This article argues that Hegel's book "The Phenomenology of Spirit" can be read as a "Bildungsroman" or a theory of reception. Hegel (as he appears in this book) sets forth to educate his readers to a historical understanding. This is the article's main argument which will be split up in three parts. First, it seems that Hegel…

This paper examines literacy as a sociocultural, personal and human practice dependent on and derived through relationships between people, settings and culture. Drawing on a recent empirical research study that combines learner, teacher and author perspectives [Curtin (2023) "Reading and Writing Pathways Through Children's and Young Adult…

Traditional narratives of sport posit winning as the defining goal in ways that can feel and be exclusionary to young people and result in a lack of enjoyment and subsequent decision to avoid or discontinue involvement in sport. This is particularly true for girls and young women who participate in sport at lower rates and quit at higher rates…

Research framed by evolving sociocultural theories have been fundamental in advancing the study of early childhood literacies. More recently the field has been enriched by posthumanist theories that have shifted the analytic gaze from children's participation in literacy practices and events, to the fluid relationality of literacies. Concurrently,…

This article looks past the gifted classics of children's literature to explore the incredible opportunity that is missed all too often: an opportunity to intentionally choose books in which diversity is not the point but showcase much-needed representation. Drawing on the concepts of mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors this article explores…

This article explores the ways in which the teaching of canonical texts such as Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" intersects with discourses of race and identity in multicultural classrooms. Informed by Chinua Achebe's post-colonial reading of Conrad and the concept of 'double consciousness' adopted by W. E. B. Du Bois, I examine my…

Although viewed (and dismissed) by many as primarily a tool for communication, language (and literature) cannot be understood only in relation to "what" it communicates. A study of "how" it is shaped uncovers the social forces that provide its broad and complex template in the acts of reading and writing. This article focuses…

Young adult literature (YAL) provides readers with a multivoiced palette that embraces cultures, genders, ages, sexualities, and experiences. Within this array are stories that feature characterswho deny elements of their identities or experiences that they find challenging or difficult. Multivoiced literature's treatment of these attempts takes…

At a time when some high school English classrooms erase and distort experiences and identities, it is vital for educators to explore pedagogies that provide radically reimagined forms of liberatory thought. This article explores ways the work of Coates can serve as "blueprint liberation" in the English classroom. The line of broken,…

Throughout adolescence, children begin to develop their life story: a coherent account of their experiences and selfhood. Although the nature of this development is still being uncovered, one promising direction for research is the examination of factors that could encourage life story development. Here the authors explore the idea that exposure…

In the light of increased interest in teachers' professional identities, this paper addresses the under-researched area of teachers' writing identities and examines the factors which influence how primary phase teachers are positioned and position themselves as teacher-writers in the literacy classroom. It draws on case studies of two…

This article examines the reading of leveled books and the assessment of students' reading levels in a public school classroom. The purpose of the research study was to examine how these processes of assessment, which often go unnoticed, shaped the ways reading and readers were defined. The research was located in a third grade, public school…

When the authors taught Walter Dean Myers's postmodern young adult novel "Monster" to ninth graders, they assumed the students would like the text, as its format and style resemble that of popular television crime shows. The authors also assumed the students would be savvy readers of the text, capable of understanding and integrating postmodern…

Discusses how three girls take up competing social messages about gendered identity in the different kinds of texts they read. Explains that it is in the complex transactions between the reader's prior lived experiences and the language of the text where meaning is shaped. Contends that when girls are encouraged to consider the actions of female…