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Dr. Lara Handsfield

Professor Emerita
Office
DEG Degarmo Hall 315
Office Hours
Upon request
  • About
  • Education
  • Awards & Honors
  • Selected Research

Biography

Lara Handsfield is Professor of bilingual, literacy, elementary education in the School of Teaching and Learning at Illinois State University. She researches identities and literacy instruction in diverse classrooms.

Current Courses

TCH 599.009 Dissertation Research

Teaching Interests & Areas

Literacy methods, biliteracy, theory, critical issues in diversity in education

Research Interests & Areas

Critical and discourse methodologies, identity processes, classroom discourse, language and literacy, critical participatory action research

PhD Language and Literacy

University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign

MA Bilingual and Multicultural Education

University of California
Santa Cruz

Outstanding University Researcher Award

Illinois State University
2021

Outstanding Researcher Award

College of Eduation, Illinois State University
2019

Outstanding College Researcher Award

Illinois State University
2018

President's Service Award

Association of Teacher Educators
2018

Book, Authored

Literacy theory as practice: Connecting literacy theory and practice in K-12 classrooms
Lara Handsfield.
(2016), Teachers College Press
Abstract and concrete attitudes among Mexican-descent high school students
Lara Handsfield.
(1993), University of California, Santa Cruz

Book, Chapter

Continuities of privilege and marginality across space and time: Critical autobiographical narrative in teacher education
Lara Handsfield.
(2017), 70--84, Becoming Critical Teacher Educators, Routledge

Conference Proceeding

From discontinuity to simultaneity: Mapping the “what ifs” in a classroom literacy event using rhizoanalysis
Lara Handsfield.
56, 235, (2007)

Journal Article

Conflict or Conversation? Media Portrayals of the Science of Reading
Deborah MacPhee, Lara Handsfield, Patricia Paugh.
Reading Research Quarterly, (2021), http://doi:10.1002/rrq.384
Monological practices, authoritative discourses and the missing “C” in digital classroom communities
Vicki Hosek, Lara Handsfield.
English Teaching: Practice & Critique, (2020), https://doi.org/10.1108/ETPC-05-2019-0067
Integrative Research Syntheses as Sites of Disruption in Literacy Teacher Education
Judith T Lysaker, Lara Handsfield.
Journal of Literacy Research, 51 (2), 252--258, (2019)
Show \& Tell: Elementary Teacher Candidates' Perceptions of Teaching in High-Poverty Schools
Shamaine BazemoreBertrand, Lara Handsfield.
Multicultural Education, 26 (3/4), 27--37, (2019)
What matter matters? Retaining the critical in new materialist literacy research
Rebecca Beucher, Lara Handsfield, Carolyn Hunt.
Journal of Literacy Research, 51 (4), 444-479, (2019), https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X19876971
Code-Meshing and Writing Instruction in Multilingual Classrooms
Alice Lee, Lara Handsfield.
The Reading Teacher, 72 (2), 159--168, (2018)
“Do you want an idea of what they’re doing?” Transgressive data generation and analysis within a bilingual writers workshop
Carolyn Hunt, Thomas Crumpler, Lara Handsfield.
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 29 (3), 399--425, (2016)
" Momentos De Cambio": Cultivating Bilingual Students' Epistemic Privilege through Memoir and" Testimonio".
Lara Handsfield, Patricia Valente.
International Journal of Multicultural Education, 18 (3), 138--158, (2016)
“Dude, it's not a appropriate word”: Negotiating word meanings, language ideologies, and identities in a literature discussion group
Lara Handsfield, Thomas Crumpler.
Linguistics and Education, 24 (2), 112--130, (2013)
The emotional landscapes of literacy coaching: Issues of identity, power, and positioning
Carolyn Hunt, Lara Handsfield.
Journal of Literacy Research, 45 (1), 47--86, (2013)
Mediating learning and negotiating curricular ideologies in a fourth grade bilingual classroom
Lara Handsfield.
Teachers’ roles in second language learning: Classroom applications of sociocultural theory, 41--61, (2012)
Twinkle, twitter little stars: Tensions and flows in interpreting social constructions of the techno-toddler
Karen E Wohlwend, Lara Handsfield.
Digital Culture \& Education, (2012)
Constructing difference differently in language and literacy professional development
Thomas Crumpler, Lara Handsfield, Tami R Dean.
Research in the Teaching of English, 55--91, (2011)
Disruptive comprehension instruction: Deconstructing, resituating, and rewriting texts
Lara Handsfield.
Theory Into Practice, 50 (2), 125--132, (2011)
Tactical negotiations and creative adaptations: the discursive production of literacy curriculum and teacher identities across space-times
Lara Handsfield, Thomas Crumpler, Tami R Dean.
Reading Research Quarterly, 45 (4), 405--431, (2010)
Becoming critical consumers and producers of text: Teaching literacy with Web 1.0 and Web 2.0
Lara Handsfield, Tami R Dean, Kristin M Cielocha.
The Reading Teacher, 63 (1), 40--50, (2009)
Cognition and misrecognition: A Bourdieuian analysis of cognitive strategy instruction in a linguistically and culturally diverse classroom
Lara Handsfield, Jim\'enez, Robert T.
Journal of Literacy Research, 41 (2), 151--195, (2009)
Rethinking cognitive strategy instruction and multilingual students: A review and critique
Jim\'enez, RT, Lara Handsfield, H Fisher.
Reading strategies of first-and second-language learners: See how they read, 113--130, (2008)
Revisiting cognitive strategy instruction in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms: Cautions and possibilities
Lara Handsfield, Robert T Jimenez.
Language Arts, 85 (6), 450--458, (2008)
Being and becoming American: Triangulating habitus, field, and literacy instruction in a multilingual classroom
Lara Handsfield.
Language and Literacy, (2006)
Teacher agency and double agents: Reconceptualizing linguisitc genocide in education
Lara Handsfield.
Harvard Educational Review, 72 (4), 542, (2002)
Show and Tell: Elementary Teacher Candidates’ Perceptions of Teaching in High-Poverty Schools
Shamaine Bertrand, Lara Handsfield.
Multicultural Education, Spring/Summer, 27-37
The Discursive and Embodied Construction of Pre-service Teacher Identities Across Timescales
Lara Handsfield, Thomas Crumpler.

Other

Kids are always learning infographic
Christie Angleton, Lara Handsfield, Deborah MacPhee, Sherry Sanden.
(2020)
Literacy theory as practice: Connecting theory and instruction in K--12 classrooms
Lara Handsfield.
Teachers College Press, (2015)
“Movin'up that third grade hill”: Discourses of progress and hybrid language and literacy practices in a “mainstream” multilingual classroom
Lara Handsfield.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, (2005)