The COVID-19 pandemic can be read as an eruption of the Real: a traumatic event that overwhelms our capacity for symbolization and exposes the fragility of the imaginary. Albert Camus addresses this traumatic dimension in his 1947 novel "The Plague," in which he reserves a rather puzzling statement for the closing paragraph: A plague…

Students in the English Language Arts classroom have access to more author commentary than ever. While following authors on social media may deepen students' engagement with their assigned reading, it also threatens to subdue students' own interpretations of the authors' texts. This essay explains how educators can introduce basic aspects of…

Asian American Rhetoric and Representation was a graduate-level course taught at Virginia Tech in 2019. The course overviewed disciplinary conversations and concerns in and around Asian American rhetorical studies over time, with a focus on the affordances of Asian American rhetorical theory for the study of rhetoric and writing more broadly.…

Recreational reading is in a decline for upper elementary aged readers, and along with this decline comes consequent declines in students' ability to make meaning from what they read and their acquisition of different language forms, including the acquisition of new vocabulary words. However, one reading format is increasing in popularity: graphic…

Holistic ecology considers nature and society as a whole, viewing humans and the environment as interdependent and interconnected. This article takes the lens of holistic ecology to examine the representation of human--nature relationships in Patrick Ness's "A Monster Calls" (2011) and explores how the novel guides the child reader to an…

A student of self-directed learning provides a perspective commentary on the use of fiction to foster discussion of themes, studies, and theories related to self-directed learning. The novel used is Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451," set in a future dystopian society where books are outlawed and any that are found are burned by government…

This qualitative study highlights how children's literature can serve as a springboard for discussing current events while making connections with a similar historical event. Undergraduate students enrolled in children's literature courses read the graphic novel "Fever Year: The Killer Flu of 1918" and discussed the parallels between the…

Multicultural education is expected to improve the frameworks of educational institutions so that students from various ethnic, racial, cultural, and linguistic groups have equal academic accomplishment possibilities. It is essential for English as a foreign language (EFL) learners and teachers in Indonesia since English has its own culture. This…

Academic integrity is a crucial aspect of the educational process, often receiving insufficient attention until a violation occurs. Researchers emphasize the importance of students comprehending academic integrity to foster ethical professionalism. However, there is a lack of resources available to effectively support these conversations. This…

White hegemony is pervasive in and through music education, demanding that teachers and scholars take deliberate social and political actions in order to address racial injustice. Such actions are often built upon propositional knowledge or knowledge that can be evaluated by conceptual reason and verified as true or false (Perry and Shotwell 2009;…

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 discusses the representation of news media in two crime novels by Argentine writer Claudia Piñeiro: "Betibú" (2011) and "Las maldiciones" (2017). It proposes that in these two novels, Piñeiro addresses both the limitations and the possibilities of activist journalism in the twenty-first century. Piñeiro's work…

Drawing on cognitive criticism, and using Theory of Mind, transportation, and imaginative resistance as a framework, this essay analyzes the ways in which Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows Duology, can build understanding of and empathy for people with living with mental illnesses. Maria Nikolajeva's germinal work on cognitive approaches to literature…

Contributing to a growing body of research on acknowledging U.S. imperialism within teacher education, this article explores how knowledge production on Iran--and U.S.-Iran relations more broadly--in secondary education represents a site of what Britzman has called difficult knowledge. Here, the difficulty of classroom engagements with the theme…

This teacher-as-researcher case study explores pre-service and novice teachers' experiences with graphic novels and has them consider how these can be used for literacy skill improvement and develop content knowledge. The foundation for this study is rooted in research on teacher preparation while addressing academic literacy standards in…