GRANTHAM, Pa. (Sept. 6, 2007) — Messiah College’s department of education will sponsor an educational research forum with keynote speaker Anita Voelker, assistant professor of education at the college. Voelker’s lecture, “Using Ethnography to ‘Unquiet’ Children,” will be held from 4–5 p.m. on Sept. 27, in room 131 of the Boyer Hall academic building on the college’s Grantham campus. The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception with refreshments, held in the Boyer Hall atrium, immediately precedes the lecture from 3:30–4 p.m.

Voelker’s lecture springs from her research concerning literacy events and children’s interaction with school libraries. “Little has been written,” she explains, “about the literacy experiences and understandings of children who have access to a school library program.” She seeks to resolve common myths in the field of ethnography, the study and recording of human cultures, based on her year’s study of six fourth-graders in the setting of a quality school library, as well as her background as an elementary school teacher. The lecture’s themes will be of benefit to those interested in school libraries, the literacy experiences of children, methods of conducting research or the significance of a theoretical lens for research.

A well-experienced speaker, Voelker has presented papers at the American Educational Research Association and the National Reading Conference. She is currently co-conducting a study on teacher-leaders among undergraduate education majors.

Messiah College, a private Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences, enrolls more than 2,800 undergraduate students in 60 majors. Established in 1909, the primary campus is located in Grantham, Pa., near the state capital of Harrisburg. A satellite campus affiliated with Temple University is located in Philadelphia.