Global Meaning Making: Disrupting and Interrogating International Language and Literacy Research and Teaching (Advances in Research on Teaching, 39)

We live in an increasingly interdependent and interconnected world. The COVID-19 crisis has provided a stark reminder of the enormous educational inequities within and across countries around the globe. Featuring international language and literacy researchers who apply various tenets of global meaning making to disrupt and interrogate contradictions and tensions in global scholarship, Global Meaning Making focuses on a model of interrogating international literacy research and pedagogical pursuits with the ultimate goal of transforming how we engage in global endeavours.

Organized around three major themes: Literacy Programs, Policies and Curriculum; Language of Instruction Policies and Practices and Engaging in Global Literacies, chapter authors reimagine global approaches that respect the histories, ways of knowing, needs, hopes and values of voices beyond the western, including those from the Global South: Asia, Africa, Oceania, and South and Central Americas. Each chapter outlines research the chapter authors are conducting or have conducted and describes implications for how their work utilizes tenets of global meaning making.

Lori Czop Assaf works at Texas State University in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She teaches undergraduate and graduate literacy courses and coordinates the Early Childhood- 6th ESL Undergraduate Program. Assaf directs a study abroad program in rural Eastern Cape of South Africa and conducts research in Chile. As a Fulbright Scholar, Lori worked in Indonesia with university faculty, local classroom teachers, and primary grade students teaching language and literacy instruction. Her research includes teacher education, writing instruction and multicultural teaching and learning with a special focus on emergent bilinguals and English language learners.

Patience Sowa is a Senior Literacy and Language Advisor in the International Education Division of RTI International’s International Development Group. She provides technical support to RTI country projects in literacy and language, and teacher professional development. Sowa has worked in multicultural and multilingual contexts in Africa, the Middle East and North America, as a teacher and teacher educator. Her research interests include preservice teacher preparation and teaching in bi/multilingual contexts. An international editorial board member of Teaching and Teacher Education, one of her recent publications is, “Higher grounds: Practical guidelines for forging learning pathways in upper primary education”.

Katina Zammit works at Western Sydney University in the School of Education. She teaches literacy courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. As Associate Dean, Learning and Teaching, and Deputy Dean, Katina guides the development and accreditation of teacher education programs and post-initial teacher education programs. Zammit works closely with colleagues in school and fellow academics in Australia and other countries to improve student engagement in learning and literacy outcomes for students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and/or living in poverty. Her research interests include multiliteracies, writing and creating texts in multiple modes, transformative pedagogies and pedagogical leadership.