Month: April 2017

Michiko Hikida

by

As a sophomore in college I volunteered at the New Mexico Preschool for the Deaf and had the privilege of learning from a masterful teacher. I realize now she was teaching me as much as she was the two- and three-year-olds in her classroom. As I watched her open the world of signed language to the Deaf children of hearing parents, I fell in love with Education—I knew then that I wanted to teach.   

After finding my passion for teaching and learning, I pursued a degree in Special Education from the University of Texas as well as a Master’s degree in Multicultural Cultural Special Education. Later I taught in a working class, predominantly Latinx community where more than half the students were bilingual—much like the community where I grew up.  

At the end of my seventh year in the classroom, I had many questions about literacy teaching and learning, so I returned to the University of Texas for a Doctorate in Language and Literacy Studies. I grew up hearing multiple languages at home and in my community, so I’ve always had a fascination with language. It seemed natural that my doctoral studies focus on multilingual & multiliterate learners and students labeled struggling readers.

I focus on language, literacy, and social justice, at the intersection of race, language, and ability.

Now, as an associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, my research focuses on classroom language and literacy practices and literacy teacher education. Most recently, I have been thinking about how joy, love, play, and personhood are languages in everyday literacy interactions as well as how preservice teachers learn to language the instruction and relationships in their classrooms. Because I draw on my experiences as a former elementary school teacher, it is important to me to continually highlight and build on what is going well in classrooms.

I teach course in Discourse Analysis, Case Study Research, Literacy and Language Arts, and Preservice Teacher -Education in Language Arts.

Some selected publications if you’d like to read more:

Durán, L., & Hikida, M. (2022, May 2). Making sense of reading’s forever wars. Kappanonline.Org. https://kappanonline.org/readings-forever-wars-duran-hikida/
Hikida, M., & Taylor, L. A. (2020). “As the Test Collapses In”: Teaching and Learning Amid High-Stakes Testing in Two Urban Elementary Classrooms. Urban Education, 0042085920902263. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085920902263
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Hikida, M. (2018). Literacy and the time being. In Re-Theorizing Literacy Practices (pp. 197-208). Routledge
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Hikida, Michiko, Katharine Chamberlain, Susan Tily, Anne Daly-Lesch, Jayce R. Warner, and Diane L. Schallert. “Reviewing how preservice teachers are prepared to teach reading processes: What the literature suggests and overlooks.” Journal of Literacy Research, February 27, 2019, 1086296X19833297. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X19833297.
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Hikida, Michiko. “Holding Space for Literate Identity Co-Construction.” Journal of Literacy Research50, no. 2 (2018): 217–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X17751824.
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Hikida, M., & Lee, J. (2018). Positioning Readers in One-on-One Conferences. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 67(1), 180–194.