Texas Tech University

Mellinee Lesley, Ph.D.

Professor, Interim Department Chair
Curriculum & Instruction

Email: mellinee.lesley@ttu.edu

Phone: 806-834-1186

Office: Education 320

Vita

Dr. Mellinee Lesley is a Professor in the Language, Diversity & Literacy Studies program in the College of Education at Texas Tech University. She has previously worked as a high school English teacher and served as the director for a developmental reading program. Dr. Lesley has earned several teaching awards at the secondary and university level, is a fellow of the National Writing Project, and recently received the Community Engagement Scholarship Award for Exemplary Projects from the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities in Association with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.  

Throughout her scholarship and teaching, Dr. Lesley has been committed to fostering agentic identities and literacy skills for historically marginalized adolescent and adult learners. She has over thirty publications about this work that include four books. A significant part of her scholarship has focused on the role of content area and disciplinary literacies in advancing academic opportunities for underrepresented populations of students. Dr. Lesley is also pursuing a line of inquiry around pairing engaged scholarship with literacy reform in K-12 settings.  

Mellinee Lesley

Education

Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania - Language in Education, Reading/Writing/Literacy

M.A., New Mexico State University - English, Rhetoric and the Teaching of Composition

B.A., University of Iowa - English

Areas of Expertise

  • Critical Literacy and Critical Media Literacies
  • Adolescent and Media Literacies
  • Closing Literacy Achievement Gaps for Adolescents
  • Gender, Subjectivities, and Literacy
  • Developmental Literacy
  • Content Area Literacy and Disciplinary Literacies
  • Writing Pedagogy in K-12 and Postsecondary Settings
  • Engaged Scholarship and the Democratization of Knowledge
  • Teacher Research
  • Discourse Analysis
  • Critical Ethnography

Books

Lesley, M., Saldana, R., Smit, J. & Jung, J. (Eds.). (2022). Liminal spaces of writing in adolescent and adult Education. Lexington.

Guzzetti, B. & Lesley, M. (Eds.) (2016). Handbook of research on the societal impact of digital media. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Lesley, M., McMillan, S. & Webb, S. (2013). Taking a multiliteracies approach to content area literacy, second edition. Kendall Hunt Publishing, Dubuque, IA.

Lesley, M. (2012). Invisible girls:At risk adolescent girls writing within and beyond school. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishers.

Selected Publications

Lesley, M., Stewart, E., & Keene, J. (2023). Exploring the connections between disciplinary and digital literacies in history. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 67 (2), 53-64. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1308.

Lesley, M., Beach, W., Stewart, E., & Keene, J. (2023). Reflexive narratives as a tool to confront university researcher roles in engaged scholarship. Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship. 15(2),1-16.

Guo, L., Wang, J., Lee, J., Lesley, M. (2023). Examining the differentiated impacts of balanced literacy: An analysis of reading comprehension skills. Reading & Writing Quarterly, DOI: 10.1080/10573569.2023.2186293

Lesley, M., Higgins, A., Beach, W. Stewart, E., & Keene, J. (2022). Shared accountability: How one school is reforming a writing curriculum through sustained engaged scholarship. Literacy Research and Instruction. 1-24. DOI: 10.1080/19388071.2022.2138646

Smit, J., Lesley, M., Beach, W. & Stewart, E. (2022). Investigating meaningful impact in adolescent writing achievement within a high-stakes testing context. Research in Reading. 45(3), 447-467.

Lesley, M., Beach, W., Ghasemi, E., & Duru, H. (2021). “This year we’ve mostly focused on just getting kids comfortable with the idea of writing something”: Factors undermining writing pedagogy in an “underperforming” high school. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 37(3), 279-299.

Lesley, M., Beach, W., & Smit, J. (2021). “You can’t put everything i’ve been through into professional development”: Transformative literacy coaching in an “underperforming” high school. Literacy Research and Instruction, 60(1), 13-35.

Lesley, M. (2020). The undulations of writing for publication. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, 19 (4). Retrieved from https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/taboo/vol19/iss4/9.

Kersch, D., Krause dos Santos, G., Meyrer, K., & Lesley, M. (2020). Teacher training, equality, access and critical literacy in COVID-19 times. Calidoscópio, 18(2), 477-484.


Kersch, D. & Lesley, M. (2019). Hosting and healing: A framework for critical media literacy pedagogy. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 11(3), 37-48.

Guzzetti, B., Foley, L. & Lesley, M. (2015). ‘Nomadic knowledge’: Men writing zines for content knowledge. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 58 (7),591-601.

Lesley, M. (2014). “Spacecraft reveals recent geological activity on the moon”: Exploring the features of NASA Twitter posts and their potential to engage adolescents. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57(5), 377-385.

Lesley, M. (2014). Three issues affecting content area literacy courses for middle and secondary level teacher candidates. Literacy Research & Instruction, 53, 50-71.

Gee, D., Matthews, M. & Lesley, M. (2013). Situated identities, competing cultural models: A discourse analysis of policy makers’ views on teaching. Journal of Educational Research and Practice.

Lesley, M. (2011). Understanding resistance: Pre-service secondary teachers’ discourse models of “struggling” readers and school literacy tasks. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(1), 25-34.

Lesley, M., Gee, D. & Matthews, M. (2010). Separating the chaff of bureaucracy from the grain of teaching: Creating "quality” new teachers in the age of accountability. Teacher Education Quarterly, 37(2), 33-51.

Lesley, M., Button, K., Elliot, S., Griffith, R., Hamman, D., & Olivarez, A. (2009). ‘I’m prepared for anything now’: Student teacher and cooperating teacher interaction as a critical factor in determining the preparation of “quality” elementary reading teachers. The Teacher Educator, 44, 40-55.

Lesley, M., & Matthews, M. (2009). Place based essay writing and content area literacy instruction for pre-service secondary teachers. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(6), 523-533.

Lesley, M. (2008). Access and resistance to dominant forms of discourse: Critical literacy and ‘at risk’ high school students. Literacy Research & Instruction. 47, 174-194.

Lesley, M. (2008). High stakes testing and fourth grade readers: Documenting the impact on teachers, children, and learning. Thinking Classroom/Peremena. 9(2), 20-28.

Lesley, M., Watson, P., & Elliot, S. (2007). ‘School’ reading and multiple texts: Examining the metacognitive development of secondary-level pre-service teachers. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. 51(2),150-162.

Hamman, D., Olivarez Jr., A., Lesley, M., Button, K., Chan, Yoke-Meng, Griffith, R., & Elliot, S. (2006). Pedagogical influence of interaction with cooperating teachers on the efficacy beliefs of student teachers. The Teacher Educator, 42(1), 15-29.

Lesley, M. (2004/2005). Creating space for critical literacy in the developmental reading classroom. Journal of College Literacy and Learning. 33, 1-23.

Lesley, M. (December 2004/January 2005). Looking for critical literacy with post-baccalaureate content area literacy students. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 48(4), 320-334.

Lesley, M. (2004). Refugees from reading: Students’ perceptions of ‘remedial’ reading pedagogy. Literacy Research & Instruction, 44(1), 62-85.

Lesley, M. (2003). A pedagogy of control: Worksheets and the special-needs child. Language Arts, 80(6), 444-452.

Lesley, M. (2001). Exploring the linkages between critical literacy and developmental reading. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 45(3), 180-189.

Lesley, M. (1997). The difficult dance of critical literacy. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 40(6), 420-424.

College of Education

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