Literacy Collaborative
LSU School of Education
College of Human Sciences and Education
The Literacy Collaborative (LC) housed in the School of Education within
LSU's College of Human Science and Education is a group of committed
faculty whose scholarly expertise and interests center on promoting and
developing the critical abilities of listening, speaking, reading, writing,
thinking, viewing and producing visual representations. Our mission
spans language and literacy from birth through adulthood, with emphasis
on culturally congruent approaches. We are committed to literacy as a
fundamental human right and the cornerstone of democratic growth. The
Collaborative fosters creative and innovative scholarship, teaching, and
dialogue related to literacy, language, and culture, birth through
adulthood, in diverse settings. Our work includes undergraduate and
graduate programs as well as the continued development of
professionals in larger communities. As committed scholars and
practitioners we network with local, regional, state, national, and
international communities of professionals to further our mission beyond
the university and into community and classroom spaces.
Meet our faculty!!
Dr. Estanislado S. Barrera, IV
Dr. Estanislado S. Barrera, IV.
esbarreraiv@lsu.edu
Assistant Professor of Reading and Literacy Studies, Co-Director of the
LSU Writing Project; Co-Editor of Journal of Balanced Reading
Instruction. Barrera’s scope of research encompasses the foundational
components of reading and writing in the elementary classroom with
particular emphasis on the development of metatextuality in young
readers and writers. Other areas of study include the role of
intersubjectivity as it relates to the social/individual dialectic of meaning
construction.
Dana L. Bickmore
Dana L. Bickmore, danabick@lsu.edu
Assistant professor of Educational Leadership. Her research interests include the
professional development of practicing principals, the principal’s role in induction,
and principal leadership in charter and middle grades schools. Bickmore also
spent 28 years in public schools where she served as a teacher, assistant
principal, and principal, being named the National Association of Secondary
School Principal’s Utah Principal of the Year. She also served in a large suburban
school district as the associate superintendent of elementary schools and later as
associate superintendent of professional development, leading a large scale
literacy initiative.
Steven Bickmore
Steven Bickmore, sbick@lsu.edu
Associate professor of English Education, co-editor of The ALAN Review,
dedicated to the study and teaching of young adult literature and affiliated with
National Council Teachers of English.
Bickmore’s research interests include the induction and mentoring of novice
teachers and how pre-service and novice English teachers negotiate the
teaching of literature using young adult literature. For the first strand he is
primarily interested in how and what novice English teachers seek for their
professional development. In the second, he is interested in how all English
teachers use young adult literature as a tool for teaching the larger goals of
literature instruction within the English language arts classroom. Steve was a
recipient of the prestigious Milken Educator Award.
Renee Casbergue
Interim Associate Dean
Renée Casbergue,
rcasberg@lsu.edu
Associate Professor, co-editor of Journal of research in childhood education.
Casbergue's research interests focus on early literacy, with an emphasis on
children's writing development as supported at home and in early childhood
educational settings, and the influence of professional development on
preschool teachers' ability to impact children's early language and literacy
development. Coauthor of Writing in Preschool: Learning to Orchestrate
Meaning and Marks, she is in the final year of an Early Reading First project
funded by the U.S. Department of Education to support development of
centers of early literacy excellence in preschool classrooms serving high
poverty families in New Orleans.
Karen S. Donnelly
Karen S. Donnelly,
kdonne2@lsu.edu
Instructor in the undergraduate Pre-Kindergarten – Third Grade and
Elementary Education certification programs. Donnelly’s areas of
interest include reading education, early literacy, and children’s
literature with an emphasis on curriculum and pedagogy.
Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell
Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell,
sdowell@lsu.edu
Associate professor of literacy and urban education, Director of the LSU Writing
Project; Editor-In-Chief, Journal of Educational Policies and Current Practices;
co-editor, Literacy and Social Responsibility eJournal. Sulentic Dowell’s
research agenda includes three strands and is focused on literacy in urban
settings, specifically the complexities of literacy leadership, providing access to
literature, writing, and the arts, and service-learning as a pathway to prepare
pre-service teachers to teach literacy authentically in urban environs. She is a
National Board Certified Teacher in the area of Early Adolescence/English
Language Arts and former assistant superintendent of elementary schools, East
Baton Rouge Parish School System.
Julie Rollins
Julie Rollins jwrig35@lsu.edu
Instructor in the elementary reading methods courses, her research
includes examining the intersections and connections between fluency and
comprehension. Julie believes hands-on instruction for elementary
education students is vital in tandem with critical feedback from classroom
observation.
Kim Skinner
Kim Skinner
Assistant Professor of Reading and Literacy Studies, Co-Director of the LSU Writing
Project, Skinner’s scholarship examines the role of discourse in teaching and
learning environments, with particular attention to teacher/student interactions with
text. Previously the Director of Elementary Curriculum and Instruction at a south
Texas public school district, she has more than twenty years of experience in
educational settings. Kim received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a
concentrate in Literacy Studies from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
The Literacy Collaborative Faculty: School of Education
Literacy faculty at LSU’s School of Education are nationally recognized scholars
representing philosophically diverse literacy perspectives ranging from early literacy through
adulthood, encompassing views from holistic and culturally-centered, to skill-based
approaches to understanding dyslexia. Our graduate program offers rigorous curriculum that
combines theory with practice, producing cutting edge research. Students work with
distinguished literacy faculty who are well-regarded nationally. One faculty member is a
National Board Certified Teacher and another, winner of the Milken National Educator Award.
We offer wide ranging professional learning and development.
Literacy faculty at LSU SOE have produced over 200 scholarly publications including
articles, book chapters, books, encyclopedia entries, newsletter articles., and textbooks.
External funding exceeds $4.5 million. LSU Literacy faculty are members of eleven
international and national reading/literacy editorial review boards: English Education, Journal
of Adult and Adolescent Literacy, Journal of Educational Policies and Current Practices,
Reading Research Quarterly, Reading Psychology, Reading Teacher, The Signal Journal,
Voices from the Middle, as well as the ALAN Review, Journal of Balanced Reading
Instruction, and the Literacy and Social Responsibility ejournal.
LSU SOE literacy faculty regularly present research at prestigious conferences:
American Educational Research Association, International Reading Association, Literacy
Research Association, Louisiana Reading Association, National Association for the Education
of the Young Child, National Council Teachers of English, and the National Writing Project.