Texas Tech University

Mellinee Lesley, Ph.D.

Professor
Curriculum & Instruction

Email: mellinee.lesley@ttu.edu

Phone: 806-834-1186

Office: Education 320

Vita

Mellinee Lesley, Ph.D. serves as Associate Vice Provost in the Office of Outreach and Engagement at Texas Tech University. In this role, she leads the university’s Community-Engaged Learning initiatives, a campus-wide effort focused on developing coursework grounded in meaningful community partnerships. Dr. Lesley oversees the coordination of community-engaged learning courses and provides professional development for faculty, aligning these efforts with Texas Tech’s strategic priorities for engaged scholarship and high-impact educational practices.

In addition to her administrative leadership, Dr. Lesley is a Professor in the Language, Diversity, and Literacy Studies program within the College of Education. After earning her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, she began a career in higher education, serving as a faculty member in teacher preparation and graduate education, a department chair, and an associate dean. Prior to her academic career, she taught high school English and directed a developmental reading program. Her recent graduate courses focus on adolescent and disciplinary literacies, narrative inquiry, and engaged scholarship.

Dr. Lesley has received numerous awards for excellence in teaching at both the secondary and university levels. She is a Fellow of the National Writing Project and the Teaching Academy at Texas Tech University. Her work in community engagement has been recognized nationally for a long-term school–university partnership, earning the Community Engagement Scholarship Award for Exemplary Projects from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

A central focus of Dr. Lesley’s scholarship is the role of literacy in expanding academic opportunities for students who have faced systemic barriers to education. She has published extensively in the areas of literacy pedagogy and educational equity, including numerous articles, book chapters, and books that explore practices to close literacy gaps. Her current research examines how engaged scholarship can foster literacy reform in K–12 settings.

Outside of her professional life, Dr. Lesley enjoys spending time with her husband and two children, traveling, and gardening.

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
  • 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. (2025). Autobiographical narrative zines as praxis. New Writing, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790726.2025.2513872

Lesley, M. (2025). No content only skills: Disciplinary writing in high school English. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10573569.2025.2511109

Lesley, M., Higgins, A., Stewart, E., Keene, J. & Terry, S. (2025). Becoming boundary spanners in a long-term engaged scholarship partnership. Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, 18(1), 1-14. DOI: 10.54656/jces.v18i1.646.

Guo, L., Wang, J., Lee, J., & Lesley, M. (2024). Examining the differentiated impacts of balanced literacy: An analysis of reading comprehension skills. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 40(3), 236-250.

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.

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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