NCTE 2022 Nominating Committee - National Council of Teachers of English

NCTE Nominating Committee

NCTE Nominating Committee

 

Assistant Professor of English/Director of Multilingual Writing, Northeastern University; Historian/Secretary, CCCC Second- Language-Writing SG; Member, CCCC Scholar for the Dream Award Committee. Areas of Expertise: multilingualism and multiliteracies. Memberships: NCTE, CCCC, AAAL, MLA, TESOL, CIES. Awards: NCTE-CNV fellow; CCCC Scholar for the Dream; CIES Dissertation Award; AERA Bilingual Research Travel Award. Publications: Languaging Myths and Realities (monograph); special issue co-editor, Journal of Language, Identity, and Education; articles in College English, TESOL Quarterly, Journal of Second Language Writing, ELQ, Journal of International Students, Composition Forum, Journal of Education, Educational Research and Development Journal, Language and Education; chapters in edited collections. Program Contributions: presenting/reviewing at international, national, and regional conventions: NCTE, CCCC, TESOL, AAAL, AERA, and others.

How has NCTE provided a professional home for you?

As a first‐generation immigrant and a woman of color who speaks English with an accent, NCTE has provided an empowering professional home for my justice‐oriented teaching, research, and professional development. Particularly, through my experiences as an NCTE‐ CNV fellow, a CCCC Scholar for the Dream, and engagement at CCCC‐SLW SG, I was able to join an inspiring professional community, fostering collaboration and mutual learning on antiracist pedagogy and research, which has deepened my commitment to linguistic justice.

How does your current work in your career, community, and/or classroom contribute to NCTE’s mission and vision, and demonstrate alignment with NCTE’s commitment to equity and justice? How have your personal strengths and experiences contributed to making positive change(s) in the profession?

Coming from culturally, racially, and linguistically minoritized backgrounds, I drew upon my identities and lived experiences in my teaching, research, and community engagement. In particular, my scholarship on multilingualism and multiliteracies is deeply rooted in pluralizing and decolonizing English and amplifying voices of those who are marginalized. My unique identity, personal experiences, and research expertise have deepened my commitment to enhancing NCTE’s mission and vision, especially in providing access to diverse voices and empowering andengaging students through justice‐oriented literacy practices.

What is your rationale for seeking this office? What would you like to accomplish while in office?

I seek this office to give back to NCTE. At NCTE, I have been inspired/empowered by many colleagues and mentors from culturally, racially, and linguistically minoritized backgrounds and all of those who are deeply committed to promoting equity-based and justice-oriented pedagogy to our next generation. If elected, I will integrate my lived experiences as a multilingual first- generation immigrant woman of color to further NCTE’s agenda to enhance diversity, inclusion, and justice in every English classroom and beyond.

Director, Oregon Writing Project, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR; Editor, Rethinking Schools; Board Member, Northwest Teaching for Social Justice. Formerly: High school English/language arts teacher, district literacy coach. Memberships: NCTE, NWP, OCTE, NWTSJ, OCTE. Awards: NCTE Distinguished Service Award (2020), NWP Fred Hechinger Award, US West Outstanding Teacher in the Western United States, Oregon Education Association Curriculum and Instruction Award. Publications: Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching about Social Justice, 2nd Edition; Teaching for Joy and Justice: Re- Imagining the Language Arts Classroom; coeditor, Rhythm and Resistance: Teaching Poetry for Social Justice; The New Teacher (book, 3rd edition); Rethinking School Reform; Rethinking Our Classrooms. Program Contributions: NCTE, NWP, OCTE, MCTE, ILA.

How has NCTE provided a professional home for you?

Throughout my career, the courageous members and leaders who comprise NCTE have provided the vision of what it means to push back against the shores of racism, sexism, homophobia, language supremacy. NCTE’s brilliant policy documents became my surrogate attorneys when parents tried to ban books, when our local groups needed to speak out for the inclusion of LGBTQ literature in our curriculum, and when we broke up the stranglehold of white, male authors in our Portland classrooms.

How does your current work in your career, community, and/or classroom contribute to NCTE’s mission and vision, and demonstrate alignment with NCTE’s commitment to equity and justice? How have your personal strengths and experiences contributed to making positive change(s) in the profession?

As classroom teacher, director of the Oregon Writing Project, editor of Rethinking Schools, and author of several books on social justice teaching, my lifelong work has been research, write, and demonstrate how to teach literacy as an instrument for social justice. This includes disrupting the traditional canon, building spaces and communities where teachers can learn from and with each other and learn how to build a curriculum that matters.

What is your rationale for seeking this office? What would you like to accomplish while in office?

My goal is to make sure that NCTE continues to be guided by a diverse leadership, which includes the professional wisdom of practicing classroom teachers and administrators as well as university professors. I would continue to recruit NCTE educators from diverse racial, identity, and linguistic backgrounds, as I have witnessed the transformation of our organization based on the knowledge such diversity brings to our shared work.

Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Greene Street Friends School, PA; Co-founder of #DisruptTexts; Co-founder/Director of the Institute for Racial Equity in Literacy. Formerly: 20+ years of classroom instructional experience as English teacher and department chairperson, Conestoga High School, PA. Specialty Areas/Areas of Expertise: critical literacy, equity, culturally responsive and liberatory pedagogies. Memberships: West Chester Writing Project (WCWP/NWP) Teacher Consultant; Coeditor, #DisruptTexts column for English Journal. Awards: Divergent Award for Literacy Advocacy, Initiative for Literacy in a Digital Age (2021); Pennsylvania High School Teacher of Excellence Award, NCTE (2019). Publications: Coeditor of #DisruptTexts column in English Journal; articles in English Journal, Literacy Today, Education Update, Council Chronicle, Education Week. Program Contributions: presentations and/or keynote addresses, NCTE, ILA, WSRA.

How has NCTE provided a professional home for you?

I taught for eight years before NCTE became my professional home, and I regret not having the leadership, connections, and confidence that came from being part of NCTE’s professional community early in my career. Since then, NCTE has impacted my thinking and practice by introducing me to leading voices in the field, especially teacher-practitioner voices. Most of all, NCTE is how I’ve connected with others who push me to be a better teacher.

How does your current work in your career, community, and/or classroom contribute to NCTE’s mission and vision, and demonstrate alignment with NCTE’s commitment to equity and justice? How have your personal strengths and experiences contributed to making positive change(s) in the profession?

As a teacher, I continuously strive toward student-centered, culturally responsive, and antiracist practices. Beyond the classroom, I co-founded #DisruptTexts, a team that advocates for more inclusive, representative ELA curricula and instruction rooted in critical literacy practices. I am also a co-founder of the Institute for Racial Equity in Literacy, which bridges the intersections of ELA and antiracist pedagogies. Wherever I go, in whatever role, I seek to disrupt White supremacist systems and practices for all children.

What is your rationale for seeking this office? What would you like to accomplish while in office?

My work has always been rooted in relationships, connections, and collaboration. Serving on the nominating committee allows me to leverage my strength in bringing people together to serve NCTE’s greater mission, specifically regarding antiracist practices and policies. Creating a more inclusive culture for its members and supporting teachers in antibias, antiracist practices requires systemic action, which requires lifting up and investing in people to lead the organization who center antiracism in their own practice.

Secondary English teacher and English lead teacher, Arlington Community High School, VA; Adjunct Professor of English and Composition, Northern Virginia Community College. Formerly: English language arts secondary specialist, interim English language arts supervisor, and AP language teacher, Arlington Public Schools; English instructor, the North Carolina School of Science and Math. Specialty Areas/Areas of Expertise: American/African American/dystopian literature. Memberships: NCTE, VATE. Award: NCTE/VATE Teacher of Excellence, Teacher of the Year, ACHS. Publications: coauthor, “The Speaking Clue to Writing Miscues” ACSD Express; coauthor, “The Role of Ambiguity Tolerance in the Development of Literacy Skills of Secondary Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Learning” Reading in Virginia. Program Contributions: NCTE, VATE.

How has NCTE provided a professional home for you?

NCTE has served as a professional home by providing nourishing professional learning that continually refreshes and invigorates my teaching practice. NCTE allows me to commune with my tribe and interact with some of the greatest minds in the field of English education. I am grateful for a community that calls on us collectively to question our pedagogical practices and to examine, refine, and elevate our instruction to better serve the needs of all students.

How does your current work in your career, community, and/or classroom contribute to NCTE’s mission and vision, and demonstrate alignment with NCTE’s commitment to equity and justice? How have your personal strengths and experiences contributed to making positive change(s) in the profession?

For the past eight years, I have chosen to serve in a school with a high population (over 90%) of English learners, many of whom have experienced interrupted learning and who test below grade-level on reading and writing skills. I am driven by providing my students with a rich instructional experience that accelerates learning, while offering appropriate instructional support and multiple opportunities for their individual voice to resonate through competency tasks.

What is your rationale for seeking this office? What would you like to accomplish while in office?

With 26 years of experience in English Education—at the middle, high school, college, and district levels—I am equipped to offer a range of perspectives on literacy and language. I welcome the prospect of working alongside my colleagues as we hone our craft to promote student agency, representation, and voice in the English language arts classroom.

Kindergarten dual language teacher in Austin, TX; Co-teacher Heart of Texas Writing Project Summer Institute; National Board Certification Candidate. Formerly: first- and second-grade dual language teacher in Austin, TX. Areas of Expertise: early childhood literacy specializing in dual language students writing while acquiring a second language. Memberships: NCTE, AFT, NEA. Award: Donald H. Graves Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing. Publications: coauthor, “Nadie más puede contar tu historia: Rewriting Whose Stories Matter through an Antiracist Bilingual Writer’s Workshop,” (Language Arts, September 2021). Contributions: presentations at NCTE and NABE.

How has NCTE provided a professional home for you?

NCTE is an organization and a Convention where I have found “my people.” I read authors and was taught by teachers who find a professional home there, and it has also become mine. The truth about students and who they are is a truth that was affirmed through those who make up the body of NCTE, and I am proud to be able to contribute to the community.

How does your current work in your career, community, and/or classroom contribute to NCTE’s mission and vision, and demonstrate alignment with NCTE’s commitment to equity and justice? How have your personal strengths and experiences contributed to making positive change(s) in the profession?

My mission as an educator is to lift up the work of students and our communities. The more stories of multilingual people of color like my students, the more power that their stories have in the world. The access that the award I received has given me has helped me engage my community and other teachers in a way I didn’t have before, and I want to give that to others.

What is your rationale for seeking this office? What would you like to accomplish while in office?

I was honored to be nominated for this position in the nominating committee. As a former award winner, I would be honored to advocate for teachers and recognize the amazing work that is being done each day in their communities and classrooms. I would also love to be able to lift up the brilliance of student writers and the amazing literacy practices happening around the country.