Abstract of

New Directions in Research
Funding Research in Literacy Education

Terms such as rigorous research, gold standard, scalability, and acceptable research methodologies are bandied about in both academic and policy circles, locally as well as globally. In an effort to learn what meanings these terms might hold for funding agencies and researchers, we invited four individuals from diverse settings, holding diverse points of view, to situate themselves in relation to new directions in funding research in literacy education.

Finbarr C. Sloane, a program director at The National Science Foundation, Division of Research, Evaluation and Communication in Arlington, Virginia, USA, responded by addressing the need for multilevel theory development to support reading interventions brought to scale [http://dx.doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.40.3.4]. Anne McGill-Franzen, professor and director of the Reading Center at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, USA, identified what has been left out of the discussion of the concept of scale up and argues for the funding of close-up, focused study of teacher variation within a comprehensive view of teaching and assessing reading comprehension [http://dx.doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.40.3.5]. Peter Freebody at the University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia, along with his coauthor, Margery Hornibrook of the Le@rning Federation Curriculum Corporation in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, cite the need to attend to the challenges presented to social justice as a core educational principle by constraints in policy and funding [http://dx.doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.40.3.6]. Finally, Andrés Henríquez, a program officer in the education division of Carnegie Corporation of New York, USA, traces the history of Carnegie's interest in reading as a way of mapping current and future trends in funding adolescent literacy research [http://dx.doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.40.3.7]. All of the authors offer insights on what it means to be an independent researcher in an increasingly global and collaborative world.

Donna Alvermann & David Reinking

Abstract from (2005, July/August/September). Funding Research in Literacy Education. Reading Research Quarterly, 40(3), 360–360. doi: 10.1598/RRQ.40.3.4_7.abs