Yesterday morning, I woke up to another pile of files to review while still remaining distant from news and updates because work needs to get done. Then I saw on Facebook a post (she rarely posts) that there's pride in collaborating with Reading and Language Arts Alumni. It's out. Phew! This is the 2nd published collaboration with Drs. Kelly Chandler-Olcott (Syracuse University) and Elizabeth Carol Lewis (Dickinson College) (with a 3rd on its way) and a vague sketch for another year of Critical Friendship and writing accountability ahead (great timing NYTimes - To Create a Healthy Habit, Find an Accountability Buddy).
What I love about this particular piece is that it is more than just academic reporting - it's also a story (behind the scenes) of what several years look like. That's not the point of the piece, but it is what I read from it. When I got to Syracuse University, I knew I'd work with Kelly (she scared me, but that was her job. She had to get me in shape for academic work. She's tough and I appreciate that about her). Upon leaving Louisville and returning to Syracuse, Kelly was mentoring Liz, who I always wanted to sit down with for dinner to talk to. She was a doctoral student before me, yet she was also on the go, go, go (when things got rolling for me, too, I totally understood why I never saw her). That's the doctoral process. Inhale - read everything - write constantly - think critically - hold yourself accountable to traditions and history - and set out to find a gap in the literature, and begin to fill it out.
Kelly had the insight, however, to see that our interests cross-pollinated (intersect). She also had the brilliance to bring all 3 of us together as critical friends to look at cross-site data over the last few years. Actually, we began at meetings for our LRA presentations, and then monthly meetings were set up that continued to keep us thinking about one another's work and the data we all collected. I'm going on year 8 of the ongoing collection, and was thrilled to report findings from 6 years in this article, especially within the qualitative framework we used. In total, 3 separate programs are reported, but claims are made that were evident from all three, especially when bringing students with learning disabilities into the learning community.
It's been a win, win, win friendship (and it has felt wonderful to go from mentee to colleague to professional friend to friend to family). I would have never seen that coming while I was in the grind of it all (but that's what a good advisor does - tortures, expects, encourages, pushes, cares, and delivers). I crave our meetings, our mapping, our challenging of one another's thinking, and our shared storytelling of the work that we do. We are built out of one another and the assertions we make are better because our data sources from across states, missions, and design, share similar goals for supporting all writers.
And, filling in gaps in the research makes it even better.
Throughout the last edits of the piece, I kept remarking to the brilliant two that while editing and revising, I simply enjoyed what were saying. It kept educating me, even though I was part of its authorship. The cross case analysis required cross-case accountability. I'm proud of the time we spent on it, the care, and the cautious scrutiny of data we made.
I know most of my blog readers don't pursue academic texts to read in their spare time, and probably are like, "What is Crandall talking about?"
What I'm talking about is an absolute appreciation of both these collaborators. God only knows what I'd be without them. I'm beyond grateful for Syracuse University and the Reading and Language Arts Center in the School of Education.
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