New Book Serves as Valuable Reference for Literacy Scholars, Educators and Grad Students

Associate professor Vicki Collet's U of A classes focus on literacy learning, a topic she has studied extensively and written about in multiple books and publications.

She recently edited The Language of Literacy Education, a new book for scholars and educators in the field.

The book will also be helpful to graduate students — such as those in Collet's Master of Arts in Teaching and doctoral classes — because it describes and synthesizes research on 87 literacy terms that are currently prominent.

Contributors to the volume include Collet, four former U of A doctoral students who are now Ph.D.s and seven current doctoral students. Most co-authors wrote five or six entries for the volume, which underwent rigorous external review in addition to Collet's edits.

Contributors include Johnny B. Allred, Leah R. Cheek, Rebecca Carpenter de Cortina, Judy L. Fields, Seth D. French, Savanna L. Gragg, Angelia C. Greiner, Megan Yates Grizzle, Kathryn Hackett-Hill, Holly Sheppard Riesco, Afton Schleiff and Wyann Stanton.

Collet's book is part of the Language of Education series edited by William McComas, Parks Family Distinguished Professor of Science Education at the U of A, who wrote The Language of Science Education, the first volumn in this new set of references. Collet and McComas are both professors in the College of Education and Health Professions.

Also included in the series is a book about math terms, The Language of Mathematics Education: An Expanded Glossary of Key Terms and Concepts in Mathematics Teaching and Learning. The book is co-authored by Shannon Dingman, Laura Kent, Kim McComas and Cynthia Orona, an interdisciplinary team of U of A faculty members.

All three books were published by Brill Sense.

Collet's U of A department, Curriculum and Instruction, is a leader in literacy education. Since 2015, when the Literacy Studies emphasis was added as an area of interest in the department's doctoral program, it has attracted and graduated talented scholars now working in K-12 education, the Northwest Arkansas Educational Service Cooperative and research universities. Faculty and doctoral students' books, articles, research and presentations have contributed extensively to the national conversation about literacy.

Literacy faculty include English education faculty in the secondary education program, Chris Goering and Sean Connors. Collet is in the Childhood and Elementary Education program, along with Heather Young, director of the Clinic for Literacy, and tenure-track assistant professor Faythe Beauchemin. Clinical faculty who impact literacy at the local level include Linda Eilers, director of U of A literacy camps; Donna Owen, president of the Northwest Arkansas Reading Association; Grace Kerr; Denise Mounts; Angela Elsass; Bonnie King; Christine Ralston; and Karmen Bell.