In this essay, I share how my own readings and understandings of Islam brought me closer to wider concepts of literacy. I use these views to guide my own research in literacy education to situate what literacy can be for youth in and around schools, knowing that literacy is still taught, assessed, and measured in singular ways.

Contemporary nonfiction for young people plays a crucial role in the reading and writing lives of K-12 students. It is a rich and compelling genre that supports students' development as critically, visually, and informationally literate 21st century thinkers and creators. Unlike many textbooks and materials written for online or print-based school…

Discussions and practices focused on Black boys' literacy development and equity in U.S. classrooms require serious thought and interrogation if the aim is to move these boys toward advanced levels of reading, writing, intellectual development, and human development. Sorely, Black boys have become subjects of educational, programming, and policy…

In envisioning literacy at a crossroads, we ask what may be the potential of a different, intense, possible love, a love we may scarcely know and may yet discern--what we think of as a cosmic love, an explosive love. Such stance-taking in literacy research provokes new possibilities for research, teaching, and learning. We share brief narrative…

Writing in 2011, Philip Kitcher worried in 'Public knowledge and its enemies' that flaws in the dissemination of public knowledge would lead from a state of widespread ignorance to active resistance against expertise and more. Today, we seem to be living in the world Kitcher predicted, where a wide range of facts ranging from the results of…

This essay draws from a study conducted as part of graduate thesis work at George Mason University. The thesis examined the purpose of human rights education and critical media literacy, and the international inducements to include these subjects in the national education systems of United Nations (UN) member states. It compared the United States…

In "Media Revolution: Its Educational Implications," Richard Pratte argues that in order to stay relevant, American education needs to be concerned with how technology and media affect society. In this brief theoretical article, Pratte provides a prescient view of a landscape that has become ever more complex in the intervening fifty…

In this forum, practitioners reflect on their experiences as they respond to the following question: How can we use literacy to advocate for environmental issues? Three educators across elementary, middle school, and college settings describe using multiple literacies to conduct inquiries and create a deeper awareness of sustainability and shared…

Renee Hobbs argues that schools must teach students how propaganda works so that they can better understand the messages they see around them. In an interview with Kappan editor Rafael Heller, she describes how propaganda -- and instruction about it -- has evolved over time. Although there have been periods where it was discussed extensively in…

Writing practitioners, researchers, and scholars are at a juncture where foundational assumptions about the teaching of writing, its place in higher education, and its ability to help foster a truly inclusive democratic society are increasingly contested. Trust in literacy has been eroded over the past decades, coming to an acute crisis in the…

This invited paper highlights the reflections of expert panelists who were spontaneously called upon, graciously accepted, and quickly organized to respond thoughtfully and compellingly to Dr. Arlette Willis' powerful and timely Oscar Causey address at the 2022 Literacy Research Association (LRA) annual conference. In her address, Dr. Willis…

Purpose: This essay-conversation brings together two literacy scholars who have worked with religious literacies: Suresh Canagarajah and Anne Elrod Whitney. They discuss not only the importance of religious literacies research but also their own experiences conducting such research as people of faith themselves. Design/methodology/approach: The…

In this forum, Stephen Reder argues that adult literacy education needs to be repositioned within a new framework of lifelong and life-wide learning, a framework in which new policies are formulated, programs are designed and evaluated, and research is funded and carried out. To appreciate how much this suggested framework differs from the…

Today, young people are immersed in a complicated media ecology that promotes an infodemic of disinformation and profit-driven spin while simultaneously presenting extraordinary opportunities for participatory engagement. The social studies classroom is a critical platform for preparing the next generation to cope and thrive amid this…

We propose centering discussions of the science of reading around five values to increase the likelihood of bringing all students to high levels of literacy. These values are (1) collective responsibility, (2) equity through higher order thinking, (3) a rigorous system, (4) accountability with transparency, and (5) stability and sustainability.