Restriction(s): Admission to Teacher Education and Teacher Development program or departmental approval. This course examines language & literacy as sociocultural practices. It is designed to help students become familiar with various sociocultural theories that currently frame language & literacy studies & to develop an informed, theorized position from which to understand and examine language & literacy practices. The course includes an historical overview of literacy research in order to better understand developments within the field today, and examination of sociocultural research orientations, designs & methods. This course also engages with the ideological nature of language & literacy; the ways in which teachers' & students' preferred ways of speaking and being literate can clash within the classroom; sociolinguistic variation and social identities; the dominance of reading over other literacy modes within US education; the ways in which classroom discourses shape student identities and literacy learning; in- & out-of-school literacy practices; and new literacies and their impact on education. This course prepares students to work with in- and pre-service teachers within a range of contexts.