It’s a Wonderful Life: William H. Teale’s Contributions to Early and Emergent Literacy

Abstract

We highlight in this essay the significant career contributions of William H. Teale to the field of literacy research, policy, and practice in recognition of his receipt of the 2020 Oscar S. Causey Award. First, we contextualize Professor Teale’s scholarship through personal descriptions of our decades-long collegial relationships with him. We then trace Teale’s early work to the career defining scholarship that led to paradigmatic shifts in early literacy research and practice. We highlight explicitly his consequential coauthored volume Emergent Literacy (Teale & Sulzby, 1986), which redefined literate practice and unlinked it from its conventional print-based onset to instead focus on the emergent literate practices that form the foundation of children’s meaningful engagement as literate beings. In the second half of our essay, we amplify the voices of colleagues across the world who provide testimonials that evidence the far-reaching and indelible impact of Professor Teale’s lifelong scholarship, which examined how to improve children’s literacy experiences through (a) the quality of literature they read, (b) teachers’ access to and interactions with models of high-quality instruction, and (c) school leadership development.