In this article, we "think with" theories of affect and transmedial storytelling to explore the cruel optimism that standardised reading pedagogies (e.g. read alouds; leveled readers/independent reading) can produce for readers. We draw on particular moments in a first grade classroom to argue that such pedagogies transmit…

Drawing on a multi-year qualitative study of immigrant and non-immigrant youth storytelling, I describe youth's imaginative labour as they constructed and moved into one another's worlds. I argue that although multicultural literature is vital for affirming and expanding youth perspectives on their own and others' worlds, the publishing industry…

This essay examines the role of educators in the tangled economic, social, environmental and technological crises of the present time. It argues that a central purpose of education in this period is to support students to imagine and make liveable futures on their own terms. To do this, the paper proposes that the colonizing, optimizing and…