Leslie David Burns

Leslie David Burns is an Associate Professor of Literacy at the University of Kentucky and a former high school English language arts teacher in rural and suburban Kansas.

Dr. Burns is a winner of the Edward B. Fry Book Award for Empowering Struggling Readers in 2011 for the advancement of knowledge, research, and intellectual risk-taking in the field of literacy. He is a co-author of the National Council of Teachers of English/National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education's Standards for English Language Arts Teachers, Grades 7-12 (2012), and served as the lead author of the first official standard for social justice and teacher education in the history of the United States.

Dr. Burns currently serves as co-editor of Peter Lang Publishing's book series Social Justice Across Contexts in Education with his colleague Dr. sj Miller, and is currently a member of The College Board's Advanced Placement Literature and Composition Advisory Development Committee. He works as the Program Chair of English Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Kentucky.

Dr. Burns served as the chief curriculum consultant for the state of Kentucky's P-12 Model Curriculum Framework for all content areas and grade levels, which was awarded the John I. Wilson National Award for Innovation in Education in 2010. He also served as the Higher Education Representative for English language arts in Kentucky's Teacher Leader Network, which developed the standards and learning targets for teaching P-12 language arts in classrooms throughout Kentucky.

Dr. Burns' research interests include English language arts, adolescent literacy, curriculum studies and design, education policy, education standards, education reform, teacher professionalism and identity, and techniques for responsive teaching and learning in diverse classrooms, and social justice for all.