Mason Named Senior Lecturer

Harvard Graduate School of Education Dean James Ryan announced that Pamela Mason, director of the Language and Literacy (L&L) master's program and the Jeanne Chall Reading Lab, has been promoted to the rank of senior lecturer.

An expert in reading instruction and development, and literacy interventions and assessment, Mason joined the HGSE faculty in 2006. Her research focuses on the effects of text structure on comprehension, the interaction of text complexity and background knowledge, the interaction of literacy learning, culture, and multilingualism, and school-wide literacy program implementation and evaluation, using qualitative and quantitative measures. She has extensive experience as a reading/language arts curriculum coordinator for several local school districts and as an elementary school principal.

“Pamela is the essence of what makes the HGSE faculty so great. She’s a superb teacher that doesn’t rest on her laurels — she works tirelessly to improve her pedagogy through reflection, feedback, and innovation,” Ryan said.  “She’s a strong leader — both here on campus as the director of the Language and Literacy Program and in the field through her ongoing collaborations with Boston and Cambridge Public Schools. She is also an impassioned voice for equity and diversity — she helped grow the idea of a common reading of Claude Steele’s Whistling Vivaldi last summer into a rich, year-long conversation on these issues. I am delighted we have this opportunity to recognize her extraordinary contributions to our school.”

 “I am absolutely thrilled to have been promoted to senior lecturer,” Mason said. “Being recognized by my peers for my commitment to developing my own practice and that of my students, for mentoring students within the L&L Program and across HGSE, and for helping to lead our community toward increasing diversity and equity is so affirming. This recognition helps to sustain my commitment to this important and fulfilling work.”

Mason is active in the International Reading Association, serving as the cochair of the Urban Diversity Committee, and as a member of the Common Core State Standards Task Force and the Program Committee. She also co-edited Promising Practices for Urban Reading Instruction, an IRA publication. She is a past president of the Massachusetts Association of College and University Reading Educators and the Massachusetts Reading Association and serves as the chair of the Studies and Research Committee. She collaborates with colleagues nationally and internationally on preparing reading specialist teachers, implementing literacy coaching, developing school leaders, and evaluating school-wide literacy programs. Mason serves on the Board of Trustees for Cathedral High School, the Board of Directors of Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, and the Board of Trustees of the WGBH Educational Foundation, as a trustee emerita.