Courtney B. Cazden is Charles William Eliot Professor of Education Emerita in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. Having earned her bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Radcliffe College and graduate degrees from the University of Illinois and Harvard University, Cazden began her career as an elementary school teacher serving diverse students from predominantly working-class families. She quickly recognized that her students were being tracked into the lowest-level courses when they reached high school-a troubling observation that prompted her to ask how schools could better meet students’ needs.

Her desire to better understand language development and use and its relative impact on historically disadvantaged students prompted her to pursue a doctorate. Serving as a faculty member at her alma mater for the next five decades, Cazden has examined language acquisition and use, albeit in changing contexts. She focused on individual communicative competence in her early career before gradually shifting focus to interactions between individuals and within groups in context, including research on the discourse occurring among teachers and students in the classroom. Later examining issues of educational equity surrounding literacy and language use in context, Cazden has published extensively, including books and chapters, articles, and other scholarly works.

Her most recent book, titled Communicative Competence, Classroom Interaction, and Educational Equity: The Selected Writings of Courtney B. Cazden (2018), features 18 selected writings that illustrate her larger body of work. She has also received numerous awards and honors including: the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Educational Research (1986, American Educational Research Association), a Fulbright Research Fellowship (1987, New Zealand), Alumnae Recognition Award (1987, Radcliffe College), election to the National Academy of Education (1990), the George and Louise Spindler Award (1994, Council on Anthropology and Education), election to the Reading Hall of Fame (1994), and the Distinguished Researcher Award (1996, National Council on Research in Language and Literacy). In her retirement, Dr. Cazden remains widely recognized nationally and internationally as an expert on the development of oral and written abilities and on the functions of language in school and community.