By the second decade of the 21st century, mentally ill youth who committed suicide and sometimes killed others before they killed themselves received considerable attention in the media of the United States. In none of the accounts of these individuals did their literacy lives come up for consideration. This case study details the role of literacy…

We think with several theoretical concepts from Jacques Derrida (defer, différance, deconstruction, and trace), in order to better understand how the processes of children, materials, and a teacher (re)defined and (re)imagined writing when they began to compose with a range of tools as writers in a second grade (7- to 8-year-olds) Writers' Studio.…

In this case study, I examine the ways adult learners improve skills and practices around communication, problem-solving, motivation, self-esteem, and technology through engagement in a makerspace curriculum focused on composition. A primary objective is to provide insight into the various ways that adult education environments can incorporate…

This article draws attention to contemporary research and theorizing that counters and resolutely dispels biological determinism laden with a plethora of mythic racial, gender, dis/ability and other types of unproven assumptions, conjectures, and biases. Based on a wide range of emerging conceptual breakthroughs and a growing body of evidence…

Without standardized access to higher education, incarcerated learners take advantage of the opportunities provided by local and national volunteer organizations for their postsecondary education. Toastmasters International describes itself as an educational nonprofit organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills, which now…

Based on a 1-year interview-based case study of a preservice English teacher, this article considers the limitations of both intersectional literacies and reader-based responses to texts. In an effort to address students' problematic discussions of female sexuality, the participant implemented a queer pedagogy that emphasized alterity, or the…

This article shares the experiences of Latina adolescent girls (Grades 7-12) and their mothers as participants in Somos Escritoras/We are Writers, a creative writing workshop that invites girls and their mothers to engage in the sharing of stories through art and writing. In the creation of Somos Escritoras, I position Black and Chicana feminist…

Although the literature on picture books is extensive, very little work focuses on how they are integrated into teacher education curricula. We contend that effective use of these resources requires an understanding of the relationship between preservice teachers' conceptions of children and of picture books. Second-year South African…

In this theoretical article, posthumanist theories of education and Jain nonviolence are brought into conversation through a diffractive analysis. This co-consideration of texts produces a renewed sense of the relationships among humans, the more-than-human world, and (non)violence: relationships that can produce and be produced by various…

Since 1985, when Texas passed the first dyslexia law, there has been a profusion of dyslexia legislation across the country, with a rapid increase in recent years. Including Texas, which has multiple laws, 42 states have passed dyslexia legislation focused on identification, intervention, accommodations, funding, and/or dyslexia specialists. Seven…

My presidential address focuses on three themes. First, I introduce and trouble the idea of literacy research as white property, drawing on my own research and the history of the Literacy Research Association (LRA) as an organization. Second, I argue that even critically oriented scholarship runs the risk of reproducing power relations it sets out…

In this article, I consider expanding meaningfulness in literacy research by exploring the possibilities offered by a relational perspective on literacy and its study. An interdisciplinary relational perspective is outlined and used to rethink what happens when we engage in reading and writing. Questions guiding this exploration include: What…

Teachers can harness the power of video games to foster interest and engage students in literacy activities. Within this study, seven 6th graders participated in a video game book group during language arts instructional time. The study focused on tweens' figured worlds of literacy and video games and the intersections and divergences of these…

This 7-month multiple case study investigated the nature of mediation through literacy coaching, a reflective framework, and video of classroom instruction and its impact on the development of four secondary-level teachers of English language learners. The participants and researcher/coach participated in a cycle of collaborative planning,…

Over the last few decades, scholars have conceptualized academic struggle, including learning disabilities, as socially constructed. When students, especially students of color, are constructed as struggling with school-based literacy, they can experience a variety of negative outcomes including higher dropout rates. In an attempt to unpack how…