Scholars' Forum

The Department of Literacy Studies invites internationally renowned literacy scholars to present Scholars' Forums that are open to all interested persons.

The purpose of the International Scholars' Forums in Literacy Studies is to bring to Hofstra University scholars and scholar practitioners whose work has made a difference in the lives of teachers and the students that they teach.

The International Scholars' Forums provide opportunities for students to enter into conversations with the leading educators of our time, with the researchers and teachers who have shaped our thinking, who are activists and advocates, and who struggle against racist and discriminatory educational practices.

The scholars who participate in the International Forums are invited because they have dedicated their lives to the support of students and their teachers, and through their work make our institutions more just, more caring and less cruel.

Our mission is to create spaces in which we can participate in conversations that expand our understandings of the many literacies that are a part of everyday life in families, communities and schools.

We imagine these conversations will be hopeful and embrace the possibilities of our students' lives, while also offering us an occasion for critique of current literacy pedagogies. We believe that each presentation will help us in our quest to build classrooms for children that are just and caring, where friends are made, and where every child has an opportunity to learn to read and write. Scholars include:

Kenneth Goodman and Yetta Goodman (AZ, USA): The Reading Process, March 1999.

David Barton (England): Studying Literacy In and Out of School, April 1999.

Richard Figueroa and Nadeen Ruiz (CA, USA): High-Stakes Tests: Policies and Practices, October 1999.

Brian Cambourne (Australia): Orchestrating Complexity: A Response to "One-Size-Fits-All" Reading Mandates, November 1999.

Frank Smith (Canada): How Children Learn to Read and Write, March 2000.

Shelley Harwayne (NY, USA): Creating Scholarly and Joyful School Settings, December 2000.

Elvira Souza Lima (Brazil): Beyond Freire: Literacy and Popular Education in Brazil, March 2001.

Andrea Garcia Obregon (Mexico): Leyendo y Escribiendo: Literacy Learning and Literacy Instruction in Mexico, March 2001.

Maxine Greene (NY, USA): Louise Rosenblatt (NJ, USA), Margaret Meek Spencer (London, England) and Yetta Goodman (AZ, USA): Language, Literacy, Politics and Public Education, September 2001.

Steven L. Strauss and Bess Altwerger (MD, USA): The "Research" on Beginning Reading From a Neurological and Linguistic Perspective, April 2002.

Sonia Nieto (MA, USA): Confronting Troubling Issues of Access and Equity in Education, October 2002.

Kathy Short (AZ, USA): Why Do Literature Circles Matter in an Era of Tests and Standards? April 2003.

David Barton, Gunther Kress, Brian Street and James Gee (London, England & USA): Language, Literacy, Politics & Public Education, November 2003.