Judith Kalman

Judith Kalman

Bio and Research Interests

Dr. Judith Kalman has been a Research Professor in Departamento de Investigaciones Educativas (Department of Educational Research-DIE for its Spanish initials) at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avannzados del IPN-CINVESTAV) since 1993.

She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish Language and Literatures from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), a Master’s degree in Educational Research from CINVESTAV, and a Ph.D. in Education, specializing in Language and Literacy, from the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley. From 1997 to 1999, she was a postdoctoral fellow of the National Academy of Education (USA) and the Spencer Foundation.

She has been a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences since 2004. In 2002, she received the International Literacy Research Award, a biennial prize awarded by UNESCO. In November 2015, she was appointed Honorary Professor at the National University of the Northeast (Universidad Nacional del Nordeste), Argentina. In March 2019, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa) by the National University of Córdoba, Argentina.She is currently an Emeritus Researcher of Mexico’s National System of Researchers.

A specialist in the social construction of written language, she currently directs the Laboratory of Education, Technology, and Society at the DIE, where she and her group study the incorporation and use of digital technologies in educational contexts and learning situations. She also researches their use in the social world and their relationship to communicative practices.

During the pandemic, she participated in a project in the Youth and Adult Literacy and Basic Education Program in Villa María, Argentina, which abruptly shifted from a face-to-face program to an emergency remote one mediated by digital technologies. Her current work includes The Appropriation of Digital Technologies in a Marginalized Community in Mexico City, which analyzes the use of digital technologies, reading, and writing in everyday situations within a marginalized context. Also she is studying the El Juego Letrado: producción multimodal de jóvenes en el contexto de la Guerra Civil Española (Literate Games: Multimodal Production by Young People in the Context of the Spanish Civil War), which analyzes a large corpus of literary writings, maps, and drawings produced in 1939 in the context of war and the exile of a family forced to leave their country. Although the topics, spaces, times, and actors are diverse, the conceptualization built around the notion of written culture, social practice, and concepts from sociolinguistics provides theoretical and methodological coherence to this research agenda.

Selected publications

Kalman, J. (2022). We don’t vaccinate foreigners: Promoting critical literacy through understanding disputed meanings in official documents. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies. VOL 20 (1), pp. 224- 248. ISSN 1740-2743

Tapia, E. Reyes, I. & Kalman, J. (2023). Children’s literacy funds of knowledge in an urban Mexican elementary school: changing the approach. Literacy. 2023, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.12332

Kalman, J., Valdivia, P. & Miranda, M. (2023)  “Don’t Tell Them What You Told Me” Negotiating Paperwork in Mexico City. Written Communications, 1-35 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/07410883231169518   *Best article Award 2023-2024 from Written Communication 

Kalman, J. &  Lorenzatti, M del C. (2024) Solidarity, agency, and learning in everyday participation. : A look at an adult education program in the context of COVID-19. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 2024. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1334 

Kalman, J. & López Rendón, C. (2024) Jugar, leer y escribir mientras las bombas caen. Creación literaria de un grupo de jóvenes durante la guerra civil española. Boletín de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza. Diciembre 2023, (131- 132). 111-132. 

Kalman, J. & Chartier, R. (2025). Los tiempos de la alfabetización. (Multi)Alfabetización: palabras democráticas desde la biblioteca pública. Secretaría Distrital de Cultura, Recreación y Deporte- Red Distrital de Bibliotecas. ISBN 978-628-7589-31-5

Valdivia, P. & Kalman, J. (2025) Intergenerational Appropriation of Technologies in the Context of Collaborative Writing Activities in Mexico. In Family and intergenerational literacy and learning. UNESCO, 2025. ISBN: 978-92-820-1259-8

Capítulos

Kalman, J., Valdivia, P., & Rendón, V. (2020). Examining Qualitative Data Using Spreadsheets: Constructing Analytical Narratives Around Talk, Action, and Practice. En Knobel, M., Kalman, J, Lankshear, C. Data Analysis, Interpretation, and Theory in Literacy Studies Research: A How-To. Myers Education Press, p. 240 ISBN: 97-1-9755-0212-6.

Kalman, J. y Lorenzatti, M. (2022). Leer del mundo: enseñar y aprender con jóvenes y adultos en COVID 19. En Ocampo, A. (Ed.) Educación Lectora y justicia social. Decolonialidad, políticas de la diferencia e infancias críticas. Universidad Católica de Chile. pp. 274- 297. ISBN: 978-956-386-048-1.

Rendón, Víctor y Kalman, Judith (2021). La clase al revés: una forma distinta de organizar las actividades en el aula. Ornelas, C., Yáñez, G., Sánchez, L. (coord.) Arrojos contra el vendaval. Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas- Colofón. pp. 95- 106. ISBN: 978-607-8750-53-5.

Kalman, J., Méndez- Arreola, R., Valdivia, P. (2023). Conceptualizing Everyday Writing. En Horowitz, R. (Ed.) The Routledge International Handbook of Research on Writing. Routledge. ISBN 9781138345256.

Libros

Kalman, J. & Brian V. Street (Coord.) (2013) Literacy and numeracy in Latin America. Local Perspectives and Beyond. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, New York and London. 226 pp. ISBN-978-0-415-89609-2 (hbk), ISBN-978-0-415-89610-8 (pbk), ISBN-978-0-203-80779-8 (ebk).

Knobel, M. & Kalman, J. (Eds). (2016). New Literacies and Teacher Learning. Professional Development and the Digital Turn. Vol. 74 Serie: New literacies and digital epistemologies. ISBN 978-1-4331-2912-4 (hardcover), 978-1-4331-2911-7 (paperback), 978-1-4539-1823-4 (e-book). New York: Peter Lang. 260pp.

Kalman, J. (2018) Leer y escribir en el mundo social. Obras escogidas de Judith Kalman. México: Paideia Latinoamericana 5. ISBN 978-607-9286-23-1. 298 pp. Tiraje: 500 ejemplares. Centro de Cooperación Regional para la Educación de Adultos en América Latina y el Caribe (CREFAL).

Knobel, M., Kalman, J., Lankshear, C. (2020) Data Analysis, Interpretation, and Theory in Literacy Studies Research: A How-To. Myers Education Press. 240 pp.  ISBN: 97-1-9755-0212-6.

Kalman, J. & Street, B. (2022, 2009). La lectura, la escritura y las matemáticas como prácticas sociales.  Open Access por el Writing across the curriculum Clearinghouse, State University of Colorado. https://wac.colostate.edu/books/international/la/sociales/

Kalman, J. & Valdivia, P. (2026). A scribe, a photographer, and a vendor Digitaliteracy practices in a working class neighborhood in Mexico City. Writing across the curriculum Clearinghouse, State University of Colorado. (Forthcoming). https://wac.colostate.edu/books/international/la/sociales/