Melanie N. Burdick

In Literacy Experiences of Formerly Incarcerated Women: Sentences and Sponsors, Melanie N. Burdick uses narrative research to elucidate the literacy experiences of formerly incarcerated women and how literacy has affected their lives, both while incarcerated and while transitioning back into society. Using Deborah Brandt’s theory of literacy sponsorship (1998), Burdick explores both the mass incarceration of women and their access to literacy as feminist and social justice issues. While reading and writing in prison is often romanticized through caricatures of incarcerated people who become enlightened and reformed, Burdick targets these romanticized views and criticizes their controlling and harmful effects. This book shines a light on the personal and political ramifications of literacy experiences in women’s lives as they grow up in families and schools, move through the prison system, and transition back into society and higher education, arguing that literacy is politically situated and that transitioning out of prison is a complex process marked by literate acts that are dependent upon constructive literacy sponsorship.

This book explores pedagogical change and innovation in US colleges and universities, and how faculty are prepared to adapt to such changes. Drawing from interviews with faculty developers at Centers for Teaching and Learning at research and teaching-focused institutions across the United States, this book explores how traditional forms of pedagogy are shifting toward student-centered and student-directed forms of learning. The book unpacks the historical development of changes in teaching, drawing from research in teaching within particular domains such as diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education, community-based teaching and learning, online and hybrid teaching and learning, course design, interdisciplinary teaching and learning, assessment of teaching, and the scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). This is an invaluable resource for faculty, graduate students, and scholars of Higher Education, and faculty developers looking to promote a culture of continual renewal and innovation at their institutions.

This book explores pedagogical change and innovation in US colleges and universities, and how faculty are prepared to adapt to such changes. Drawing from interviews with faculty developers at Centers for Teaching and Learning at research and teaching-focused institutions across the United States, this book explores how traditional forms of pedagogy are shifting toward student-centered and student-directed forms of learning. The book unpacks the historical development of changes in teaching, drawing from research in teaching within particular domains such as diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education, community-based teaching and learning, online and hybrid teaching and learning, course design, interdisciplinary teaching and learning, assessment of teaching, and the scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). This is an invaluable resource for faculty, graduate students, and scholars of Higher Education, and faculty developers looking to promote a culture of continual renewal and innovation at their institutions.

Literacy Experiences of Formerly Incarcerated Women: Sentences and Sponsors focuses on a narrative research study of the literacy experiences of formerly incarcerated women and how these experiences have affected their lives, both while incarcerated and while transitioning back into society. Using Deborah Brandt’s theory of literacy sponsorship (1998), Melanie N. Burdick explores the mass incarceration of women, and their access to literacy and higher education while incarcerated, as feminist and social justice issues. Although discussions of reading and writing as a part of correctional education are often romanticized, offering views of incarcerated people who become enlightened and reformed, Burdick identifies these romanticizes views and criticizes their controlling and harmful effects. This book shines a light on the personal and political ramifications of literacy experiences in women’s lives as they grow up in families and schools, move through the prison system, and transition back into society and higher education, arguing that literacy is politically situated and that transitioning out of prison is a complex process marked by literate acts that are dependent upon literacy sponsorship.