Dr. Kerry Alexander is an Assistant Professor of Literacy Education in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership at the University of Maryland College Park. As a teacher and researcher, she is committed to community-centered inquiry and supporting equitable literacy practices alongside families, teachers, and learners. Specific areas of study include responsive instructional design, justice-focused coaching, multimodal and critical literacies, and cultural-historical dimensions of literacy theory and practice. She has published her research with Harvard Education Press, NCTE’s English Education, Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, The Journal of Language and Literacy Education (JoLLE), The Texas Education Review, and The Journal of Education and Social Justice, among others. Dr. Alexander taught elementary English Language Arts and Reading for ten years prior to receiving her Ph.D. in Language and Literacy Studies from The University of Texas at Austin.
Potential PhD and Masters students:
I am interested in working with graduate students (PhD and Masters) who are teaching or have taught in public elementary school settings. My current research directly engages with schools, literacy instruction, and preservice and early-career teacher education in the local UMD area. I study the everyday discourses of schooling knowledge and practice, specific to early and middle-grade literacy, to understand how knowledge (as a function of truth and value) is produced through the materials and meanings embedded in practice and what these conditions mean for children and society. This includes how state and federal legislation shape everyday activity and learning, teaching, and community engagement. Recent topics include languaging as play, sociomaterial and neuro-affirming pedagogies, and critical discourse analyses around the science of reading, writing instruction, and teacher professionalism.
If you're interested or have questions about our graduate programming, reach out: kha57@umd.edu and apply! I'd love to hear from you. More information here: https://education.umd.edu/academics/departments/tlpl/llsi/literacy-education-phd Join us! #EdTerps!
Mosley Wetzel, M., Holyoke, E.S., Alexander, K., Dunham, H., & Collins, C. (2023). Coaching in communities: Pursuing justice, teacher learning and transformation. Harvard Education Press. https://hep.gse.harvard.edu/9781682538197/coaching-in-communities/
Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters
Maloch, B., Ries, E., Murdter-Atkinson, J., Wright, A., Alexander, K., Mosley Wetzel, M. (2025). “Change happens at the speed of trust”: Context-attentive mentoring for early career teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 153, 104817. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2024.104817 10.1016/j.tate.2024.104817
Dunham, H., Alexander, K., McDonald, E. (2024). The Discursive Journey of Meta-Awareness: Literacy (Teacher) Identity within Preservice Teacher Preparation. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 73(1), 1-21. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23813377241285826 10.1177/23813377241285826
Alexander, K., Taylor, V., and Trautman, K. (2024). “It feels like a safe place”: A (Re)Invitation to the Writer’s Notebook as Humanizing Pedagogy in Preservice Literacy Teacher Education. English Education, 56(3). Online: https://publicationsncte.org/content/journals/10.58680/ee2024563170
Dunham, H., Alexander, K., and McDonald, E. (2024). The Discursive Journey of Meta-Awareness: Literacy (Teacher) Identity within Preservice Teacher Preparation. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 73(1), 1-21. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23813377241285826 10.1177/23813377241285826
Holyoke, E., Wetzel, M., Dunham, H., Alexander, K., Collins, C., & Hill, L. (2023). Creating equity-focused networks of support for teacher candidates through coaching: A design-development study. Educational Research & Development Journal, 26(2), 41-61.
Ries, Dunham, H., Corriston, K., Alexander, K., Taylor, V., & Mosley Wetzel, M. (2023). Look to the side: Peer partnerships in preservice literacy teacher education. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice. 1-20.
Mosley Wetzel, M., Maloch, B., Alexander, K., Murdter-Atkinson, J., Ries, E., Wright, A., and McLean, J. (2023). “Reading” into statistics: Systems analysis and action in an early career mentor community. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice. 1-22.
Alexander, K. & Collins, C. (2023). Whiteness boundaries in teacher education programming. The Journal of Thought, 56(3/4), 3-19.
Wiebe, M., Alexander, K., Hermosura, L., Silva, V., Jones, C., Brandes, E., Howell, S., and Watts, A. (2022). Restorative praxis: Evoking the ‘core self’ and the fluidity of ‘labors’. The Journal of Education and Social Justice, 8(1), 11-30.
Juárez, L., Mosley Wetzel, M., Brower, S., Sosa-Sánchez, P., Garcia, C., Estrada, V., Davila, D., Whiteside, E., and Alexander, K. (2022). Preparing teachers in clinical field experiences through improvement science: A conceptual analysis. Texas Association of Teacher Educators. 12(1), 21-36.
Dunham, H. & Alexander, K. (2022). Applying an intersectional framework to the literacy worlds of preservice teachers. The Journal of Language and Literacy Education. 18(1), 1-23.
McLean, J. & Alexander, K. (2020). Dear white colleagues: Disrupting white teacher education and scholarship. Texas Education Review, 8(2), 71-78.
Murdter-Atkinson, J., Ries, E., Maloch, B., Hernandez, L., Alexander, K., Wright, A., Mosley Wetzel, M. (in press). “I have been so gifted with the talent by which I am surrounded”: Growing a Professional Learning Community for Early Career Teacher Mentors. In A. Webb & M. Schoffner (Eds.), Entry into a brave new world: Teaching induction and care through/past COVID. Routledge.
Alexander, K. & McLean, J. (2022). Swords to Ploughshares: Toward a Pedagogy of Anti-Racist Professional Discernment. In D.A. Bender-Slack & F. Godwyll (Eds.), Towards anti-racist educational research: From radical moments to movements (pp. 35-56). The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. Lexington Books.
Sailors, M., Russell, K., Augustine, H., Alexander, K. (2014). Professional Learning with and from a Literacy Coach: A Poem in Two Voices. In N.K. Duke & B.M. Taylor (Eds.), Handbook of effective literacy instruction research-based practice K-8. (pp. 555-571). The Guilford Press.
Invited Contributions
Flores, T. & Fránquiz, M. (2023). Cultivating Young Multilingual Writers: Nurturing Voices and Stories in and beyond the Classroom Walls. Chapter Two: “Designing a Writing Community: Time, Space, and Material Culture.” National Council of Teachers of English. Focal teacher and writing participant.
Bomer, K. (2011). Starting with What Students Do Best: How to Improve Writing by Responding to Students’ Strengths, [Supplemental DVD]. Heinemann. Book study and video participant.
TLPL 343 Promoting Skilled and Motivated Readers in Elementary Classrooms (Part 2)
TLPL 344 Culturally Responsive Language and Literacy Teaching
TLPL 361 Principles and Methods of Teaching