in the Literacy Studies program at Grand Valley State University.