Profile: Meet Professor Jason Ranker

How can we develop literacy curriculum that is relevant to students' cultural and linguistic worlds? Dr. Jason Ranker explores these questions in his research on literacy.

Jason Ranker, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at PSU. He teaches a variety of courses including: Integrated Methods of Language Arts; Literacy in Early Childhood Education; Literacy in Elementary Education; Language, Literacy and Culture; and Media Literacy, among others. He conducts classroom-based research aimed at understanding how to improve teaching and learning for marginalized and struggling students. This interest has led him to investigate a variety of ways of engaging students in literacy curricula, including the integration of digital and multiple media with the literacy curriculum, and developing ways for students to draw upon their cultural knowledge in school-based literacy. Reports of Dr. Ranker's research can be found in Language Arts, Research in the Teaching of English, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, The Reading Teacher, and Written Communication.

Jason Ranker PhD
Portland State University
Graduate School of Education
PO Box 751
615 SW Harrison
Room 571
Portland, OR 97207-0751
Phone: 503-725-4787
Email: jranker@pdx.edu