My commitment to equitable literacy practices via a transdisciplinary lens is evident in service and leadership across my program, college, university, the profession and community. My service has focused, multidirectionally, on using findings from my research concerning cross-cultural, cross-linguistic, and cross-racial issues to inform my advocacy for diversity in literacy assessment, learning, research, and teaching.
In turn, I have used insights from my philosophy of teaching to influence my support for research partnerships and to address literacy challenges faced by students in cross-linguistic, cross-racial, and cross-cultural contexts. Integrating my teaching, research, and service has allowed me to rely on both theoretical and practical knowledge for addressing diversity in literacy, locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.
Through this integration, my service focuses on activities that: (a) support the well-being of [immigrant] faculty in higher education; (b) guide public policy regarding linguistically-diverse students’ migration across cultures; (c) promote engaged outreach with underserved K-12 schools; and (d) support professional organizations and communities of which I am a member. Below I describe recent service engagements that align with my professional mission.
Program
My service to the Literacy Program at USF has consisted of functioning as Search Committee Chair for the positions of Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of Instruction. I also served as a member of the Literacies Search Committee for a Visiting Instructor and worked collaboratively with Literacy Studies program faculty to recruit doctoral students.
I worked in 2022 to identify avenues for promoting the Literacy Studies’ Critical Global Literacies Certificate. The Critical Global Literacies Graduate Certificate focuses on understanding how literate practices across the globe help to situate students as citizens of the world. Language is crucial to globalization and distinctly intertwined with race and culture. The courses in this certificate are thus focused on cross-cultural perspectives, anti-racist pedagogies, and decolonizing the literacies of racialized, multilingual and/or immigrant populations.
The curriculum requirements for the certificate are:
• RED 6656 Literature for a Diverse Society Credit Hours: 3
• RED 6658 Foundations and Application of Differentiated Reading Instruction Credit Hours: 3
• RED 6068 Adolescent Literacy: In and Out of School Literacy Practices Credit Hours: 3
• RED 6645 Critical Global Literacies Credit Hours: 3
• RED 6649 Critical Literacies for Racial Justice Credit Hours: 3
The Certificate is relevant for those who work in K-12, adult, and teacher education contexts as well as those focused on broad issues of literacy in the global marketplace (business, health, security). Our program connects networks of literacy educators and advocates who partner with our communities to work towards literacy access and justice for all.
Department and College
I have assumed a number of primary departmental and college service roles in the past year.
I concluded my service as the outgoing Elected Chair of the Governance Committee for the Language, Literacy, Ed.D., Exceptional Education, and Physical Education (LLEEP) department in summer 2022. In this role, I: (a) guided members of the Governance Committee to revise the LLEEP governance document annually; and (b) oversaw and engaged in ballot preparation and the voting process for all LLEEP committees and all College committees during the LLEEP annual election process; and (c) developed procedures to guide future and incoming Governance Committee members.
I worked collaboratively with Governance Committee members and Department Chair, Dr. Elizabeth Shaunessy-Dedrick, on multiple iterations of the governance document to align this and extend the document based on faculty discussion and feedback from USF upper administration. I subsequently revised the LLEEP governance document substantively to align with feedback received in collaboration with the Department Chair and Governance Committee members.
I continued to serve as a departmental representative of the COEDU Faculty Success and Community Initiatives and as a member of the Instructor Promotion Committee.
I served as a member of the David Anchin Center Conference Planning Committee and as a member of the Search Committee of the David Anchin Center Endowed Chair & Director.
I served as a member of the College’s ad-hoc International Exchange Strategic Planning Committee. Our numerous meetings, discussions, and research led to the development and production of a report submitted to the Dean that provide recommendations for the College’s international goals.
University
I was invited to serve as the Parliamentarian for the USF Faculty Senate and I have accepted this invitation. In this role, I will work closely with the USF Faculty Senate President and literacy colleague, Dr. Jenifer Jasinski Schneider, and other members of the Senate to support governance processes.
In the past year, I continued my service as an elected member of the USF Faculty Council and worked closely with colleagues as a member of the sub-committee, Graduate Council Policy and Fellowship Committee. I attended monthly meetings and worked to accomplish the charges of the committee as well as to report to the USF College of Education’s Graduate Programs Committee on a monthly basis. I concluded my service as a member of the USF Faculty Success Teaching and Learning Advisory Panel, Office of the Provost in 2022. This panel worked to rethink teaching mechanisms useful for guiding faculty to achieve excellence and teaching success.
Professional
My commitment to service in the profession has been visible in several areas. I have continued to provide professional service at the local, national and international levels based on my advocacy for the cross-cultural, cross-linguistic, and cross-racial experiences of [immigrant] faculty and K-12 learners. My expertise in relation to issues of diversity for literacy across cultures has been critical to my service on national and international editorial boards and committees, as well as to the review of conference proposals for major national and international journals and organizations.
I continued to function as an active member of the Literacy Research Association (LRA), American Educational Research Association (AERA), and International Literacy Association (ILA). I am an elected member of Board of Directors of LRA (2020-2023), an incoming member of the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) and a returning member of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
As an LRA Board Director, I serve as a liaison to the Board for the LRA Field Council, LRA Ethnicity, Race and Multilingualism Committee/STAR, LRA International Innovative Community Group (ICG), guiding members of the organization in these various spheres to be better able to accomplish their goals and to have direct contact with the Board in fulfilling their responsibilities. I also have been appointed as LRA STAR Mentor to a rising STAR in the field, Dr. Lakeya Omogun, Assistant Professor at the University of Washington.
I have been invited and accepted the invitation to serve as a member of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)’s Standing Committee on Research (2023-2026). This commitment provides me with a reach beyond my role in the LRA and allows me to further have impact on the research trajectories mapped out across fields.
I have continued to serve the American Educational Research Association (AERA) through the co-selection of award winners for the Language and Social Processes SIG John Gumperz Lifetime Award Committee.
I have also concluded my service to the invited Grant Advisory Boards of the United States Department of Education: LLI: Leadership in Literacy Intervention and the National Science Foundation: RIEL: Responsive Education in Biology for English Learners.
My editorial service, which aligns with my professional mission and philosophy of teaching, continues to be reflected in my service to the profession. I continued to serve on the Editorial Review Boards of ILA and LRA’s esteemed journals, Reading Research Quarterly (RRQ), Journal of Literacy Research (JLR), The Reading Teacher (RT) and Literacy Research: Theory Method and Practice (LR: TMP) in the past year.
I have served diverse populations, nationally and internationally, through my invited roles as Co-Editor, Associate Editor, and Section Editor of the Caribbean Educational Research Journal (2018-), Linguistics and Education: An International Journal (2019-), and Literacy Practice and Research (2020-) journals respectively, adjudicating over 70 manuscripts. I accepted the invitation to Guest Edit a Special Issue with UKLA’s editors of the international journal, “Literacy” which will be published in 2023. I have also Co-Guest Edited a Special Issue for the journal, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (2022) and have accepted an invitation to Co-Guest Edit a Special Issue of Research in the Teaching of English (2024).
In the past year, I have been invited to serve on the World Literacy Foundation Task Force (2022-) and continue to be invited to review for highly-ranked literacy, diversity, and teacher education journals, as well as journals that focus on literacy, language, teacher education, globalization, and diversity, such as RRQ, JLR, The Reading Teacher, Oxford Review of Education, BMC Public Health, Urban Education, and Teaching and Teacher Education. I have been invited to present at venues such as the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL), World Literacy Summit (WLS) at Oxford University, University of Miami, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and at the AERA and LRA conference. I will function as keynote and invited speaker for several organizations and universities such as TESOL, Virginia Commonwealth University, Queen’s University, University of Montreal, State University of New York, and Georgia State University in the upcoming year. I am called upon yearly to serve as discussant and chair for the organizations in which I maintain membership.
Patriann Smith, Ph.D. 