Lu Ellen Huntley

Title: Associate Professor and Director of Composition
Office: Morton Hall 159
Phone: (910) 962-3267
e-mail: huntleyl@uncwil.edu

• Ed. D., North Carolina State University
• M.A., Middlebury College, Bread Loaf School of English
• B.A., North Carolina State University

Teaching Interests

I teach courses with an English Education emphasis that focus upon theory and practice in the teaching of writing and literature in K- 12 language arts and English classrooms. In such courses as Writing For Teachers, Varieties of Literary Response, and Literature For Young Adults the attention is on transforming the English/Language Arts classroom from transmission to transactional/constructivist, with students and teachers as partners in learning. I encourage students in these undergraduate preservice courses to examine their own writing and reading processes and reach understandings about literacy and literary development that challenge ways of thinking about traditional school culture.

I also teach courses in the Masters Program--Critical Literacy Emphasis--with primary interest in assisting students to investigate literacy from historical and cultural perspectives. Since oversimplified definitions of language and literacy often remain unquestioned, problems such as unhealthy cycles of student aliteracy and the more serious adult illiteracy may be blamed upon school failure. Study in critical literacy challenges us to address complex social problems (i.e., traditional school culture, poverty, child neglect and spouse abuse, homelessness, substance abuse, ESL population, among others) inherent in society rather than simply blame schools for failing. Developing contextual definitions of language and literacy can provide a basis for meaningful teaching and learning to promote dynamic education and social healing.

Research Interests

My research interests include translating constructivist theory as this applies to the language arts and English classroom, investigating critical literacy as an avenue toward social healing, exploring the phenomenon of "teacher legends" through oral history research, and studying the artistry of intuition in relation to composing.

Core Faculty for the     

Lu Ellen Huntley teaches courses in theory and practice of language artsand English education, composition, and literacy studies. She has interests in constructivism and how this paradigm informs the classroom. She has published in The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Arizona English Bulletin, and North Carolina English Teacher. She is a former secondary English teacher with a M.A. from the Bread Loaf School of English and a doctorate in Literacy Studies.

Publications

	Lu Huntley-Johnston. "Framing Grammar within Literacy Instruction." North Carolina Journal of Teacher Education IX.I (1996): 100-109. [Excerpt]
	Lu Huntley-Johnston, Sherri Phillips Merritt, and Lois E. Huffman. "How to do How-To Books: Real-Life Writing in the Classroom." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 41 (1997): 172-179. [Excerpt]
	Lu Huntley-Johnson. "Episodes from a Writing Class: Intersections of Possibility." Arizona English Bulletin 40.1 (1997): 43-49. [Excerpt]
	Lu Huntley-Johnston. "Censorship and Affirmation: Writing and Teaching." The High School Journal 81 (1998): 135-139. [Excerpt]

• "Student Teachers and the Traditional Research Paper." North Carolina English Teacher 53:2 (1996): 7-13.

• Spires, Hiller A., Lu Huntley-Johnston, and Lois E. Huffman. "Developing a Critical Stance Toward Text through Reading, Writing and Speaking." Journal of Reading 37 (1993): 114-122.

Accepted for Publication

• Huntley-Johnston, Lu, and Elizabeth Ervin. "A Change of Course: Creating a Context for Reforming Literacy Education." The Literacy Connection. Eds. Alice Horning and Ron Sudol. New Jersey: Hampton Press, forthcoming. 97-119.