Research Literacy Sources for Literacy Practitioners

How the initial sources were selected

The initial research literacy sources listed on these pages were identified by Bonnie Soroke, a graduate student at UBC, working on a project for C2T2 with funding from the BC Ministry of Advanced Education and the National Literacy Secretariat.

Bonnie used a variety of approaches to identify the literacy materials. She spent a lot of time listening, questioning and talking with literacy practitioners in workshops, at conferences, by email and on the telephone before she selected the sites listed here. Wanting to respond to individual questions such as "Where can we publish our research?" and "Where can I go to look at journals I may want to subscribe to or contribute to?" she actively sought out resources to help find some answers.

Bonnie also found information during literature searches through the university library, both in print and online. She used reference lists from books, from others' literacy research resources and she followed links to other journals and sites. Information was also found through print brochures advertising new journals and sites that came her way from conferences, libraries and reading rooms.

She questioned librarians, friends, graduate students, and professors about organizations and resources they use.

The sites were chosen with adult literacy practitioners in mind: what would be helpful and of interest to them in their own research and practices? Bonnie was interested in journals and organizations that supported practitioner research and were not purely for the academic culture.

Journals and Websites for Literacy Practitioners

These journals and Websites are in a list according to country: Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Australia and International Organizations. The descriptions are from material found on the respective Websites.

Most of these Websites are listed alphabetically on a table below.

Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education
http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/CASAE/cjsae/CJSAE-
RCEEA_Guidelines_UBC1.html

The Journal includes critical reviews of adult education literature, essays, and book reviews. Each issue is 15-20 pages. For reports of research, submissions are to be a maximum of 30 pages, double-spaced. They assume that the submission will be of original research and that it has not been submitted to another journal.

Directory of Canadian Adult Literacy Research
http://www.nald.ca/crd/start.htm

A comprehensive online database containing research from 1994, as well as research in progress. It contains information on over 200 Canadian research studies on adult literacy. The directory provides:

• Bibilographic information, annotations; and in some cases, full-text documents
• Contact information for the principal researcher(s).
• An online submission form to allow individuals to submit their research for inclusion into the database.
• Searches by author/researcher, title, keyword, year, subject, context and keyword.
• A link to its Francophone counterpart RÉCRAF.

English Quarterly
http://www.nald.ca/WHATNEW/PAPERS/eq.htm

This journal focuses on English language arts at elementary, secondary and post-secondary levels. They cover a wide range of genres—debates, interviews, position papers, review, and letters. On their Website they state that they especially value manuscripts that are written in a lively, accessible style and that link teaching or learning practice with reflection on that practice. They also suggest that if you have an idea that you are interested in trying out with other teachers, but have not previously written for publication and are unsure how to format your paper, the editors will help with the conventions of preparing a paper for publication. The readers comprise a broad spectrum of classroom teachers (elementary and secondary), English language arts consultants, and university instructors. The Journal welcomes papers at any time throughout the year.

Margaret Hunsberger
1102 Education Tower
University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta
T2N 1N4
Fax: 403-282-8479
Email: hunsberg@acs.ucalgary.ca

Groundwork
http://www.nald.ca/PROVINCE/BC/abe/publ.htm

This journal is published three times a year by Adult Basic Education Association of BC. The Website includes some online articles. Any submissions should be provided in the form of hard copy plus a disk where possible and always accompanied by a telephone number for the contact person. Send manuscripts to:
Jo Dunaway, Editor,
#405-1349 East 2nd Ave. Vancouver, BC V5N 1C4,
Email: jodunaway@compuserve.com
Telephone: (604) 255-9293, Fax: (604) 255-9275.
They reserve the right to edit for style or length.

Literacy Across the Curriculumedia Focus (LACMF)
http://www.nald.ca/province/que/litcent/NEWSLETT/litarch.htm

A newsletter published twice a year by the The Centre for Literacy. The newsletter raises awareness of the complexities surrounding literacy as an educational, social, cultural, and political issue, critiques current popular notions, and provides examples of practical teaching approaches.

Literacy BC
http://www.bc.literacy.ca

Literacy BC provides a collection of over 3000 catalogued literacy-related resources of print materials, videos, CD-ROMs and audio-cassettes in such areas as aboriginal literacy, adult basic education, clear language, computers and literacy, family literacy, learning disabilities, literacy and health, literacy programming, prison literacy, women's literacy, and workplace literacy. They will mail you materials. For more information on the Resource Centre, the newsletter, or The Hub, call Literacy BC toll-free in BC at 1-800-663-1293, outside of BC phone (604) 684-0624. Or you can email them at info@literacy.bc.ca

Literacy.ca
http://www.literacy.ca/

Literacy.ca is the journal of the Movement for Canadian Literacy, a national non-profit organization representing literacy coalitions, organizations, and individuals from every province and territory.

Literacies: Research Practice, Practising Research
www.literacyjournal.ca/

A Canadian journal that started in 2003 for people to share ideas and experiences about how research and practice connect, and how each can inform the other. Literacies welcomes all kinds of submissions, valuing a range of types of inquiry including reflections, discussions, debates and creative work in various genres.

National Adult Literacy Database (NALD)
www.nald.ca

A rich resource containing all the Canadian web pages included below and much more. NALD offers a very clear site map with access to Full Text Documents, Resource Catalogues, Literacy Organizations and online Educational Resources.

The Directory of Canadian Adult Literacy Research offers an online submission form to allow individuals to submit their research for inclusion into the database. Under What's New, there is a section for Calls for Papers, Presenters and Proposals. www.nald.ca/crd/start.htm

Word Ways
www.literacyalberta.ca/News/archive.htm

Word Ways is published three times a year, in spring, fall and winter by Literacy Alberta. Literacy Alberta is a non-profit organization that supports people involved in literacy activities, and influences public policy to improve access to information, services, and learning opportunities for people who have literacy needs.

Adult Basic Education
http://www.coabe.org/journal/abe_journal.html

This interdisciplinary journal for adult literacy educators is published 3 times per year in Georgia. It is a scholarly journal with a practical intent devoted to improving the efforts of adult educators working with low-literate, educationally disadvantaged, and educationally oppressed people. The journal seeks to publish critical essays, research of all types, philosophical and theoretical pieces and other scholarly work of relevance to those working in adult literacy education. Manuscripts which uncritically describe existing programs or techniques which simply recount authors' personal experience or opinions are not within the scope of this journal, except in rare cases. Although the journal is scholarly in emphasis, the readership for this journal consists largely of practitioners. Simple, precise prose is preferred.

Ken Melichar, Editor
Adult Basic Education
Department of Sociology
Piedmont College
Demorest, GA 30535
Tel: (706) 778-3000, ext. 264
Fax: (706) 776-2811
Email: kmelichar@piedmont.edu

Focus on Basics
http://gseweb.harvard.edu/~ncsall/fob/index.htm

Focus on Basics is published by NCSALL (The National Center for the Study of Adult Literacy and Learning). It includes articles about applying literacy research to practice. It presents best practices, current research on adult learning and literacy, and how research is used by adult basic education teachers, counselors, program administrators, and policy makers. Focus on Basics is dedicated to connecting research with practice, to connecting teachers with research and researchers with the reality of the classroom, and by doing so, making adult basic education research more relevant to the field. Each issue of FOB can be downloaded from their web site at no cost.

Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (International Reading Association)
http://www.reading.org/publications/jaal/

Articles for submission may be about practical, theoretical, or research topics, should be about 1,000-6,000 words, no more than 20 double-spaced pages, original, and not published or submitted for publication elsewhere. The ideal articles in this journal have a clear purpose, discuss the topic in some depth and are written in a straightforward style.

Learning from Practice
http://www.learningfrompractice.org/default.htm

This USA site includes abstracts and full reports of action research projects conducted by literacy practitioners. They suggest that "the practitioner researcher may use this Website to research practices, techniques, philosophy and/or models that support the need for the action research or practitioner inquiry." Sources are available to download at no cost. They will take submissions and give a detailed list of criteria.

New Horizons in Adult Education
http://www.nova.edu/~aed/newhorizons.html

New Horizons publishes research, thought pieces, book reviews, point-counter-point articles, conceptual analysis, case studies, interactive articles, and invitational columns.

This journal, founded in 1987, is a refereed electronic journal that provides faculty, graduate students, researchers, and practitioners with a means for publishing their current thinking and research within adult education and related fields. The journal is published two or three times a year and is transmitted through the free international electronic network AEDNET - Adult Education Network Researchers. URL: http://www.nova.edu/~aed.

The network is operated through a listserv that enables subscribers to share information. Researchers, practitioners, and graduate students in adult and continuing education are provided with opportunities to discuss important topics and concerns in an online environment. AEDNET and New Horizons in Adult Education are sponsored by the Programs for Higher Education (PHE) at Nova Southeastern University.

PAACE Journal of Lifelong Learning
http://www.coe.iup.edu/ace/PAACE.htm

PAACE is a refereed journal published annually by the Pennsylvania Association for Adult Continuing Education (PAACE), a professional association for adult educators and those interested in adult education in Pennsylvania. The journal serves more than 1000 members in all areas of adult education including basic education and literacy, higher education, business and industry, vocational education, health, and community and social service agencies. PAACE reflects this diversity with articles representing adult, community, continuing, and distance education. The journal publishes manuscripts in several different sections in each volume. These sections include invited manuscripts for "Featured Articles," the "Forum," and "Resources." Unsolicited manuscripts may be submitted for either of the following sections: "Refereed Articles" or "Theory-to-Practice" (non-refereed). On their Website they list editorial guidelines for submitting manuscripts.

UNITED KINGDOM

The Taylor & Francis Group
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/

The Taylor & Francis Group currently publishes over 540 academic peer-reviewed journals across a variety of disciplines. They use the Internet actively to disseminate information about journals in advance of publication through SARA (Scholarly Articles Research Alerting). This is a service designed to deliver by email, tables of contents for any issue of Carfax, Martin Dunitz, Psychology Press, Routledge, Spon Press or Taylor & Francis journals to anyone who has requested the information. This "content alert" service is completely free of charge and can be subscribed to at:
http://www.tandf.co.uk/sara/sara.html

The two journals about adult literacy that are available through Taylor & Francis are Reflective Practice and Teachers & Teaching.

Reflective Practice
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/ (use the alphabetical listing to find the journal)

Reflective Practice is a new refereed journal from the UK that welcomes papers from authors from any profession and any part of the world, who have an interest in reflective practice. They will publish original, challenging and stimulating work that explores reflection within and on practice, as an individual and collective activity, that concerns personal knowing and transformation, collective regeneration and political activism, reflection and voice, values negotiated meaning, identity and community. Contributors are encouraged to be creative in their ways of writing.

For example, Reflective Practice will publish papers up to 6,000 words or equivalent in length. Additionally, shorter pieces on recent initiatives, reports of work in progress, proposals for collaborative research, theoretical positions, knowledge reported in poetic, diagrammatic and narrative form illuminated by line drawings and photography, provocative problem and question-posing thought pieces, reflective dialogues and creative reflective conversations will be published. Sample copies of Reflective Practice are available on request from: Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis Ltd, Customer Services Dept, Rankine Road, Basingtoke, Hants RG24, UK or from Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis Inc, Customer Services Dept, 325 Chestnut Street, 8th Floor, Philadelphic, PA 19106, USA

Teachers & Teaching: Theory and Practice
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/ (use the alphabetical listing of journals)

This journal provides an international focal point for the publication of research on teachers and teaching, in particular on teacher thinking. It offers a means of communication and dissemination of completed research and research in progress, whilst also providing a forum for debate between researchers. This unique journal draws together qualitative and quantitative research from different countries and cultures which focus on the social, political and historical contexts of teaching as work. It includes theoretical reflections on the connections between theory and practice in teachers' work and other research of professional interest. It represents the latest phase in the development of the International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching (ISATT), a worldwide association of researchers, teacher educators and teachers.

The journal includes work which focuses on teachers' beliefs, thoughts or conceptions; on teachers' biographies, life histories, "voice," personal practical knowledge and well as much more. Sample copies of Reflective Practice are available on request from: Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis Ltd, Customer Services Dept, Rankine Road, Basingtoke, Hants RG24, UK or from Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis Inc, Customer Services Dept, 325 Chestnut Street, 8th Floor, Philadelphic, PA 19106, USA.

RaPAL Bulletin
http://www.literacy.lancs.ac.uk/rapal/RaPAL.htm

From the United Kingdom, the RaPAL (Research and Practice in Adult Literacy) Bulletin publishes ideas that link research and practice in Adult Literacy. It provides a communication network between people involved in doing research. RaPAL encourages a much broader view of what counts as research. Research for us can be something much closer to the everyday practice of what we all do as we learn. It does not have to be remote, written in mystifying language and published in obscure books and journals that few people ever get to see.

RaPAL is looking for contributions in the form of short articles, reviews and reports, and letters reflecting the range of activities and interests of those involved in the research and practice of adult literacy as teachers, tutors, learners and researchers. There are also sections in the bulletin for short items of news, details of forthcoming events and a digest of publications, reports and dissertations. The Bulletin is produced three times a year, in Spring, Summer and Autumn. Contributions are welcome at any time. Look for Guidelines for Contributors on their Website.

AUSTRALIA

ALNARC (Adult Literacy & Numeracy Australian Research Consortium)
http://www.staff.vu.edu.au/alnarc/publications.html

This site includes summaries of eighteen small-scale research projects which explored "on the ground"' how literacy and numeracy can be more effectively provided for groups with identified special needs. Between July and November 1999, each of the six state centres of ALNARC conducted collaborative research projects in order to examine "the effects of the inclusion of literacy and numeracy in industry standards in Training Packages on the quality of learning and work outcomes." Executive summaries of each of the reports are on the Website. The full reports are currently being published by Language Australia.

Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) Research Centre
http://www.nceltr.mq.edu.au/amep/index.html

The Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) Research Centre in Australia initiates, co-ordinates and disseminates research work relevant to English language teaching and learning. The research conducted and supported by the AMEP Research Centre ranges from large scale empirical investigations to smaller-scale qualitative studies of individual classrooms. They attach considerable importance to teacher-conducted research studies that are problem-focused and aimed at improving practice.

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

Convergence
http://www.niace.org.uk/Publications/Periodicals/
Convergence/SubGuide.htm

Convergence is a refereed academic paper journal with readers in over 80 countries. Because of their international distribution, they attempt to select articles of interest to a broad audience of practitioners, field-workers, planners, trainers, teachers, researchers and administrators. Articles are accepted in English, French and Spanish. Convergence is the quarterly journal of the International Council for Adult Education ((ICAE), which represents the world-wide adult education movement of non-governmental organizations working at the grassroots, national and regional levels. The ICAE works to strengthen the practice of adult education through publications, research, seminars, workshops, and South-South exchanges. The ICAE Website has great resources and links: http://www.web.net/icae.

Reading Research Quarterly (International Reading Association)
http://www.reading.org/publications/rrq/

Reading Research Quarterly (RRQ) is the leading peer-reviewed professional research journal for those committed to scholarship on questions of literacy among learners of all ages. RRQ supports the spirit of inquiry that is essential to the ongoing development of literacy research, and provides a forum for multidisciplinary research, alternative modes of investigation, and variant viewpoints about the nature of literacy practices and policies of diverse groups of persons around the world. Published four times a year, RRQ is available to individuals as a benefit of IRA (International Reading Association) membership and to institutions by subscription. It is now also available in an online version, at a significant discount to IRA members.

Click here for a tabled summary of Literacy Research Sources