Biography
A former elementary school teacher, Dr. Hadjioannou holds a Bachelor in the Sciences of Education from the University of Cyprus; a Master of Education from the University of Florida; and a Ph.D. in Instruction and Curriculum (specialization: Language Arts/Literacy) also from the University of Florida. She is currently an Associate Professor of Language and Literacy Education at Penn State University’s Berks campus.
In her teaching, Dr. Hadjioannou works with preservice teachers through a variety of courses on language and literacy methodology. Dr. Hadjioannou’s research is theoretically informed by social constructivist theories and by translanguaging pedagogy. Her work focuses on literacy methodology through the study of classroom discourse and the analysis of exemplary practices in the language arts classroom; the preparation of teachers to effectively work with diverse students, including emergent bilinguals; and children’s literature as both a product and a driver of our literacies.
Dr. Hadjioannou’s work has appeared in various scholarly journals such as the American Educational Research Journal, the Early Education and Development Journal, Current Issues in Language Planning, Classroom Discourse and Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice. She has also contributed children's book reviews to the Dragon Lode. In 2019, she co-authored Translanguaging for Emergent Bilinguals with D. Fu and X. Zhou (published by Teachers College Press) and her guest edited issue on Translanguaging Practice in Diverse Contexts (with D. Fu) for Applied Linguistics Review was published in 2022. She has been involved in several grant funded projects, including as proposal co-author and administrative team member for two professional development programs funded by the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA – U.S. Department of Education), and as core faculty for a residency grant funded by the PA Department of Education, and as co-investigator for a Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program funded by the National Science Foundation.
Dr. Hadjioannou is currently vice president of the Children's Literature Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English and serves as co-editor of the CLA Blog. She is a founding member of the Biography Clearinghouse and an editorial board member of the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.
Research Interests
Dr. Hadjioannou's research focuses on observing, describing, understanding, and supporting practices that nurture literacy development. Much of her work involves the study of language-in-use: examinations of individuals and groups as they are interacting within and outside classroom settings, as well as studies of context-sensitive implementations of exemplary instructional practice. Another significant aspect of her research concerns the preparation of teachers to knowledgeably and effectively serve the needs of diverse learners in the 21st century. Within this strand falls her work on the education of emergent bilinguals and of nonstandard dialect speakers. In addition, Dr. Hadjioannou is highly interested in the texts that nurture our literacies and children's literature in particular.
Publications
BOOK
Fu, D., Hadjioannou, X. & Zhou, X. (2019). Translanguaging for Emergent Bilinguals: Inclusive Teaching in the Linguistically Diverse Classroom. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
JOURNAL ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS
Fu, D. & Hadjioannou, X. (2022). Special issue: translanguaging practice in diverse contexts. Applied Linguistics Review, 13(3), 319-325. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2021-0013
Zhang, X. & Hadjioannou, X. (2022). Chinese graduate students’ translanguaging practice in the context of academic writing in English. Applied Linguistics Review, 13(3), 373-388. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2021-0020
Hadjioannou, X. (2021). Access to high-quality, diverse book collections across a variety of challenging times and contexts. The Dragon Lode, 40 (1), 8-16.
Hutchinson, M. & Hadjioannou, X. (2019). Fidelity of Practice: The Challenge of Transformative Change in Teacher Professional Development. In A. Lopez & E. Olan (Eds.) Transformative Pedagogies for Teacher Education: Critical Action, Agency and Dialogue in Teaching and Learning Contexts, (p. 87-102). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Hadjioannou, X. & Bandré, P. (2018). Planting and nurturing the seeds of story: Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann. Journal of Children’s Literature, 44(2), p. 74-79.
Hadjioannou, X. & Shelton, N.R. (2018). Teaching Young Readers Using Nonfiction Texts. In V. Yenika-Agbaw, L.A. Huddock, & R. Lowery (Eds.) Does Nonfiction Equate Truth? Rethinking Disciplinary Boundaries through Critical Literacy, (p.35-46). Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.