Deborah G. Summers

Deborah G. Summers is a professor of secondary adolescent literacy and the current director of the School of Education at California State University, Chico. A secondary classroom teacher for 15 years prior to arriving in higher education, she has always had an interest in discovering what motivates adolescents and how teachers can leverage that motivation to enhance school literacy practices. In her work with teacher preparation she seeks to understand the behaviors and actions of teachers and teacher candidates that dispose them to promote and encourage their students to act in socially responsible ways. Her research interests focus on the ways that literacy practices help adolescents to become full participants in a pluralistic society.