The Science of Reading (SOR) is a broad and evolving body of empirical research about reading processes, components, instruction, and assessment. SOR extends beyond fundamental aspects such as phonics, encompassing endeavours to enhance students’ reading comprehension, interest, and literary lives. Given its crucial role, reading is typically presumed to be thoroughly understood by researchers. However, reading as a research field is characterized by complexity and contention, encompassing diverse methodologies, emerging and shifting definitions, and questions regarding optimal approaches toward reading instruction.
Adding to this complexity is the question of the extent to which reading science centers equitable instruction and asset-based pedagogies. We conceptualize asset-based pedagogies as an approach to reading research and instruction that eliminates deficit framing concerning readers’ backgrounds or histories and that centers the perspectives, cultures, languages, and contexts of students who come from minoritized communities (López, 2024). Asset-based pedagogy can be understood as an umbrella term that encompasses culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995), culturally responsive teaching (Gay, 1995), and funds of knowledge (Gonzalez et al., 1995), among other terms.
In this special collection from Reading Research Quarterly, our attention is directed toward the integration of the science of reading with asset-based approaches to research and instruction. We are particularly interested in applications of asset-based approaches to studies that involved the use of technologies and digital media as these are currently under-represented in the field. We invite researchers to submit 500-word abstracts based on recent empirical studies, literature reviews, or commentaries on asset-based approaches to the science of reading. Abstracts should be emailed to [email protected] and [email protected] no later than September 29, 2024.
From the abstracts, 8–12 authors (and their collaborators) will be invited to submit full manuscripts for peer review. We welcome submissions from early-career researchers and researchers who come from historically minoritized communities, as well as more established scholars. We strongly encourage methodological plurality with both qualitative and quantitative approaches, as well as varied or integrated theoretical perspectives. We encourage the use of asset-based language when discussing participants, such as students or teachers.