“…this volume makes important contributions to the field of literacy, especially for teacher educators. Readers will gain an appreciation of many of the ideas that have shaped the field and, even more interestingly, of the stories and personalities behind those ideas.” (Read the full review at English Education Journal, June 2023.)

Benjamin N. Lathrop, Purdue University

"Edited by noted language and literary scholars Sumara (Univ. of Calgary, Canada) and Alvermann (Univ. of Georgia), this collection assembles 33 different first-person perspectives on literacy practices over the decades. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic when the world was in lockdown, the editors managed an unexpected task by requiring each contributing author to share the “I” that challenged them to describe, analyze, and interpret how their research, ideas, and practices had evolved. Every essay makes readers want more insights as the idea of reading development becomes intertwined across the life span of reading and learning. As leading experts reflect on their own lived experiences with the language-literacy processes in education, readers will find that the chapter conclusions challenge them to examine their personal literacy practices and to move forward in making meaning in their own world. Education professionals in the field and graduate students in literacy education will benefit from reading this text. The historical context situating the research methods enlivens the text with personal practices and political influences."

Review in December 2022, Vol. 60 No. 4 issue of CHOICE by D. Pellegrino, University of Scranton

“When Dennis Sumara and Donna Alvermann publish an edited collection on impactful literacy practices, students and scholars of literacy education pay attention. …Quite simply, Sumara and Alvermann’s collection of first-person narratives provides a personalized historical analysis of literacy practices in education. The authors of this collection show how literacy education has pivoted from measurement to empowerment. By connecting the body, its emotions and physical conditions, to the mind, this collection of narratives highlights the social practice that is literacy and literacy education.” (Read the full review in Teachers College Record, Sept. 20, 2022.)

Reviewed by Taylor Norman for Teachers College Record (9/20/22)

“Ideas That Changed Literacy Practices is so much more than just a superb introduction to the field of literacy studies. These writers’ journeys through the field are fascinating stories of ideas and concepts gained and lost, assembled and taken-apart, lived and professed. There are lessons here about how the field came to be, about how these scholars and ideas struggled to make a difference, and about the urgent task of assembling a diverse tool kit for these difficult times and strange days.”

Allan Luke, Emeritus Professor, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

“Ideas That Changed Literary Practices is a volume that comes at a crucial time. As scholars and educators re-imagine literacy work during multiple pandemics, we grapple with the purpose of our work to enact change. This volume centers the power of story, identity, and inquiry in literacy scholarship by showing the humanity in research and researchers in first-person accounts. We hear the stories behind the development of frameworks and models, in narratives that help us understand how ideas emerge, circulate, and evolve over time. We learn how researchers pursue questions—in collaboration with youth, teachers, families, communities—and find themselves changed in the process. A wonderful resource to generate dialogue about the multiple trajectories one can follow in becoming a literacy scholar.”

Silvia Noguerón-Liu, Associate Professor, University of Colorado-Boulder

“The collection of accounts in Ideas That Changed Literacy Practices is profoundly scholarly and provocative, a mix of breakthroughs and inspirations and historical accounts of influences—people and events, questions and discoveries. The collection portrays a range of inquiries via autobiographical accounts of literacy scholars charged with reading themselves through the lens of an idea key to their thinking. Thanks to Dennis Sumara and Donna E. Alvermann for imagining the possibilities that would emanate from the quest they set for authors, as well as their trust in the treasures that these authors would provide. These varied and multifaceted autobiographical explorations illuminate the rich and diverse ecology of our literacies as well as the passions of many of the esteemed scholars who contributed.”

Robert J. Tierney, Professor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus, University of British Columbia