As a teacher educator and researcher, my interests in writing, new and multiliteracies, reading, practitioner research, assessment, and immigrant youth are framed by my commitment to equity and my believe that literacy is a powerful tool for civic engagement and social justice. As an educator with experience as a high school teacher, teacher educator, and classroom researcher, I am dedicated to building strong teacher education programs and cultivating close collaborations between universities and schools.

My dissertation, Writing for Cultural Citizenship: Literacy and the Teaching of Transnational Youth, is an ethnographic case study of the writing of seven immigrant middle school students in an English as a New Language classroom. Drawing on the theoretical notion of cultural citizenship, I examine literacy as a set of social and cultural practices these Latino/a youth use to bridge discourses of national citizenship and their everyday lives as transnational youth. For me cultural citizenship affords a necessary theoretical reframing of literacy education, as well as a pedagogical stance for teaching English in a global, multicultural world.

The intersection of new media literacies, teacher inquiry, and assessment is the site of my current research. My work with IU Learning Sciences professor Dan Hickey is part of a larger initiative, directed by James Paul Gee, to develop innovative 21st century approaches to assessment. Over the past year, through a partnership with Henry Jenkins' Project New Media Literacies, Becky Rupert at Aurora Alternative High School, we have sought to design and implement assessment tools and practices that scaffold students’ participation in, and learning from, the use of new media in the literacy classroom. With the award of a professional development grant, we are now  developing a network with secondary English Language Arts teachers from rural and urban school districts that will support the collaborative development of new literacies curricula and assessments. The goal is to grow a knowledge-building community of practitioners interested in participatory learning and assessment.

Education 

Ph.D.      Literacy, Culture, and Language Education, Indiana University, Bloomington (expected 01/10)
M.Ed.      English, Secondary Education, Grand Valley State University, 1998
B.A.         English, Secondary Education, Calvin College, 1994

Research Interests

• Cultural Citizenship, Identity & Immigrant Youth
• New Literacies & Assessment
• Practitioner Research & School-University Partnerships
• Adolescent Literacy, Multiliteracies, & Writing
• Multimodal Analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis, & Visual Analysis

Awards

Outstanding Associate Instructor Teaching Award, Indiana University School of Education, 2008

Discipline-Based Studies in Education Fellow, Indiana University School of Education, $2,000, 2007-2008

Graduate and Professional Student Organization Research Grant, Indiana University School of Education, $250, 2007-2008

Literacy, Culture, and Language Education Professional Development Fellowships (Out-of-State Presentation Travel Grants), Indiana University School of Education, 3 awards of $500, 2006-2008

Graduate and Professional Student Organization Travel Grant, Indiana University School of Education, $200, 2006

Faculty Fellowship, Indiana University School of Education, full tuition plus stipend for 1-year research assistantship and 3-year teaching assistantship in English Education, 2004-2008

Courses Taught

M412 Teaching Writing in Middle and High Schools

L512 Advanced Study of Teaching Writing in Middle and High Schools

L600  Issues in Literacy & Language Education

Selected Publications

Campano, G., Honeyford, M., Sanchez, L., & VanderZanden, S. (in press). Ends in
themselves: Theorizing the practice of university-school partnering through horizontalidad. Language Arts.

Hickey, D. T., Honeyford, M., Clinton, K. A., & McWilliams, K. (in press). Measuring new
media and technology proficiencies: Not so fast! In V. J. Schute & B. Becker Eds.,
Innovative assessment in the 21st century: Supporting educational needs. Springer.

Pawan, F., & Honeyford, M. (2009). Academic literacies and the new college learner. In R.
F. Flippo & D. C. Claverly (Eds.) Handbook of College Reading and Study Strategy
Research. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.

Carter, S. P., Honeyford, M., Guthrie, F., McKaskle, D., &  Mahoney, S. (2007). What do
you mean by whiteness? Students explore whiteness in a doctoral seminar at a
midwestern university. The College Student Affairs Journal Special Issue: Difficult
Dialogues, 152-159.

Selected Presentations

Campano, G., Honeyford, M., Sanchez, L., Vander Zanden, S., & Medina, C. (2009,
December 4). Reconsidering partnerships for research: Forging new paths together.
Paper to be presented at the National Reading Conference, Albuquerque, NM.

Honeyford, M., Rupert, B., McWilliams, J., & Sykes, L. (2009, November 20). Reading in a
participatory culture: New media literacy practices and discursive assessment
strategies for critical and creative engagement with classic texts. Paper to be presented at the National        Council of Teachers of English National Convention, Philadelphia, PA.

Honeyford, M., Rupert, B. (2009, November 17). What is assessment for? Creating participatory classrooms for readers and writers. Invited session at the Digital Is….National Writing Project Conference, Philadelphia, PA.

Honeyford, M., Rupert, B., & McWilliams, J. (2009, October 9). The “Rise of Writing”:
Meeting the challenges of researching, teaching, and assessing writing in a
participatory culture. Paper presented at the Indiana Teachers of Writing
Annual Conference, Indianapolis, IN.

Honeyford, M. (2009, September 22). Data analysis as play: Creating knowledge through "tinkering." Guest lecture to L795-L799-L690, Dissertation/Proposal Writing Seminar, Bloomington, IN.

Honeyford, M. (2009, June 30). What’s in a name? Cultural citizenship and the multimodal
poetry of two immigrant youth. Work in progress presented to the Analyzing Multimodal Texts Working Conference, Bloomington, IN.

Honeyford, M., Rupert, B. (2009, May 2). Using Wikipedia in the classroom. Invited panel
at the Project New Media Literacies Conference, Boston, MA.

Hickey, D. T., Honeyford, M. A., & Clinton, K. A. (2009, April 16).  Measuring new media
literacy skills: Not so fast!  Paper presented at the American Educational Research
Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.

Hickey, D. T., Honeyford, M. A., & Rupert, R. (2009, March 5). 21st century educational
practices for 19th century texts (and 20th century tests). Presentation at the Digital Arts & Humanities Brown Bag Series, Bloomington, IN.

Campano, G., Honeyford, M., VanderZanden, S., & Sanchez, L. (2009, February 28). Ends
in themselves: The methodological implications of fostering horizontalidad in
university-school partnerships. Paper presented to the 30th Annual Ethnography in
Education Research Forum, Philadelphia, PA.

Honeyford, M., & Carrington, A. (2008, November 22). “We like to read books, too”:
Teaching literacy within a framework of cultural citizenship. Paper presented at the
National Council of Teachers of English National Convention, San Antonio, TX.

Honeyford, M. (October 14, 2008). Literacy, identity, and cultural citizenship: Tracing my
research journey with immigrant youth in an ENL classroom. Guest lecture to
L600: Issues in Language Education, Bloomington, IN.

Honeyford, M. (2008, March 25). Citizens in the middle: A study of bilingual immigrant
students translating change. Paper presented at the American Educational Research
Association Annual Meeting, New York, NY.

Honeyford, M. (2008, February 17). Claiming spaces through story: Using theater to
explore identity, agency and power in cross-cultural literacy research. Paper
presented at the National Council for Teachers of English Assembly for Research, Bloomington, IN.

Honeyford, M. (2007, November 30). ‘Members and aliens:’ Opening the borders of the
public library. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Reading
Conference, Austin, TX.

Honeyford, M. (2006, November 29). Learning to challenge extremist content on the web.
Paper presented at the National Reading Conference, Los Angeles, CA.

Honeyford, M., Adams, S., Carrington, A., & Peddie, A. (2006, November 18). Teaching
English Language Learners in the literacy classroom: Relevant research, meaningful
practices. Paper presented at the National Conference of Teachers of English
National Convention, Nashville, TN.

Honeyford, M. (2006, April 9). Community and identity: Online conversations about
teaching writing, non-mainstream students, and being teachers. Paper presented at
the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San
Francisco, CA.

Cougan, M., Honeyford, M., Biasucci, A., & Walsh, M. (2005, June 29). Coast-to-coast
collaboration elevates student educational discourse and learning. Paper presented
at the annual meeting of the National Educational Computing Conference,
Philadelphia, PA.

Honeyford, M., Blair, A., & Carrington, A. (2005, June 28). Champions of change: Special
students affecting their communities. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the
National Educational Computing Conference, Philadelphia, PA.

Sloan, K., Honeyford, M. (2004, November 20). What writers do: What we’re finding out
about students, writing, and high-stakes testing. Paper presented at the
National Council of Teachers of English National Convention, Indianapolis, IN.

Honeyford, M. (2004, October 8). The play’s the thing: Literacy, power, identity and Sueño
Americano. Paper presented at the Indiana Teachers of Writing Annual
Convention, Bloomington, IN.