Faculty
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JoBeth Allen Department of Language and Literacy Education |
Research Activity and Interests
I conduct collaborative action research from sociocultural, sociopolitical perspective with elementary and middle school teacher researchers. I am most interested in issues of social justice and educational equity, especially the intersections of critical pedagogy and progressive educational practices as they influence literacy development of children who are often failed by schools, and in what insightful teachers do to support their development as readers and writers within the classroom community and the extended home community. I co-direct the Red Clay Writing Project (http://www.coe.uga.edu/rcwp/) with Bob Fecho and Lois Alexander. RCWP is part of a national cohort of 10 sites with a three-year grant to investigate and design processes to address the impact of poverty on literacy teaching and learning.
Select Publications
Allen, J. (2007). Creating welcoming schools: a practical guide to home-school partnerships with diverse families. New York City: Teachers College Press and International Reading Association.
Allen, J. (2007). So…In M. Blackburn & C. T. Clarke (Eds)., Literacy research for political action. New York: Peter Lang.
Fecho, B., Allen, J., Mazaros, C., & Inyega, H. (2005). Teacher research in the writing classroom. In P. Smagorinsky (Ed.), Research on composition: Multiple perspectives on two decades of change. New York: Teachers College Press and National Conference on Research in Language and Literacy.
Allen, J. & Hermann-Wilmarth, J. (2004). Cultural construction zones. Journal of Teacher Education, 55(3), 214-226.
Allen, J., Moller, K., & Stroup, D. (2003). "Is this some kind of soap opera?": A tale of two readers across four literature discussion contexts. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 19, 1-27.
Fecho, R. & Allen, J. (2003). Teacher Inquiry into literacy, social justice and power. In D. Lapp & J. Flood (Eds.), Handbook of research on the English Language Arts. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 232-246.
Allen, J. (2002). With the best intentions: Agents, impetus, and consequences of placement decisions. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 18(1), 39-66. Part 1 - Part 2
Allen, J. & Labbo, L. (2001). Giving it a Second Thought: Making Culturally Engaged Teaching Culturally Engaging. Language Arts, 79(1), 40-52.
Allen, J., Fabregas, V., Hankins, K., Hull, G., Labbo, L., Lawson, H., Michalove, B., Piazza, S., Piha, C., Sprague, C., Townsend, S., & Urdanivia-English, C. (2002). PhOLKS lore: Learning from photographs, families, and children. Language Arts 79(4), 312-322,
(Note: Teachers in the PhOLKS (Photographs Of Local Knowledge Sources) study group explored what a diverse group of teachers, children, and families learn together when children photograph and narrate their out-of-school lives, and teachers build curriculum on these "funds of knowledge." These Language Arts articles are two of our publications.)
Möller, K. & Allen, J. (2000). Connecting, resisting and searching for safer places: Students respond to Mildred Taylor's The Friendship. Journal of Literacy Research, 32 (2), 145-186.
Allen, J. (Ed.) (1999). Class actions: Teaching for social justice in elementary and middle school. New York: Teachers College Press.
(Note: Written by a local study group of teachers and teacher educators, LEADS - Literacy Education for a Democratic Society.)
Bisplinghoff, B., & Allen, J. (Eds.) (1998). Engaging teachers: Creating teaching and researching relationships. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Allen, J., & Shockley, B. (1996). Composing a research dialogue: University and school research communities encountering a cultural shift. Reading Research Quarterly, 31(2), 220-228.
Shockley, B., Michalove, B., Allen, J. (1995). Engaging families: Connecting home and school literacy communities. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Allen, J., Michalove, B., Shockley, B. (1993) Engaging children: Community and chaos in the lives of young literacy learners. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Courses Taught
- 5312/7312 Poetry in Elementary and Middle School (sample syllabus)
- 5390/7390 Problems in Literacy Teaching and Learning (sample syllabus)
- 4120 Whole Language Teaching in Early Childhood Education
- 6100 Whole Language Teaching in Early Childhood Education
- 7320 Teaching Composition in Elementary and Middle School (sample syllabus)
- 8000 Seminar in Language Education (for all new doctoral students in Language Education, key readings including Lisa Delpit, Jerome Bruner, Guadalupe Valdes, bell hooks, Lev Vygotsky, Shirley Brice Heath, and others) (sample syllabus)
- 8032 Seminar on Thought and Language (focus on Vygotsky and educators he has influenced)
- 8550 Writing Up Qualitative Research (a week-long retreat in the Georgia mountains for graduate students working on dissertations and other qualitative writing projects) (sample syllabus)
Academic History
| Ed.D. | 1982 | Curriculum & Instruction | University of Kansas |
| M.S. | 1978 | Curriculum & Instruction | University of Kansas |
| B.S. | 1971 | Curriculum & Instruction | University of Kansas |
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