Five COE faculty were recently selected by the Elementary Section of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) as editors of Language Arts, a premiere journal for teachers in pre-k to grade 8. Drs. Peggy Albers and Amy Seely Flint from the Department of Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology and Drs. Caitlin McMunn Dooley, Teri Holbrook, and Laura May from the Department of Early Childhood Education will assume the editorship of this journal for five years, from 2011-2016. As a peer-reviewed publication, Language Arts showcases contemporary, cutting-edge research, theory, and application in language and literacy education.
 
This team brings more than 30 years of language arts teaching in K-12 settings, 17 years of editing experience, and 45 years of service to NCTE. Collectively, the new editors have an impressive record of research and service. They have nearly 90 publications in peer-reviewed journals, have published 16 books for education, have reviewed for 12 professional educational publications, and served for more than 17 years on various editorial teams within literacy and language arts organizations.
 
The editors also bring a range of research interests to this position. Peggy Albers is a full professor whose interests lay in visual discourse analysis, children's literature, and English education. Amy Seely Flint is an associate professor whose research interests are in emergent literacy, critical literacy, and teachers' professional development as they construct life-long teaching careers. Caitlin McMunn Dooley is an assistant professor interested in investigating literacy instruction and development as well as teacher learning in diverse educational contexts. Teri Holbrook is an assistant professor whose interests lay in how changing technologies impact the way literacy is defined and practiced and how the multimodal capabilities of developing technologies might make for more inclusive and caring societies. Laura May is an assistant professor who studies classroom interactions, classroom texts, and teacher preparation and development.
 
The Language Arts audience represents a diverse group of researchers, teachers, literacy coaches, reading and special education interventionists, teacher educators, and school administrators interested in literacy development and in literacy teaching from preschool through early adolescence.  As an organization, NCTE promotes the development of literacy to construct personal and public worlds and to achieve full participation in society, through the learning and teaching of English and the related arts and sciences of language. The GSU editorial team will build upon this vision by connecting and supporting literacy and language arts teachers and researchers as they work closely with children, school personnel, and families to nurture lifelong literacy learning. Through the use of podcasts and the solicitation of readership feedback, the GSU team will extend readership and participation in this on-going conversation about how to promote literacy.
 
Photo caption (l-r): Drs. Teri Holbrook, Peggy Albers, Amy Seely Flint, Caitlin McMunn Dooley and Laura May.