Dr. Kelly C. Johnston, Ed.D.

Education

• Ed.D. Curriculum and Teaching
  2018 | Teachers College, Columbia University
• M.Ed. Reading Education
  2011 | Texas State University
• B.S. Interdisciplinary Studies
  2004 | Baylor University

About The FIR

Dr. Kelly C. Johnston is an associate professor in the School of Education at Baylor University. Dr. Johnston's program of research examines how children and youth engage with literacy across contexts and the implications for literacy development and wellbeing in underserved communities. Her research seeks to produce more equitable and just opportunities for children and youth whose cultural, linguistic, racial-ethnic, and neurodiverse identities and practices have been marginalized through formal education.

Along with her project on reimagining schooled literacies, she is currently examining the integration of literacy with physical activity and health as well integration of literacy across content areas through inquiry-based learning.

Dr. Johnston’s recent scholarship can be found in Unsettling Literacies: Directions for Literacy Research in Precarious Times (Eds. C. Lee,, C. Bailey, C. Burnett, and J. Rowsell) and The Handbook of Critical Literacies (Eds. J. Zacher, R. Mora, J. Alford, N. Golden, R. de Roock), as well as academic journals, such as Language Arts, The Reading Teacher, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Journal of Research in Childhood Education, English Teaching: Practice & Critique, and The Teacher Educator.

Dr. Johnston was recently awarded the Innovation in Teaching and Learning Award by the Education Deans of Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction. Before coming to Baylor, Dr. Johnston taught graduate courses at Teachers College, Columbia University, and at The City College of New York while working as a research fellow in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Some of her hit LEAD programs include Pancake Dinner, Chili Night, Spring Bookclub, and her semesterly Sips & Stories 242 Nights!