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Jeanine M. Staples

Assistant Professor of Language and Literacy
The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Curriculum and Instruction

2008 Youth Purpose Research Award Winner

Jeanine Staples is an Assistant Professor of Language and Literacy in the Curriculum and Instruction Department at Pennsylvania State University. Her research program includes critical explorations of the ways media, popular culture, language, and technology intersect adolescent literacies in multiple teaching/learning contexts. As a New Literacy theorist and practitioner, her work functions primarily from post-structural ethnographic standpoints. She is committed to affecting meaningful change in the preparation and education of literacy teachers both in and outside of schools, particularly as the teachers relate to disengaged students of color in urban areas. Web

Award Project: 
What's the Purpose?: How Urban Adolescents of Color Interpret and Respond to Noble and Ignoble Purposes Constructed in Media Texts
Award Project Description: 

This research will examine how urban adolescents of color who are placed at risk of academic and social failure interpret and respond to noble and ignoble purposes constructed in media texts. It will also provide critical insight into the rationalization processes and personal trajectories of these youth. Drawing from New Literacy Studies, this study uses participant observations, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, participant journals, and media projects to determine youth’s conceptions of purpose.