Recent political excursions into classroom text selections by local and national politicians and pundits have made teaching canonical texts more appealing to many school districts and teachers. In this study, we used conceptions of Derridean hospitality alongside monster theory to examine what common canonical texts teach students about who is…

Following on from the already wide-ranging academic discussion about fostering critical thinking in students as an important component of a university's educational mission, this paper takes a particular look at didactic principles for fostering this critical thinking. We begin with a reception of Abrami et al.'s (2015) comprehensive meta-study of…

Research in a broad range of disciplines has explored how specific modes of communication can contribute to meaning-making in diverse texts such as picture books, films, short animated features, and to a lesser extent video games. Fields such as literacy, semiotics, and critical communication studies have aimed to reveal different interpretative…

This article considers how to approach the task of developing a curriculum for social justice at a time of planetary and systemic crisis, on the basis that both 'human capital development' and passing on 'the best that has been thought and said' from the past are inadequate responses. If our aim is to create the conditions for human survival and…

This research investigated how a Critical Sociocultural Linguistics Literacy (CriSoLL) approach to authentic materials supports student literacy in a mixed Spanish heritage language (SHL) and additional language (L2) Spanish intermediate course at the university level. Using a qualitative approach (Cho, 2018; Esposito & Evans-Winters, 2021)…

Literacy has become inextricably bound with machine processes, especially in the age of ubiquitous, consequential artificial intelligence (AI). Despite a relatively long history of AI involvement in our everyday reading and writing practices, the public availability of generative AI tools has set off a wave of heated debate--and concern--about…

Social media has provided challenges and opportunities for education for democracy. There have always been structural elements of communication that are hidden and perpetuate inequalities. Social media has accelerated and empowered these hidden structures through algorithms. In this argumentative essay, we examine how critical media literacy can…

Within citizenship education, literacy is often promoted in a narrow functional sense of skills for civic engagement or is used synonymously with "knowledge" to refer to an awareness-raising process around rights. Through an analysis of evolving models of citizenship, this article moves beyond literacy "for" citizenship to…

This study investigates the critical literacy practices of adult learners at a community college. Student participants were selected from four different leveled reading courses. In this study, four guiding questions that were adopted from Klenner and Sandretto (2011): (1) How do students make personal connections to text?; (2) In what ways do…

The purpose of this action research study was to understand and develop school-wide critical literacy practices with middle school teachers. During Cycle 1, students, teachers, and administrators from one school within an urbanized district spoke with the researcher in either interviews or focus groups. Results indicated that in order to implement…

This study explores current literacy education in state primary schools of Northern Cyprus from the perspective of primary school teachers. The Northern Cyprus context is unique in that it has recently been receiving a considerable number of immigrants and state primary schools now include students from various backgrounds. This then raises the…

This article investigates one undergraduate's path towards critical literacy around racial inequalities as a result of engaging with, reading, and discussing a challenging children's novel during a book study with peers. Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory, the author examines the personal and cultural resources the students brought to the…

In an era of extreme political polarization, the impact of disinformation on Americans is an issue with which social studies teachers will have to contend. Equipping our students with media literacy skills is no longer a luxury, but is instead a critical component of an effective social studies education. However, it is less about strategies and…

Research has called for nuanced scholarly investigations that synergise, complicate, and advance social theories of literacy. Accordingly, this study melds critical literacy, critical race theory, and multiliteracies to distil students' involvement with the canonical "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," investigating: What are…

We present 11 evidence-based practices for teaching writing to students. These include recommendations for teaching writing to younger students (aged 5-11) and older students (aged 6-18). The recommendations are based on findings from close to 1000 investigations. The proposed recommendations are (1) students need to write, but writing is not…