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Associate Professor Zaleski, Chairperson, 291 Hagedorn Hall

Professor Taylor
Associate Professor Henry, Flurkey, Goodman
Assistant Professors Cohen,  Garcia-Obregon,  McGinnis
Assistant Professor Garcia-Obregon, Director of the Reading/Writing Learning Clinic.

The Reading/Writing Learning Clinic offers noncredit clinical services for the University and for the community-at-large.

The Department of Literacy Studies offers a Master of Science in Education in Literacy Studies with either an elementary or secondary emphasis; a Master of Science in Education in Literacy Studies and Early Childhood Special Education; a Master of Arts in Reading, Language, and Cognition; a Master of Arts in the Teaching of Writing; a Certificate of Advanced Study in Literacy Studies; a Professional Diploma in Advanced Literacy Studies; a Doctor of Education in Reading, Language, and Cognition; and a Doctor of Philosophy in Reading, Language, and Cognition.

The faculty in Literacy Studies is committed to the exploration of issues of literacy and social justice. Our degree programs have been updated and are designed to maximize opportunities for students to work closely with a faculty that is committed to excellence in teaching. The faculty has received national and international recognition for their research and scholarship. They are committed to providing students in Literacy studies with opportunities to participate in intellectual discussions that frame current understandings of school literacy practices and literacy practices that occur in family and community settings. The Literacy Studies Department provides support for families and communities as well as teachers and students in the New York metropolitan area.

Our programs prepare effective literacy educators who will work at the crossroads of home, school, and community discourses to forge instruction that is meaningful and life-affirming to learners. Our students will engage in critical explorations of:

1. literacy practices in schools;
2. local and vernacular literacies of families and communities;
3. the relationships between literacy and social class, ethnicity, race, gender, poverty, language of origin and disability.

Graduate students will join with faculty in a critical exploration of the ways in which students are taught to read and write in schools in urban, suburban, and rural communities. Attention is paid to the relationship between oral and written language from a variety of perspectives – social, cognitive, phonological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic. Faculty share the belief that all students bring rich language and literacy backgrounds to school that serve as a resource for learning. Graduate students will view theory and practice as inseparable and will possess the ability to engage in reflective practice.

Doctoral Programs in Reading, Language and Cognition

Professor Taylor, Graduate Program Director, (516) 463-5370, Denny.Taylor@hofstra.edu

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Reading, Language, and Cognition: designed for teachers, reading and language arts specialists, and other professional personnel in the public schools who will be concerned primarily with practice and collegelevel teaching. It includes the basic courses in the Master’s and Professional Diploma Programs in Literacy. An early childhood emphasis in the Ed.D. program is provided for applicants who work in or wish to prepare in early childhood stages.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Reading, Language, and Cognition: designed for specialists concerned primarily with research, experimentation and higher education, and includes the basic courses in the Master’s and Professional Diploma Programs in Literacy.

A bilingual/bicultural emphasis in the Ed.D. or Ph.D. program is provided for bilingual applicants (Spanish-English) who work in or wish to prepare to work in bilingual settings.

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