The Literacy Consultants’ Coalition Background
We all strive to become stronger in the broken places—in our personal lives and in our communities. The Literacy Consultants’ Coalition is an example of our determination to find strength in times of great challenge. The LCC was born of Covid but in the spirit of connection, innovation, and equity.
Matt Glover and Ellin Keene had conversations early in the lockdown period that led us to connect with colleagues we typically see as we pass in the halls or sit in their sessions at NCTE! We found so much common ground in a shared sense of loss of the work we love so much. We missed the teachers and students around the world with whom we work but we were determined to find a way to continue to serve them and connect with each other. We discovered strength in those broken places in community with other literacy consultants, coaches and educators.
Importantly, we also shared a sense of outrage, horror, fury, and a need to act as one after another, we witnessed the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd and so many others that came before them. We realized that there was a chance to do more than connect with other literacy consultants—there was an opportunity to help heal some of the broken places in our schools and our communities.
We know that the world in which we now find ourselves compels us to connect, innovate, and seek equity for children, particularly black and brown children and others who are marginalized in this society.
The LCC’s goal is to connect literacy consultants from all over the world to engage in discussions in which we can seize the opportunity to rethink literacy teaching and learning with an eye toward true equity and social justice.
Steering Committee Members
- Kathy Collins
- Matt Glover
- Towanda Harris
- Georgia Heard
- Aeriale Johnson
- Ellin Keene
- Jessica Martin
- Janet Zarchen