Jessica C Zacher

Assistant Professor - Department of Teacher Education
Assistant Professor - Department of Liberal Studies

Office: ED1 - 24
Phone: 562-985-7198
Email: jczacher@csulb.edu

Website: http://www.csulb.edu/~jczacher

Biography

Jessica Zacher has a joint appointment as an Assistant Professor in both Teacher Education and Liberal Studies. She recently received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Education. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, Zacher was a kindergarten teacher in a Northern California public school. Her research agenda involves issues of multiculturalism, identity, and difference in elementary language arts classrooms. In her current ethnographic project, she is investigating the ways that urban children, including second language learners, experience highly structured language arts curricula in high-poverty schools.

Degrees

Ph.D., Language, Literacy, & Culture , University of California, Berkeley , 2005
M.A., Language, Literacy, and Culture , University of California, Berkeley , 2000
CLAD Multiple Subject Teaching Credential , The New College of California , 1996
B.A., Tutorial Studies , The University of Chicago , 1994

Research Interests

--Literacy practices of elementary school children in diverse settings

--Multicultural and multilingual education issues

--Urban education

--Ethnographic and qualitative research methods

Representative Publications

PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES:

Avila, J., Zacher, J. Benson, V.B. & P.D. Pearson. (forthcoming, October 2011). Conducting instructional intervention research in the midst of a state takeover. Received conditional acceptance from Pedagogies: An International Journal, Volume 6, Issue 4.

Zacher, J. (forthcoming, April 2009). Christina’s Worlds: Negotiating childhood in the city. Educational Studies.

Zacher, J. The over-testing of English language learners and their teachers. Teachers College Record, Date Published: April 02, 2009. http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 15605.

Hull, G., Zacher, J. & L. Hibbert. (2009). Youth, Risk, and Equity in a Global World. Review of Research in Education (33), 1, 117-159.

Zacher, J. (2008). Analyzing Children’s Social Positioning and Struggles for Recognition in a Classroom Literacy Event. Research in the Teaching of English (43), 1, 12-41.

Zacher, J. (2007). Talking About Difference and Defining Social Relations With Labels. Language Arts (85), 2, 115-124.

Hull, G. & J. Zacher (2007). Enacting Identities: An ethnography of a job training program. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research (7), 1, 71-102.

Zacher, J. (2006). White girls constructing abstract and embodied racial identities in an urban elementary school. Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research Journal, 2, pp. 19-30.

Zacher, J. (2006). “I know about the holocaust!”: Reading and identity work in a diverse urban classroom. The California Reader, (40), 1, 26-32.

Zacher, J. (2003). “So is it a noun or a verb?”: Examining discourses of classroom language teaching and development. Educational Practice and Theory (25), 2, pp. 35-52.

EDITOR-REVIEWED BOOK CHAPTERS:

Zacher, J. (2005). Effects of a Multicultural Curriculum in a Racially and Socioeconomically Diverse 5th-Grade Classroom. In D. McInerney & S. Van Etten (Eds.), Council on Anthropology & Education Research on Sociocultural Influences on Motivation and Learning: Focus on Curriculum (Vol. 5).

Hull, G., & Zacher, J. (2007). Identity formation and literacy development within vocational education and work. In Lesley Farrell & Tara Fenwick (Eds.), Educating the global workforce: Knowledge, knowledge work, and knowledge workers. World Yearbook of Education 2007 (pp. 212-222). London: Kogan Page.

Zacher, J. (forthcoming). Social Hierarchies and Identity Politics. In A. Luke & J. Albright (Eds.), Bourdieu and Literacy Education, (pp. 477-528). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Hull, G., Jury, M. & J. Zacher (2007). Possible Selves: Literacy, identity, and development in work, school, and community. In A. Belzer (Ed.), Quality in Adult Basic Education: Issues and challenges (pp. 299-318). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Leander, K. & Zacher, J. (forthcoming). Literacy, identity, and the changing social spaces of learning. In A. Berger, L. Rush, & J. Eakle (Eds.) Secondary School Reading and Writing: What Research Reveals for Classroom Practices. National Council of Teachers of English. August, 2006.

INVITED ARTICLES:

Hull, G., & Zacher, J. (2004). What is After-School Worth? Developing literacies and identities out-of-school. Voices in Urban Education, 3 (Winter/Spring), 36-44.

Zacher, J. (2006). A review of Travel Notes from the New Literacy Studies, K. Pahl & J. Roswell, Eds. Teachers College Press, 2006.

Zacher, J. (2007). Professional Resources for Expanding Spaces of Learning. Book review for Language Arts, (85), 1, 78-83.

Campus Leadership

SELECTED CAMPUS SERVICE:

University Resources Council, Department of Teacher Education, CSU Long Beach 9/06 to present

Faculty Council, College of Education, Department of Teacher Education, CSU Long Beach 11/05 to present

New Faculty Support Group Co-Chair, College of Education, CSU Long Beach, 8/08 - present

Budget Subcommittee, College of Education, CSU Long Beach, 4/07- 4/08; 9/08 - present

Curriculum Committee, College of Education, Department of Teacher Education, CSU Long Beach, 8/05 to 6/07, 8/08 - present

Grade Appeals Committee, Department of Teacher Education, CSU Long Beach, 8/08-present

SELECTED SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION:

Newsletter Editor, Writing and Literacies Special Interest Group, American Educational Research Association, April 2009-2011

Department Editor, Professional Book Reviews Department, Language Arts, 2008-09, vol. 86

Current Projects

Ethnographic classroom-based research project funded by Faculty Fellowships from the John Randolph haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation (2007, 2008) and by CSU, Long Beach Scholarly and Creative Activities Grants: English Language Learners in Highly Structured Language Arts Classrooms: Examining classroom literacy practices and achievement measures.

Last update: 7/18/07