The Austin Val Verde Estate and Foundation...
Ralph A. Cordova, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Literacy and Language
Director of Piasa Bluffs Writing Project
Education:
2004 Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara Gevirtz Graduate School
of Education Emphasis: Teaching and Learning
2001 M.A. University of California, Santa Barbara Gevirtz Graduate School
of Education Emphasis: Teaching and Learning.
1993 Teaching Credential, Graduate School of Education Emphasis:
Multiple Subject Professional Clear
1992 B.A. University of California, Riverside Emphasis: German Literature
and Language
1990 A.A. Palo Verde College, Blythe, California Emphasis: Liberal Studies
with a focus on German as a Foreign Language
Teaching and Service:
2008 Director of the Piasa Bluffs Writing Project of the National Writing Project, SIE School of Education.
2006 – Present Diversity in Education Project committee member, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL.
2006 – Present Assistant Professor of Education in literacy and language. Teach language
arts with an emphasis in writing development. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL.
2004 – Present The New Teacher Initiative, Co-Director for Disseminating
and Sustaining, The National Writing Project, Berkeley, CA.
2003 – Present Director of Education and Research, the Cultural Landscapes
Collaboratory The Austin Val Verde Foundation, Santa Barbara, CA.
2003 – 2007 Elected member of the Elementary Section Steering Committee,
the National Council of Teachers of English
2002 – 2005 Co-Director for Master’s in Education seminars to Multiple
Subject and Single Subject credential candidates in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara,
1993 – 2006 Elementary Classroom Teacher in the Goleta Union School District.
Taught in a bilingual English/Spanish curricular setting for 5 years, then in
“English-only” setting after proposition 227 was passed into law.
Representative Publications:
(in press) Córdova, R. National Writing Project’s New Teacher Initiative: Reflecting and Inquiring as Cultural Ways of Knowing. The National Writing Project
(in press) Córdova, R. Writing and Painting Our Lives into Being: Learning to see learning in the transformative spaces between school and home. NCTE’s Language arts
(in review) Córdova, R. Exploring Local Teaching Knowledges and Making them Global Resources for Developing Professionally: The Cultural Landscapes Collaboratory — a Teacher Inquiry Group. NCTE’s Language arts
(in review) Córdova, R. & Hug, J. A tale of an English Language Learner and his two teachers learning to see learning and growing professionally
2007 Green, Skukauskaite, Dixon & Cordova. Epistemological Issues in the Analysis of Video Records: Interactional Ethnography as a Logic of Inquiry, Video Research in The Learning Sciences, Goldman, Pea, Barron & Derry, Eds., Erlbaum Associates, Pub.
2004 NWP Speaks: 30 Years of Writing Project Voices. The Voice, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2004.
2004 Santa Barbara Classroom Discourse Group: Yeager, B., Cordova, R., Tuyay, S., Green, J., Dixon, C., & Frank, C. Suggestions for further reading on students and teachers as ethnographers. Language arts 81(5), p. 427.
2004 Doctoral Dissertation: "Disjuncture in Teacher Preparation as Rich Points for Developing Professionally: An ethnographic investigation of the inter-relationships of supervisor’s and teachers’-in-preparation’s discursive construction of principles of practice. University of California, Santa Barbara, 2004.
2004 Science Literacy and Academic Identity Formulation by John M. Reveles, Ralph Cordova, and Gregory Kelly, 2004. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 41, 1111-1144.
Areas of Specialization:
Interactional Ethnography, Ethnographic and Sociolinguistic Research on the Social Construction of Knowledge in Elementary and Teacher Preparation Classrooms, community-based settings; Classroom Discourse Processes and Construction of Professional Practices.
Supervision of teachers-in-preparation (student teachers) K – 12 grades.
Critical discourse analysis in spoken, written and multiple semiotic systems with a focus on digital video as a reflexive professional development tool.
Teaching and curriculum development that addresses literacy demands of native and non-native speakers of English.
Presentations (Representative 1996 – Present)
2005 Córdova, R. with Kumpulainen, K. (Professionals Developing/Developing
Professionals: Interacting with and Learning from Video Case Observations). SCIL, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, October 2005.
2005 Córdova, R. with Hagan, M. (Growing a School: Professionals
Developing/Developing Professionals). Distinguished Speaker at Whole Language Umbrellas Annual Conference, Literacies for All, San Diego, CA, July 2005.
2004 Córdova, R. with Yeager, B.; Dixon, C. and Green, J. Talk as Potential Resource for Constructing Professional Identities: An Ethnographic Study of Oral and Written Texts Over Time in a Teacher Education Setting American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA, April 2004
2004 Córdova, R. with Yeager, B.; Grace, E.; and Kim, M. The Social Construction of Identity Potentials: Interactional Ethnographic Studies of Academic and Professional Identities), The University of Pennsylvania Ethnography Forum Philadelphia, PA, February 2004
2004 Córdova, R. with Yeager, B. Constructing academic and professional identities: The role of discourse in shaping potential identities in classrooms and in teacher education, Qualitative Inquiry Program, College of Education, University of Georgia, Atlanta, GA., January, 2004
2003 Córdova, R. Talk as Potential Resource for Constructing Professional Identities: Border Crossings and The Discursive Role of Disjunctures in Teacher Preparation. (With Yeager, B. & Dixon, C.) Constructing Academic and Professional Identities: The Role of Discourse in Shaping Potential Identities in Classrooms and in Teacher Education, annual meeting of the National Council of Teachers of English, San Francisco, CA, Nov. 20-23.
2003 Córdova, R. & Yeager, B., “Once You Start Approaching Things from an Ethnographic Point of View, There’s No Going Back”: International Conference on Teacher Education and Social Justice, Center for Anti-Oppressive Education, San Francisco, CA, June 13-15, 2003.
2002 Córdova, R. (with Yeager, B., Desler, G. and Green, J.),
Interacting with the Lived Experiences of Others: Underlying Principles for Engaging with Complex Issues as Resource for Academic and Social Action, National Council of Teachers of English Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA, November, 2002.
2002 Córdova, R. The Making of Teachers: The Situated Co-Construction of Potentials for Professional Identities, (with Yeager, B. and Reveles, J.), Constructing Identities in Linguistically Diverse Settings and Teacher Education Programs Serving Linguistically Diverse Settings, annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA, April, 2002.
2001 Córdova, R. and Nordyke, S. Ethnographic Eyes: Using
an Ethnographic in a Teacher Preparation Program. Conference on Ethnography, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara and California State University, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, April, 2000.
2000 Córdova, R. What is Project Outreach Network? National Writing Project Annual Conference, Milwaukee, WI.
1999 Córdova. R. Project Outreach Network, National Writing
Project, Denver, Colorado, November, 1999.
1996 Córdova R. and Yeager, B., Creating Interacting Communities: Classrooms, Research Communities and Writing Projects, National Council of Teachers of English, Chicago, IL, November, 1996.
Professional Activities and Service:
2005 – Present Literacy expert for Kentucky Educational Television’s which recently
received a grant of $998,900 from the Annenberg Foundation in
partnership with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to
produce professional development resources in writing instruction for a national audience of teachers.
2003-2006 Elected member of the National Council of Teachers of English Elementary Steering Committee Section. November 2003 – November 2006.
2003-2006 Member of National Writing Project’s New Teacher Initiative Leadership Team, a funded initiative to research the challenges that beginning teachers face and support them as they grow professionally so that they remain in the profession. August, 2003 - Present.
2002-2005 Reviewer for National Council of Teacher’s of English (NCTE) Language Arts journal.
2002 Program Chair for the National Writing Project Urban Sites Network yearly conference, April 2002.
2000 Consulting with The Shoah Visual History Project ways the archive can be used by teachers to address issues of tolerance and social justice. July, 2000.
1998 Advanced Returning Fellow, South Coast Writing Project. Facilitated
writing groups for teachers and advised them on developing presentations for professional audiences, UC Santa Barbara, Summer, 1999.
1996 - 1998 Co-coordinator for Project Outreach Network (PON) Leadership Team,
UCSB, 1996-1998. PON is a network within The National Writing Project. PON focuses on the education of low-income students, students of color and of linguistically diverse backgrounds and their teachers. Currently co-leading an inquiry to learn how the South Coast Writing Project is addressing PON’s foci.
1996 Advanced Fellowship, South Coast Writing Project, UC Santa Barbara, Summer, 1996. Closely examined issues central to emergent literacy in California in light of current political and educational trends. Planning professional development models for local schools in emergent literacy.
1995 - present Presentations to South Coast Writing Project, Summer Institute, UC Santa Barbara.
- The Family Stories Writing Project
- Working with Linguistically Diverse Students
- Project Outreach Network
1995 Fellow of the South Coast Writing Project, successfully completed the five
week summer institute, Summer 1995.
Language Fluency: English, Spanish and German
