The paper describes an upper-division university course in Mars literature taught online since Fall 2013. The course readings comprise six novels relating to Mars. Authors include H.G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury, Phillip K. Dick, Greg Bear, and Kim Stanley Robinson. After an introduction, sections of the paper discuss course…

This paper reviews algorithmic or artificial intelligence (AI) bias in education technology, especially through the lenses of speculative fiction, speculative and liberatory design. It discusses the causes of the bias and reviews literature on various ways that algorithmic/AI bias manifests in education and in communities that are underrepresented…

The author draws on previous work in looking at refugee literature and focuses on two different, yet arguably complimentary, examples of marginalized narratives in graphic novels that inservice teachers can use in instruction. "The Nameless City" by Faith Erin Hicks offers a fictional story yet delves into complex issues and themes.…

This article is a collaboration among three Philadelphia public school teachers who wrote curriculum units based on their new learning and research of W.E.B. Du Bois' groundbreaking book, "The Philadelphia Negro" (1899) of the Seventh Ward. Du Bois' book was the first major race study of an African-American urban community ever published…

Girls are consistently found to have higher literacy levels than their male peers and to consume more social narrative fiction. This study conducted interviews with four autistic girls to better understand how reading fiction can inform the camouflaging behaviours of autistic girls. Participants described how imitating characters embodying desired…

The purpose of this qualitative study is to better understand how children identify with superheroes to allow counselors to have a basis of understanding to inform their use of superheroes in therapeutic settings. The research questions are: (1) How do children ages 3-6 identify with their favorite superhero? and (2) how is children's self-concept…

This activity offers students a way to engage in cover letter writing, familiarizing themselves with the style and content of these documents in a creative, fictional scenario. Students will both prepare letters and evaluate them, with options to vary the gamification of the activity included. During the debrief, students assess their experience…

Fiction reading is a popular leisure activity associated with a variety of pleasurable experiences, including suspense, narrative transportation, and--as indicated by recent empirical studies--also flow. In the context of fiction reading, flow--generally defined as a pleasurable state of mind experienced during an optimally stimulating…

Cristina Fernández Cubas's short story "La nueva vida" ("La habitación de Nona" 2015) foregrounds the play between truth and fiction, past and present, and death and identity, where the widowed protagonist finds meaning not in philosophy, but in physics. Widowed in 2007 at age 62, Fernández Cubas focalized this story through…

The COVID-19 pandemic certainly amplifies the extent to which curriculum is adaptable, responsive, and proactive. These vulnerabilities, while daunting, can perhaps be welcomed as an invitation to reposition curricular priorities. COVID-19 reveals that an overreliance on the "curriculum as planned" and a continued absence of "the…

YA fiction is well known for a prevalence of narratives that explore identity and identity change. Critics have constructed multiple theoretical frameworks that help put into words the workings of adolescent identity in these novels. This article adds to that discussion by analysing Jacob, the main character of Aidan Chambers' "Postcards from…

The graphic novel "Alpha: Abidjan to Paris" follows the fictional character Alpha from Côte d'Ivoire to Paris, France, detailing his struggles as a displaced person without legal status as well as the various barriers he encounters on his journey to finding safety. The story of Alpha demonstrates a multifaceted, intersectional, and…

This article explores the usefulness of detective role-play as a research method to facilitate young children's critical thinking. The study examines four specifically designed detective play experiences, adopting an ethical rights-based approach to research with children. This qualitative multiple-case study is grounded in play-based pedagogy…

This content analysis explored children's fictional storybooks and informational science books to determine their differences in high-quality text features that support oral language (OL) development. We also explored the opportunities for OL development in curricular books compared to trade books. Using systematic coding procedures, we evaluated…

This qualitative study contributes theorised and empirically enriched insights from local practices into children's agency. The authors trace a converging interest in multimodal literacies, postcolonial philosophies and early childhood pedagogy to document and critically engage with children's agency in stories experienced by Malawian children in…