The New Hampshire Literacy Institutes at UNH is a multidisciplinary research and teacher learning center at the University of New Hampshire that is focused on the development of student writers and readers at all levels. We connect researchers, teachers, youth, and communities through research-practice partnerships, scholarship, innovative teacher engagement models, and sustained outreach to communities, youth, and schools.
We build upon the University's tradition of research and innovation in the teaching of writing and literacy development in grades K-16, identifying implications for policy and curricula, writing across a wide range of disciplines and professions, and fostering teacher expertise.
Our vision is situated in a philosophy that considers reading and writing to be mutually supportive practices. We acknowledge and value a broad definition of “text” as something that is both consumed and created by individuals in a wide variety of contexts for a wide variety of purposes.
Our aim is to create greater access and more inclusive opportunities for individuals, particularly teachers and students, to feel prepared to engage at the highest levels of reading and writing, to lead dynamically literate lives, to achieve academic success, and to effectively participate in communities and workplaces through creative, critical, and functional literacy practices.
Our work takes place within a university and community culture that values teachers and researchers as co-learners in the research and engagement process, and where the research enterprise strengthens instruction and teacher knowledge in K-12 schools and the University.
