Jodene Morrell

Teaching Professor
Associate Director, Center for Literacy Education
Institute for Educational Initiatives

Research Interests

critical literacy pedagogies in K-8 classrooms, multicultural and diverse children's literature, teachers as literacy researchers

Related Courses Taught

ESS 33632/AFST 33004: Literature for Children; ESS/AFST: African American Children’s Lit: Classic and Contemporary Voices (proposed course for Fall 2021)

Biography

JODENE MORRELL is a Teaching Professor and Associate Director of the Notre Dame Center for Literacy Education. She is also a faculty member in the Education, Schooling and Society program and a Faculty Fellow in the Institute for Educational Initiatives. Prior to coming to Notre Dame Jodene worked as a Senior Research Associate and Senior Lecturer in the Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Teachers College, Columbia University where she taught courses and advised students in the Literacy Specialist Masters program. Subsequent to her Ph.D. she was an Assistant Professor in the College of Education and Integrative Studies at California State Polytechnic University Pomona. Jodene’s research focuses on critical literacy pedagogies in K-8 classrooms, the role of multicultural and diverse children’s literature for making literacy engaging and accessible for all students, and teachers as scholars and researchers. Jodene began her career as a 3rd and 4th grade teacher in linguistically, culturally, and ethnically diverse public schools in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Jose, CA and was a literacy specialist in a middle school in Lansing, Michigan before earning a doctorate in Curriculum, Teaching, and Educational Policy with an emphasis in Literacy at Michigan State University. She has published in venues such as Language Arts, the Reading Teacher, California English, Dragon Lode, the New England Reading Association Journal, The New Educator, and The Encyclopedia of Critical English Education about multicultural literature, English education, literacy pedagogy, and cultural practices of literacy. She is currently co-author of a book in progress entitled “Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature for Children: On Joy, Voice, Relevance, and Revolutionary Love.”