Adolescent, Post-Secondary, and Community Literacies, Master of Arts (M.A.)

The M.A. in Adolescent, Post-Secondary, and Community Literacies in LLSI focuses on conducting research on how people in their everyday lives – whether in classrooms, communities, families, or other 91��Ƶal settings – use written language and other semiotic systems to learn, to communicate, to create knowledge, to engage their imaginations, to create positive identities for themselves, to enhance their communities, to promote social justice, to engage in democratic actions, and to participate in all aspects of society.

Overview

The perspective grounding the English Literacy Education M.A. area of emphasis in Adolescent, Post-Secondary, and Community Literacies is that literacy 91��Ƶ includes writing, reading, speaking, listening, and viewing.

M.A. students join a community of scholars prepared to conduct research and to teach in diverse 91��Ƶal contexts. These include schools, universities, communities, families, and other cultural institutions across the nation and around the world.

Students and faculty in the program are interested in teacher 91��Ƶ, improving classroom 91��Ƶ, English language arts 91��Ƶ, bilingual/bi-literacy 91��Ƶ, service learning, uses of technology to promote literacy learning, after school, and other community 91��Ƶ programs, and literature and written communication 91��Ƶ.

The M.A. program is flexible and suited to the individual interests of each student. A key feature is the research apprenticeship. This opportunity provides M.A. students with the chance to work with faculty on their current research and scholarship and to engage in their own studies with the support of faculty. In addition, students are encouraged to present scholarly work at state, regional, national, and international conferences and to join faculty in professional writing and publication.

The program provides innovative preparation for educators with a strong theoretical and practical understanding of teaching, learning and 91��Ƶal environments. Students acquire a deep understanding of diverse perspectives in literacy 91��Ƶ while also learning how it can transform people’s lives, foster inclusion and address some of the most difficult and intractable problems faced by individuals, families, communities and 91��Ƶal institutions.

Faculty and graduate students do research that values the diversity of experiences, knowledge, and literacies that people bring from their schools, homes and communities. Much of this research is explicitly oriented to social action and social justice.

We believe it is important and necessary to understand and study adolescents as they construct new literacy practices across modes (print, digital, graphic) as part of their participation in 91��Ƶal, legal, economic, work, and recreational institutions.

Students are encouraged to combine their interest in Adolescent, Post-Secondary and Community Literacies with other relevant interests. These could include second language learning, bilingualism/bi-literacy, early and middle childhood 91��Ƶ, language 91��Ƶ and society, disability studies, multiculturalism and diversity, among other pathways.