Research Statement
Margaret J. Finders


My research focuses on three aspects of teaching and learning: 1) social contexts of literacy learning, 2) gender studies, and 3) teacher education. My research agenda includes on-going projects and new work to contribute to understandings about language, literacy, and social life, specifically regarding gender and adolescence. I am interested in exploring the social contexts of literacy learning, examining closely how literate behaviors are entangled in larger political, social, and cultural issues. Drawing on critical literacy theorists, I argue that teachers and students negotiate their identities through multiple, competing discourse communities. I make the case that who they are, their identities, are closely connected to the language they use. In light of this, my focus on pre-service education specifically examines the ways in which sociocultural and equity issues play out in pedagogical and assessment practices in teacher education programs.

Entry into adolescence marks a critical juncture in social and cognitive development because of greater emphasis on academics, an increase in expectations for social experiences outside the home, and an intensification of differential gender roles; yet the dynamics of literacy learning in early adolescence remain severely under-researched. My book, Just Girls: Hidden Literacies and Life in Junior High, published by Teachers College Press, explores the real worlds of seventh grade girls both in and