Theoretical Models and Processes of Literacy

The Seventh Edition of this foundational text represents the most comprehensive source available for connecting multiple and diverse theories to literacy research, broadly defined, and features both cutting-edge and classic contributions from top scholars. Two decades into the 21st century, the Seventh Edition finds itself at a crossroads and differs from its predecessors in three major ways: the more encompassing term literacy replaces reading in the title to reflect sweeping changes in how readers and writers communicate in a digital era; the focus is on conceptual essays rather than a mix of essays and research reports in earlier volumes; and most notably, contemporary literacy models and processes enhance and extend earlier theories of reading and writing. Providing a tapestry of models and theories that have informed literacy research and instruction over the years, this volume’s strong historical grounding serves as a springboard from which new perspectives are presented. The chapters in this volume have been selected to inspire the interrogation of literacy theory and to foster its further evolution. This edition is a landmark volume in which dynamic, dialogic, and generative relations of power speak directly to the present generation of literacy theorists and researchers without losing the historical contexts that preceded them. Some additional archival essays from previous editions are available on the book’s eResource.

New to the Seventh Edition:

• Features chapters on emerging and contemporary theories that connect directly to issues of power and contrasts new models against more established counterparts.
• New chapters reflect sweeping changes in how readers and writers communicate in a digital era.
• Slimmer volume is complemented by some chapters from previous editions available online.

Donna E. Alvermann is the University of Georgia Appointed Distinguished Research Professor of Language and Literacy Education, and holds the Omer Clyde and Elizabeth Parr Aderhold Professorship in Education at the University of Georgia, USA.

Norman J. Unrau is Professor of Education Emeritus at California State University, Los Angeles, USA.

Misty Sailors is Professor of Literacy Education and Director of the Center for the Inquiry of Transformative Literacies at the University of Texas at San Antonio, USA.

Robert B. Ruddell is Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley, USA.