Faculty Profiles

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Dr. Sonya Armstrong

  • Professor - Curriculum And Instruction
  • Grant Director, Non-Faculty - McNair Scholars
Portrait of Dr. Sonya Armstrong

Biography and education

Dr. Sonya L. Armstrong is a Professor in the Graduate Program in Postsecondary Student Success in Learning, Literacy, and Mathematics. She earned her doctorate in literacy education with a focus on postsecondary literacy from the University of Cincinnati. Prior to that, she trained in English and earned two M.A. degrees (in literature and editing and publishing). Dr. Armstrong is a practitioner-researcher, and her scholarly endeavors are guided by over twenty years of designing and teaching developmental reading, composition, and learning strategies courses in community colleges and universities. Her research focuses on improving postsecondary literacy and learning pedagogy and practice to more effectively facilitate students’ college literacy transitions, thereby increasing access and potential for success for all within higher education. With colleagues she is currently undertaking an investigation of the literacy practices and expectations in community college career technical education courses.

Teaching Interests

Research Interests

  • Armstrong, Sonya Lee (Co-Principal), Mahan, Pamela (Co-Principal). What do students think of the IRW co-requisite model?, Taylor and Francis, $500. (Submitted: October 2022). Grant.
  • Summers, E. J., Armstrong, S. L., Mahdavivand Fard, S., & Garza, M. (2024). Beyond reactionary: SAGE practices for intentional reflexivity in online qualitative data collection. New Trends in Qualitative Research, 20(1). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.36367/ntqr.20.1.2024.e976
  • Suh, E. K. J., Wu, N., Garcia, A. J., Oelschlegel, C. P., & Armstrong, S. L. (2022). (Un)voicing a field’s expertise: A two-pronged citation and language analysis. Journal of Praxis in Higher Education, 4(2), 90–121.
  • Carson, M., Williams, J., Brewer, C., & Armstrong, S. L. (2021). Problematize, theorize, politicize, and contextualize:  A social justice framework for postsecondary integrated reading and writing instruction. In Teaching and Learning for Social Justice and Equity in Education (pp. 221–241). Palgrave MacMillan. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69947-5_11
  • Armstrong, S. L., Stahl, N. A., & King, J. (2021). What Does it Mean to Be College-Ready for Career Technical Education? Community College Review, 49(2), 131–155. https://doi.org/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0091552120982031
  • Stahl, N. A., Armstrong, S. L., & Hewett, E. (2020). Contextualization models for community college reading and study strategies: An integrative literature review. Community College Journal of Research and Practice. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2020.1785355
View all scholarly/creative works
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Robert Griffin Award for Long and Outstanding Service, College Reading and Learning Association. November 2024 - Present
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Cynthia Peterson 2024 Outstanding Article Award, College Reading and Learning Association. November 2024 - Present
  • Award / Honor Nominee: Alpha Chi Honor Society Favorite Professor. October 2024 - Present
  • Award / Honor Recipient: College Achievement Award for Excellence in Service, College of Education, Texas State University. February 2021
  • Award / Honor Recipient: College Achievement Award for Excellence in Service, College of Education, Texas State University. February 2020
View all awards
  1. Member

    Literacy Research Association's J. Michael Parker Award Committee

  2. Other

    College Reading and Learning Association

  3. Editorial Review Board Member

    Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy

  4. Other

    College Reading and Learning Association

  5. Other

    College Reading and Learning Association

  6. Chair

    Texas Community College Teachers Association, Developmental Reading and Writing Section

  7. View all activities