Global Meaning Making: Disrupting and Interrogating International Language and Literacy Research and Teaching

About

Lori Czop Assaf works at Texas State University in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She teaches undergraduate and graduate literacy courses and coordinates the Early Childhood- 6th ESL Undergraduate Program. Assaf directs a study abroad program in rural Eastern Cape of South Africa and conducts research in Chile. As a Fulbright Scholar Lori worked in Indonesia with university faculty local classroom teachers and primary grade students teaching language and literacy instruction. Her research includes teacher education writing instruction and multicultural teaching and learning with a special focus on emergent bilinguals and English language learners. Patience Sowa is a Senior Literacy and Language Advisor in the International Education Division of RTI Internationals International Development Group. She provides technical support to RTI country projects in literacy and language and teacher professional development. Sowa has worked in multicultural and multilingual contexts in Africa the Middle East and North America as a teacher and teacher educator. Her research interests include preservice teacher preparation and teaching in bi/multilingual contexts. An international editorial board member of Teaching and Teacher Education one of her recent publications is Higher grounds: Practical guidelines for forging learning pathways in upper primary education. Katina Zammit works at Western Sydney University in the School of Education. She teaches literacy courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. As Associate Dean Learning and Teaching and Deputy Dean Katina guides the development and accreditation of teacher education programs and post-initial teacher education programs. Zammit works closely with colleagues in school and fellow academics in Australia and other countries to improve student engagement in learning and literacy outcomes for students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and/or living in poverty. Her research interests include multiliteracies writing and creating texts in multiple modes transformative pedagogies and pedagogical leadership.