Led by teacher educator and author Lakisha Odlum, this cohort focuses on creating rationales for multiple texts, along with methods for sharing the rationale creation process with preservice teachers. Please see below for more information about the cohort members.
The cohort meets April 1, 2024 – August 15, 2024.
Meet the Cohort
Lakisha Odlum is a former New York City public school teacher who received her PhD in English education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is currently an assistant professor of English education at CUNY Queens College, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate preservice and inservice teachers. Her research interests include culturally responsive teacher preparation, the intersection of racial and digital literacies, diversifying the teaching profession, and the teaching of Black girls. She is a proud and active member of NCTE, having held various leadership positions such as Lead Ambassador, Middle Level Representative-at-Large, and Chair of the ELATE Nominating Committee.
Rebekah Buchanan (she/her) is a professor of English and director of English education at Western Illinois University and a former Fulbright Scholar (Norway Roving Scholar 2018–2019). Her research focuses on rural teacher education; feminism; activism; and literacy practices in youth culture, specifically through zines and music. She has written extensively on popular culture in the classroom, youths’ out-of-school literacy practices, music-based pedagogy, and punk. She has been involved in NCTE for more than two decades and is currently Vice Chair of NCTE’s The Rural Assembly on English Literacy and Language Education (TRAELLE). She hosts New Books Network’s New Books in Popular Culture podcast and contributes regularly to School Library Journal and Library Journal.
Molly Marek is a doctoral student at The University of Texas in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction: Language and Literacy. She has taught middle school science as well as undergraduate literacy and science methods courses for elementary preservice teachers. She works as a curriculum writer on multiple literacy/science interdisciplinary projects. Her research centers children as natural inquirers as well as disciplinary readers, writers, and meaning-makers. She partners with teachers to design inquiry-driven and humanizing learning experiences for linguistically and culturally diverse youth. Marek is committed to defending young people’s right to access nonfiction texts that contend with important socio-scientific issues such as climate justice and environmental racism.
Summer Melody Pennell is a young adult literature enthusiast who is especially fond of queer YA about magical girls. She’s a lecturer of secondary education at the University of Vermont, where she teaches courses on secondary English methods and disciplinary literacy. Her research and teaching center on equity for marginalized communities, especially queer communities.
LaTasha Hutcherson Price is a graduate of the University of Georgia’s Language and Literacy Education PhD Program. She is currently an adult education literacy coordinator and faculty instructor at one of Georgia’s great technical colleges. Price’s journey in education began in 1998, in Inglewood, California, when she discovered her strengths in employing an arts-based pedagogy as a substitute and long-term teacher. It was during that period when she also began to work in the entertainment industry as a professional actress and hip-hop dancer. She performed in national commercials, televisions shows, independent films, and off-Broadway. During her tenure at UGA, she artistically interpreted and contributed to research in the form of acting, dancing, and rapping, and in spoken word poetry in course work, at conferences, and within research projects. As such, Price is an ardent advocate of arts-based research, especially research inclusive of hip-hop literacies. One of her proudest moments was serving as the Journal of Language and Literacy Education’s editor of poetry, fiction, and visual arts, where she made great strides in growing the section. Price credits centering Black girls in her research and study as expanding as well as confirming her pedagogical compassion for all students and their multiliteracies, including dance. As a professional actress who often performs under the moniker Rich, Price envisions freedom as an open space to serve fully as both educator and artist.
Burke Scarbrough is an associate professor of English education at the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he coordinates the English and English education majors. His research focuses on secondary literacy pedagogy as well as partnerships in teaching and learning. Prior to his academic life, he taught middle and high school language arts in public and private schools. He has been a member of NCTE since 2003 and is currently serving as President of the Minnesota Council of Teachers of English.