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My research and teaching focus on literacy as a social and
critical practice, with an emphasis on the connection between
literacy practices and social identities. I am interested in
studying these issues as they impact the lives of adolescents
and their teachers both in school and out. Currently, I have a
grant from the Spencer Foundation to study critical engagement
in English/Language Arts classrooms in urban, high-poverty high
schools. Specifically, this research examines how critical
engagement is constructed through classroom discourse and
literacy practices that shape and are shaped by social
identities and institutional contexts. My earlier research has
focused on classroom discourse and response to literature among
early adolescents, response to multicultural literature among
rural white teachers, and, young people’s uses of digital
literacies.
I enjoy collaborating with colleagues at urban schools to
re-envision the teaching of English/Language arts. I am
especially interested in changes associated with New Literacies:
the critical role of non-print texts in the lives of
adolescents; new ways of reading, writing, and responding to
texts shaped by digital technologies and popular culture; and
the strong connection between literacy and identity in the
self-selected literacy practices of youth.
I am co-editor (with Patricia Enciso and Elizabeth Moje) of
Reframing Sociocultural Research on Literacy: Identity,
Agency, and Power (Erlbaum, 2007), a volume that challenges
the current state of sociocultural research on literacy arguing
that more attention should be placed on the broader social and
power relations that shape learning and the production of
knowledge. My earlier book, Literary Practices as Social
Acts: Power, Status, and Cultural Norms in the Classroom
(Erlbaum, 2001), examines the social codes and practices that
shape the literary culture of a combined fifth/sixth-grade
classroom. Both books were awarded the Edward Fry Book Award
from the National Reading Conference. I am past co-chair of the
Research Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of
English, have served on the executive board of the National
Conference on Research in Language and Literacy, and currently
serve on the editorial boards of journals including Critical
Issues in Language Studies and Reading Research Quarterly.
Selected publications
Lewis, C., Enciso, P., & Moje, E. (Eds.)
(2007), Reframing sociocultural research on literacy:
Identity, Agency, and Power. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Lewis, C. & del Valle, A. (in press).
Literacy and identity. In Christenbury, L., Bomer, R., &
Smagorinsky, P. (Eds.), Handbook of adolescent literacy
research. New York: Guilford Press.
Lewis, C. (in press). Internet Communication
Among Youth: New Practices and Epistemologies. In J. Flood, D.
Lapp, & S. B. Heath (Eds.), Handbook on Teaching Literacy
through the Communicative, Visual and Performing Arts.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lewis, C. (2006). What’s Discourse Got to Do
With It?: A meditation on critical discourse analysis in
literacy research. ‘At Last.’ Research in the Teaching of
English, 40, 355-361.
Lewis, C. & Fabos, B. (2005). Instant
messaging, literacies, and social identities. Reading
Research Quarterly. 40, 470-501.
Lewis, C. & Ketter, J. (2004). Learning as
social interaction: Interdiscursivity in a teacher-researcher
book group. In R. Rogers (Ed.), An introduction to critical
discourse analysis in education (pp. 117-146). Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lewis, C., Ketter, J., & Fabos, B. (2001).
Reading race in a rural context. International Journal of
Qualitative Studies in Education, 14, 317-350.
Lewis, C. (2000). Limits of identification:
The personal, pleasurable, and critical in reader response.
Journal of Literacy Research, 32, 253-266.
Courses taught
- CI 8147—Critical Discourse Analysis in Education
Research
- CI 8461—Sociocultural Perspectives on Literacy Research
- CI 5441—Teaching Literature in the Secondary
School
- CI 5481—Developments in Teaching English and
Speech
Featured research and outreach
January 2008
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