[Reading-hall-of-fame] Re: Reading Association Creates Literacy Research Panel

[Shirley Brice Heath]

I agree entirely with Brian's sentiments, and I too am offended that
inclusion of our colleagues from other nations seems to have been of no
concern to those who formed the panel.  The comparative perspective is
vital to literacy research.  For example, Singaporean education has
recently been pushing hard to ensure that cultivation of an "artistic
imagination" is part of every student's learning life. This had meant
strong infusions of literature and literary interpretation in the work of
young learners.  Australia has taken a much move linguistically-based
approach to learning to read by immigrant students than has the US.

As a collective, we need very much to make our concerns known and also to
remind members of IRA, as Brian says, that the I stands for
"international."  Otherwise, the name of the organization should be changed.

Thank you, Brian.

On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 3:04 PM, Brian Cambourne <bcambrn at uow.edu.au> wrote:

>  Dear RHF Members,
> According to Education Week the following IRA members have been appointed
> to a ' Literacy Research Panel' which has the role of 'respond(ing) to
> critical issues in literacy by translating research into practical
> recommendations':
> •Peter Afflerbach, University of Maryland
> • Nell Duke, Michigan State University
> • Virginia Goatley, University of Albany (and IRA Research Director)
> • John Guthrie, University of Maryland
> • Kris Gutierrez, University of Colorado, Boulder
> • Kenji Hakuta, Stanford University
> • Peter Johnston, University of Albany
> • Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin-Madison
> • Nonie Leseaux, Harvard University
> • Elizabeth Moje, University of Michigan
> • Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar, University of Michigan
> • P. David Pearson, University of California, Berkeley
> • Victoria Risko, Vanderbilt University (and IRA President)
> • Timothy Shanahan, University of Illinois at Chicago
> • Catherine Snow, Harvard University
> • Karen Wixson, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
>
> While each member may may be highly qualified the majority are US
> citizens. All are situated in the USA. I was under the impression that the
> ' I' in IRA  stood for 'INTERNATIONAL' . Why are there no INTERNATIONAL
> scholars on this panel? Especially from countries whose students perform
> well on international  comparisons? Are there no Finnish, Singaporean, New
> Zealand, Australian, Canadian, UK, or European scholars with  sufficient
> credentials to at least be a token INTERNATIONAL repesentative on this
> panel?
>
> The implication that only USA scholars have sufficient epxertise to be
> members of  such a panel is professionally insulting to non-USA based
> scholars who are also members of IRA. Is it simply an unfortunate
> oversight? Or does it reflect unbridled ethnocentrisim? Is it time to
> remove the ' INTER-' from IRA and call the organisation the NRA?
> I'm interested in other RHF members' opinions on this matter.
> Sincerely,
> Brian Cambourne
>  Assoc. Prof. ( Dr) Brian Cambourne
> Principal Fellow
>  Faculty of Education
> University of Wollongong
> Northfields Rd Wollongong
> AUSTRALIA
> Phone: Overseas callers
> Home 61-244-416182
> email<brian_cambourne at uow.edu.au
>  Mobile/Cell phone: 0408684368
>
>
> This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and
> may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in
> error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it. Please do not
> use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any
> attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do
> not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham.
>
> This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an
> attachment may still contain software viruses which could damage your
> computer system: you are advised to perform your own checks. Email
> communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as
> permitted by UK legislation.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Reading-hall-of-fame mailing list
> Reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/reading-hall-of-fame
>
> This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and
> may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in
> error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it.   Please do
> not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in
> any attachment.  Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this
> email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham.
>
> This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment
> may still contain software viruses which could damage your computer system:
> you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the
> University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation.
>
>
>


-- 
Shirley Brice Heath
Margery Bailey Professor of English and Dramatic Literature
and
Professor of Linguistics, Emerita
Stanford University
Margaret Jacks Hall
Stanford, CA 94305
and
Professor at Large, Brown University (2003-2010)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/private/reading-hall-of-fame/attachments/20120203/dae3453b/attachment.html>