UCLA Professor Kris. D. Gutierrez, an internationally renowned educator and researcher on understanding the relationship among literacy, culture and human development, has been named the recipient of the 2004 Sylvia Scribner Award.

Each year Division C of the American Educational Research Association presents the award in recognition of work that has influenced thinking and research in the field of learning and instruction. In particular, the award is designed to honor research within the last decade.

Gutierrez joined the UCLA faculty in 1989 as an assistant professor of education in the division of administration, curriculum and teaching studies (now the division of urban schooling). Her extensive research in literacy practices in urban school classrooms and the effects of educational policy on children from non-dominant groups eventually led to the creation of the Center for the Study of Urban Literacies.

The center is the focus for Gutierrez’ problem-oriented research that examines the literacy practices of urban schools and the relationships among literacy, culture and human development. In particular, her research concerns itself with the social and cognitive consequences of literacy practices in formal and non-formal learning contexts.

An important strand across her work is the study of the effects of educational reform policy on urban students, especially English learners. Part of the center’s work has been to carry out design experiments that create spaces that provide access to learning for urban and migrant farmworker children and communities.

In addition to her projects within the Center for the Study of Urban Literacies, Gutierrez is also the director of the education studies undergraduate minor in the department of education.

Her exceptional teaching and mentorship have been recognized by receipt of UCLA’s Harriet and Charles Luckman Distinguished Teaching Award, the department of education teaching award and the Spencer Foundation Mentorship Award Grant.

Her research has been supported by many grants and published in a wide variety of books and journals.

The work of the late Sylvia Scribner, for whom the award is named, reflects a wide range of research concerns within the field of learning, cognition and education. Her research focused
on cognition in relation to society and culture drew on a range of methodologies, cut across disciplinary boundaries and addressed multiple sites for learning and development. The Sylvia Scribner Award is designed to honor work that reflects any methodology or conceptual perspective for research on learning and instruction.

One of 11 professional schools at UCLA, the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies consists of two academic departments, the department of education and the department of information studies. The Graduate School of Education was founded in 1939 and was UCLA’s first professional school. The Graduate School of Library Service was founded in 1958. The two schools merged in 1994, forming the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. UCLA is the only major research university in the country that combines departments of education and information studies.

In 2004 U.S. News & World Report ranked the education program third in the nation and first among public universities. The Graduate School of Education and Information Studies shares its findings with practicing educators and information professionals through classes, seminars and workshops offered at UCLA and in the community, and through reports, studies and articles featured in publications nationwide.