Description
Claiming Teacher and Student Agency in the Era of the “Science of Reading”
Online Professional Learning Session – This session was recorded and is now available for repeat viewing until August 31, 2022. Purchase also includes a handout of the slides.
Presented by: Dr. Paul Thomas, Professor of Education, Furman University
The “science of reading” movement has direct roots in a U.S. media narrative starting about 2018, but the ‘science of reading’ now drives reading and education decisions in many states and provinces. The decisions made and resulting legislation often includes policies and practices not supported by research (for example, grade retention) and further de-professionalizes teachers. This session places the science of reading movement in historical context and disrupts the “evidence-based” claims of science of reading advocates. The goal of the session is to provide teachers the evidence and support needed to assert their professional autonomy in support of their students’ needs and agency.
Dr. Paul Thomas – Professor of Education (Furman University, Greenville SC), taught high school English in rural South Carolina before moving to teacher education. He is a former column editor for English Journal (National Council of Teachers of English), current series editor for Critical Literacy Teaching Series: Challenging Authors and Genres (Brill), and author of Teaching Writing as Journey, Not Destination: Essays Exploring What ‘Teaching Writing’ Means (IAP, 2019) and How to End the Reading War and Serve the Literacy Needs of All Students: A Primer for Parents, Policy Makers, and People Who Care (IAP, in press). NCTE named Thomas the 2013 George Orwell Award winner. He co-edited the award-winning (Divergent Book Award for Excellence in 21st Century Literacies Research) volume Critical Media Literacy and Fake News in Post-Truth America (Brill, 2018). Follow his work @plthomasEdD and the becoming radical blog (http://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/).
