Dr. Jennifer Dandridge Turner

Dr. Turner's scholarship reflects a strong commitment to issues of social justice within reading education. She is interested in issues of culture and cultural diversity as they relate to classroom reading instruction, and is particularly concerned with the improvement of reading achievement for African American students in public elementary schools. Her current work centers on elementary reading teachers that have been successful with African American students, with a specific emphasis on the "cultural responsiveness" of the teachers' pedagogical beliefs and practices. Dr. Turner is also interested in reading teacher education, and her future work will look at the instructional philosophies of African American doctoral students who teach reading-related courses within the undergraduate elementary education program at the University of Maryland at College Park.