Standing Committee on Research

Function: To promote interest in research and research findings; to advise the Executive Committee and other Council groups on matters related to research; to advise the editors of Research in the Teaching of English; and to continue the research monograph series.

The following new members joined the Committee in 2005: Joel Dworin, University of Texas, Austin; Maisha Tulivu Fisher, Emory University; Paul LeMahieu, National Writing Project, University of California, Berkeley; Martin Nystrand, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Kris Gutierrez will return for another term and Joanne Larson has accepted appointment to a one-year extension of her term.

To promote research at NCTE, the SCR planned a series of program slots for the 2004 annual meeting, including a full slate for the Saturday Day of Research. The sessions seemed to serve to increase the research presence at NCTE and the research presence at the annual meeting continues to flourish. This year 77 proposals were received for slots on the 2005 meeting program, with a number of the proposals consisting of panels of multiple speakers. Colette Daiute, Anne DiPardo and myself worked with most of the other members of the committee to review the proposals; we used the rubric approved at the annual meeting. In all 56 of the proposals were accepted for the research strand; several were accepted by other groups; and two additional sessions were invited, with funding from and co-sponsorship of the National Writing Project. Anne DiPardo and I attended the NCTE program-planning meeting in Urbana in February to finalize the research strand and to coordinate the sessions sponsored by the SCR with the general program. This effort was important in integrating the work of the SCR with the work of the Council and in making timely decisions about the research strand. Given the increased numbers of proposals and our strong desire to collaborate with other program strands, we strongly recommend that in future two members of the SCR continue to come to the program planning meeting. The work could not be completed in a timely fashion by just one person.

The SCR also oversees the judging of the Promising Researcher Award. The 2005 Award committee included JoAnne Larson (Chair), Deborah Hicks (Incoming Chair), and Leslie Rex. As was the case in 2004, in 2005 there were 13 nominees for the award. The following are the 2005 recipients: Kornia Jocson who received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley for "'Bob Dylan and Hip Hop': Hybrid Cultural and Literacy Practices in Youth Poetry Communities"; Mary Juzwik who received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison for "Narrative Performance in Teaching as a Rhetoric of Identification: A Stylistic Analysis of Parallelism in 'Violence was the Way to Go'"; and Karen Macbeth who received her Ph.D. from Ohio State University for "'Diverse, Unforeseen, and Quaint Difficulties:' The Sensible Responses of Novices Learning to Follow Instructions in Academic Writing."

At the meeting of the SCR in November 2004, the committee received a report from the editors of Research in the Teaching of English. The SCR is pleased with the direction of the journal and the work of the editors.

The SCR is interested in revitalizing the research monograph series. The committee discussed publicizing past monographs and generating interest in soliciting future monographs.

The SCR is also interested in highlighting research on the NCTE website.

SCR is working with the Squire Office to bring the research of NCTE to policy makers. Anne Ruggles Gere gave a report on the work of the Squire Office at the 2004 meeting of the SCR. I have had follow up conversations with Anne about how the SCR can be helpful to the Squire Office.

The SCR changed its meeting time from Friday morning to Thursday afternoon for 2005, so as not to conflict with session times.

Sarah Freedman, Chair