Patricia Enciso

Patricia Enciso is professor of Literature for Children and Young Adults in the Department of Teaching and Learning. She also is affiliated with the Adolescent, Post-Secondary and Community Literacies; Dramatic and Arts-based Research in Teaching and Learning; and Language, Education and Society specializations. Her research and teaching grow out of a lifelong interest in the ways drama, the arts and literature contribute to more equitable relations and deeper understanding, across texts, among people and within institutions.

As a fourth/fifth grade classroom teacher and co-teacher/researcher in language arts middle grade classrooms, she has more than 20 years of experience in teaching literature in school settings. Her research focuses on youth and teachers’ understanding and practices of equity, imagination and engagement in literary reading and everyday storytelling. She has been awarded funding and recognition by the Spencer Foundation, NCTE and the Literacy Research Association. She also is an active leader in the literacy research field, serving as past chair of the NCTE Research Foundation, co-editor of Language Arts and current president-elect of the Literacy Research Association. She is co-editor of The Handbook of Research on Children’s and Young Adult Literature (2011), and Reframing Sociocultural Theory in Literacy Research: Identity, Agency & Power (2007).

Links

• Latino/a Studies at OSU
• Literacy Research Association

• PhD, Reading and Literature in Education, The Ohio State University, 1990
• MA, Drama in Educations, University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England, 1984
• BS, Education, The Ohio State University, Summa Cum Laude, 1979

• Children's Literature
  • Cultural understanding
  • Latino/a literature in classrooms
  • Social media and children's literature
  • Teacher education and multicultural literature
• Drama Teacher Education
• Elementary Education and Teaching
• English/Language Arts Teacher Education
• Equity
  • Reframing classroom discourse practices
  • Social construction of power in classrooms
  • Understanding Latino/a youth in education
• Junior High/Intermediate/Middle School Education and Teaching
• Linguistics
• Literacy
  • Narrative and diversity in literacy research
  • Sociocultural theory in literacy research
  • Storytelling and imagination in literacy research and practice
• Multicultural Education
• Urban Education

Her research employs sociocultural and critical theories of learning and imagination that contribute to a view of youth as agents in constructing the meaning and purposes of reading, storytelling, and social life. Her article, “Storytelling in critical literacy pedagogy: Removing the walls between immigrant and non-immigrant youth” (2011) shows how youth also need proactive, critical teachers who value and support multiple voices and perspectives in classroom settings.

Even in the face of restricted curricula and testing, youth and teachers ask questions, use their knowledge to create worlds, and bring new interpretations and creative insights to the literacy practices and relationships that shape their daily lives. Enciso’s research on drama in education, Latin@ and multicultural children’s literature and immigrant and non-immigrant youth storytelling contributes to a growing body of scholarship on culturally sustaining and critical analyses of literary and narrative studies in education.

Current Research

Narrative Theory and Youth Identity

• Becoming Transnational: Co-narrating stories of place among global peers
• Imagining Jinns: Narrative and identity work among Muslim and non-Muslim peers

Sociocultural theory in reading and literature education

• Imagination in critical sociocultural research
• Poets, actors and advocates: Reading for engagement and social change

Drama in literacy education

• Stand up for Shakespeare: OSU/RSC teacher development and engagement program
• Creating the stage for meaning: A teacher's journey through drama and Shakespeare.
• Literacy to Life: Drama and equity in Title I and non-Title I writing education

• 2008 Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award - Hispanic Oversight Committee (Member) of The Ohio State University
• 2012-2015 Literacy Research Association, Board of Directors, Member. Elected
• 2012-2015 National Committee for Research on Language and Literacy, Director of Research Committee. Elected
• 2008-Present Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award National Award Selection Committee Member. Invited
• 2006-2011 Language Arts, Co-Editor. Appointed
• 2004-2005 National Council of Teachers of English Research Foundation. Trustee. Elected
• 2005-2007 National Council of Teachers of English Research Foundation. Chair of Research Foundation. Elected
• 2010-2012 American Educational Research Association. Member, President-Elect Nominating Committee. Appointed
• 2010-2011 American Educational Research Association. Co-Chair, Division G Section 3. Appointed
• 2008-2009 American Educational Research Association. Co-Chair, Division K, Section 5. Appointed.

• 2007 Edward Fry Book Award, awarded by the National Reading Conference for Reframing Sociocultural Theory in Literacy Research: Agency, Identity & Power  (Lewis, Enciso & Moje) (Eds.)

Books

• Wolf, S., Coats, K., Enciso, P., Jenkins, C. (Eds). (2011). The handbook of research on children's and young adult literature. New York: Routledge.
• Lewis, C., Enciso, P. & Moje, E. (Eds.). (2007). Reframing sociocultural research on literacy: Identity, agency, and power. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Chapters

• Enciso, P. (2014). Prolepsis and educational change: Interrupting inequities through drama. In S.Davis, B. Ferholt & H. Grainger (Eds), Dramatic interactions in education: Vygotskian and socio-cultural approaches to drama, education, and research. London, England: Bloomsbury.
• Enciso, P. & Ryan, C. (2011). Sociocultural theory: Expanding the aims and practices of language arts education. In D. Fisher & D. Lapp (Eds.) The handbook of research on teaching the language arts. New York: Routledge. 132-138.
• Enciso, P. (2007). Reframing history in sociocultural theory: Toward an expansive vision. In C. Lewis, P. Enciso & E. Moje (Eds.) Reframing sociocultural research on literacy: Identity, agency, and power. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 49-74.
• Enciso, P. (2004). Reading discrimination. In S. Greene & D. Abt-Perkins (Eds.) Making race visible: Literacy research for cultural understanding. NY, NY: Teachers College. 149-177.
• Edmiston, B. & Enciso, P. (2002).  Reflections and refractions of meaning: dialogic approaches to classroom drama and reading.  In J. Flood, D. Lapp, J. Squire & J. Jensen (Eds.) The handbook of research on teaching the English language arts.   New York: Simon & Schuster Macmillan.  868-880.
• Enciso, P. (1997). Negotiating the meaning of difference: Talking back to multicultural literature. In T. Rogers & A. Soter (Eds.) Reading across cultures. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. 13-41.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

• Enciso, P. (May 2011). Storytelling in critical literacy pedagogy: Removing the walls between immigrant and non-immigrant youth. In H. Janks & V. Vasquez (Eds.) Special Issue: Critical Literacy Revisited: Writing as Critique for English Teaching: Practice and Critique.
• Enciso, P., Cushman, C., Edmiston, B., Post, R. & Berring, D. (2011). “Is that what you really want?”: A case study of intracultural ensemble-building within the paradoxes of  ‘urbanicity’. In J. Neelands & K. Gallagher (Eds.) Special Issue of Research in Drama in Education: Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance: Drama and Theatre in Urban Contexts. 16 (2), 215-232.
• Enciso, P., Volz, A., Price-Dennis, D., & Durriyah, T. (2010). Story club and configurations of literary insights among immigrant and non-immigrant youth. In R. Jiménez, D. Rowe, V. Risko & M. Hundley (Eds.)59th Yearbook of the National Reading Conference. Oak Creek, WI: National Reading Conference. 354-366.
• Bloome, D. & Enciso, P. (2006). “Looking out across Columbus: What we mean by ‘multiple literacies’”. In D. Bloome, & P. Paul (Eds).  Theory into Practice: Multiliteracies: Literacies of and for a Diverse Society. 45 (4), 296-303. 
• Medina, C. & Enciso, P. (2001) "Some words are messengers/Hay palabras mensajeras": Interpreting sociopolitical themes in Latino/a literature for children.  The New Advocate. 15 (1), 35-48.
• Enciso, P. (1998). Good/bad girls read together: Pre-adolescent girls' co-authorship of feminine subject positions during a shared reading event. English Education. 30 (1), 44-62.
• Enciso, P. (1996).  Why engagement in reading matters to Molly. Reading and Writing Quarterly. 12 (2), 171-194.

• Enciso, P. (2014, March) Latino youth as global peers. Presentation for the Ohio Latino Education Summit.
• Enciso, P. (2014). Reading as Possibility: Constructing a New Theoretical Foundation for Equity and Imagination in Reading Education. Invited Symposium for the Writing & Literacy SIG.  Paper presentation: “Reading like an actor: Changing the culture of literary reading through ‘rehearsal room’ pedagogy.”  April 2014, Philadelphia, PA.
• Enciso, P. (2014). Comprehending Complex Texts: Dialogic and Dramatic Approaches in Research and Practice with Middle and Secondary Students. Alternative Symposium Session, with M. Aukerman (Discussant) B. Edmiston, A. Dallacqua, R. Gartside, J. Sharp, A. Volz, & B. Lee at the Annual Conference of the Literacy Research Association Meeting Dec 3-6,  in Marco Island, Florida.
• Lee, B. & Enciso, P. (2014) Literacy to Life: Using drama-based pedagogy to impact writing and creativity in 3rd Grade Title I Classrooms.  Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Literacy Research Association Meeting Dec 3-6, in Marco Island, Florida.
• Enciso, P. (2013). Transnational and Critical Perspectives in Qualitative Literacy Research: Interactive Workshop and Mentoring for Early Career Scholars and Graduate Students. Professional Development Workshop for Early Career Scholars. Presenters: Cynthia Lewis, Elizabeth Moje, Marjorie Orellana, Carmen Medina, Gerald Campano, Marcelle Haddix.  San Francisco, CA, April 2013.
• Enciso, P. & Lee, B. (2013). Classroom as Rehearsal Room: Reversing trends in low achievement and disengagement in reading. Paper presented in symposium: Transforming Student Achievement in Reading and Language Arts through Drama Based Learning with Complex Texts at the Literacy Research Association annual conference in Dallas, TX.
• Enciso, P. (2012, June)  “Bringing the Future Forward: The Critical Role of Literature and the Arts in Reading Education”.  The Literacies, Cultures and Languages Institute 31st Annual University of Wisconsin Reading Research Symposium “Reclaiming our Voices – Reforming the Argument.” Madison, WI.