Victoria Purcell-Gates, Ph.D.
Canada Research Chair in Early Childhood Literacy
Faculty of Education
Department of Language & Literacy
2125 Main Mall
304 B Scarfe Hall
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada V6T 1Z4
604.822.0105
victoria.purcell-gates@ubc.ca
Principal Investigator: Cultural Practices of Literacy
Education
Ph.D. University of California/Berkeley, 1986
Research Interests
The ways in which people in communities value
and practice literacy in all aspects of their lives. This includes texts,
written symbol systems, purposes for reading and writing, attitudes and
beliefs. Designing early literacy instruction that builds on young children’s
linguistic, cognitive, cultural, and social models for reading and writing
that they acquired within their home communities.
News
2006 President of National Reading Conference (NRC)
Elected to Reading Hall of Fame (May, 2005)
Awarded the Oscar Causey Award by National Reading Conference for Outstanding Contributions to Literacy Research (December, 2004)
Newest book published by Lawrence Erlbaum Cultural Practices of Literacy: Case Studies of Language, Literacy, Social Practice, and Power.
Selected Publications
Purcell-Gates, V. (Ed.). (2007). Cultural Practices of Literacy: Complicating the Complex. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Purcell-Gates, V., Jacobson, E., & Degener, S. (2004). Print literacy development: Uniting the cognitive and social practice theories. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Jacobson, E., Degener, S., & Purcell-Gates, V. (2003). Creating authentic materials for the adult literacy classroom: A handbook for practitioners. Cambridge, MA: World Education, Inc.
Purcell-Gates, V. & Waterman, R. (2000). Now we read, we see, we speak: Portrait of Literacy Development in a Freirean-Based Adult Class. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1995). Other people's words: The cycle of low literacy. Harvard University Press.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2006). What does culture have to do with it? In B. Maloch, J. V. Hoffman, C.M. Fairbanks & J. Worthy (Eds.), 55th Yearbook of the National Reading Conference. Oak Creek, WI: National Reading Conference.
Perry, K., & Purcell-Gates, V. (2005). Resistance
and Appropriation:
Literacy Practices as Agency within Hegemonic Contexts. Oak Creek,
WI: National Reading Conference.
Purcell-Gates, V., & Duke, N.K. (2004). Texts in the teaching and learning of reading. In J.V. Hoffman & D.L. Schallert (Eds.), The texts in elementary classrooms. Mahwah, NJ:Lawrence Erlbaum.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2004). Ethnographic Research. In N.K. Duke, & M. Mallette (Eds.), Literacy research methodologies (pp. 92-113). New York: Guilford Publications.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2004). Family literacy as the site for emerging knowledge of written language. In B. Wasik (Ed.), Family literacy Handbook. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2003). La alfabetización familiar: Coordinación entre los aprendizajes de la escuela y del hogar. In A. Teberosky, & M.S. Gallart, (Eds.), Contextos de alfabetización inicial. Barcelona: University of Barcelona.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2002). “...As soon as she opened her mouth!” In L. Delpit & J.K. Dowdy (Eds.), The skin that we speak: An anthology of essays on language, culture and power.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2002). The irrelevancy and danger of the ‘simple view’ of reading to meaningful standards. In R. Fisher, G. Brooks, M. Lewis (Eds.), Raising standards in literacy (pp. 121-132). London: Falmer/Routledge.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2001). Emergent Literacy is Emerging Knowledge of Written Language Not Oral. In Britto, P.R. & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). Young Children’s Emerging Literacy Skills in the Context of Family Literacy Environments. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2000). Family literacy: A research review. Handbook of Reading Research, vol. 3. New York: NY: Erlbaum.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1998). Growing successful readers: Homes, communities, and schools. In F. Lehr & J. Osborn (Eds.), Literacy for all: Issues for teaching and learning. New York, NY: Guilford Publications.
Purcell-Gates, V., & Duke, N.K. (2007). Learning to read and write genre-specific texts: The roles of authentic experience and explicit teaching. Reading Research Quarterly, 42, 8-45
Purcell-Gates, V. (2006). Written Language and Literacy Development: The Proof is in the Practice. Research in the Teaching of English, 41, 164-169
Duke, N.K., Purcell-Gates, V., Hall, L.A., & Tower, C. (2006). Authentic literacy activities for developing comprehension and writing. Reading Teacher, 60, 344-357
Duke, N.K., & Purcell-Gates, V. (2003). Genres at home and at school: Bridging the known to the new. The Reading Teacher,57, 30-37.
Purcell-Gates, V., Degener, S., Jacobson, E., Soler, M. (2002). Impact of authentic literacy instruction on adult literacy practices. Reading Research Quarterly, 37, 70-92.
Purcell-Gates, V., Degener, S., Jacobson, E. (2001). Adult literacy instruction: Degrees of authenticity and collaboration as described by practitioners. Journal of Literacy Research, 33, 571-593.
Purcell-Gates, V. (2000, July). The role of qualitative and ethnographic research in educational policy. Reading Online 4(1). http://www.readingonline.org/articles/Purcell-gates.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1996). Stories, coupons, and the TV guide: Relationships between home literacy experiences and emergent literacy knowledge. Reading Research Quarterly, 31, 406-428.
Purcell-Gates, V., McIntyre, E., & Freppon, P. (1995). Learning written storybook language in school: A comparison of low-ses children in skill-based and whole language classrooms. American Educational Research Journal, 30, 659-685.
Purcell-Gates, V., L'Allier, S., & Smith, D. (1995). Literacy at the Hart's and the Larsen's. Reading Teacher, 48, 572-579.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1993). I ain't never read my own words before. Journal of Reading, 37, 210-220.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1992). Roots of response. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 2, 151-162.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1991). Ability of well-read-to kindergartners to decontextualize/ recontextualize experience into a written-narrative register. Language and Education: An International Journal, 5, 177-188.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1991). On the outside looking in: A study of remedial readers' meaning-making while reading literature. JRB: A Journal of Literacy, 23, 235-253.
Purcell-Gates, V. & Dahl, K. (1991) Low-SES children's success and failure at early literacy learning in skills-based classrooms. JRB: A Journal of Literacy, 23, 1-34.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1990). Can early reading achievement be predicted with traditional learning disabilities tests? A case study. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 5, 513-535.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1989). Fairy tales in the clinic: Children seek their own meanings. Children's Literature in Education, 20 (4), 249-254.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1989). What research into oral/written language differences can tell us about beginning reading and writing instruction. Reading Teacher, 42 (4), 290-295.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1988). Lexical and syntactic knowledge of written narrative held by well-read-to kindergartners and second graders. Research in the Teaching of English, 22 (2), 128-160.
AWARDS/HONORS:
Reading Hall of Fame
Oscar Causey Award by National Reading Conference for Outstanding Contributions to Literacy Research, 2004.
Tier 1 Canada Research Chair for Early Childhood Literacy at University of British Columbia, B.C. 2004.
Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine Committee on Health Literacy. 2002-2003.
Noted Scholar Appointment by University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Summer 2002.
University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Education. For originality, creativity, feasibility and scope of potential applicability of ideas that help make the world a better place. Award given for Other People’s Words: The Cycle of Low Literacy (Harvard University Press, 1995). $150,000. 1996.
Most Promising Researcher. Awarded by the National Council of Teachers of English. 1987.
Finalist in the Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award competition. Awarded by the International Reading Association. 1987.
Promising Researcher Award for dissertation research. Awarded by the National Council of Teachers of English. 1987.
Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation for 1985-1987 in Phi Delta Kappa District II. Awarded by Phi Delta Kappa on Evaluation, Development and Research. 1987.
