This article is located at the crossroads between two distinctive human traits, empathy and rational thought, with narrative emerging as a particularly powerful means to enable young readers to bring them together. Specifically, we discuss the role that critical literary exegesis plays in the development of empathic consciousness in literary…

The Australian Curriculum has extensive references to literacy. It appears as not only a core strand within English, but also as a General Capability for the Curriculum as a whole. Such considerable focus leads to the question of what literacy actually means within such a context, and this paper aims to better understand the conceptualising of…

Teachers want to do their best for every child, but worry about causing offence and often shy away from troublesome issues. The classroom situations and strategies presented here will help teachers negotiate their way through complex situations and bring about constructive change. This book clarifies concepts and value differences and the subtle…

Educators have called for the integration of African Indigenous Knowledge (AIK) into educational curricula particularly at the university level. However, little is known about the perspectives of university students regarding the role of AIK towards educational development. Thus, this study used survey and focus group discussions to examine the…

In today's media-laden environment, the ability to read text from a critical literacy perspective is imperative, particularly for librarians who influence children's reading choices and behaviors. This study examines the critical literacy performances of students in an online, asynchronous, graduate-level children's literature course using a…

As the tools and modes of literate practice continually emerge, so too must our critical approaches to understanding their expression. While media production has been praised for its potential to provide youth a voice to challenge dominant narratives, various questions remain as to what happens at the multimodal levels of composition in terms of…

Digital games are positioned in literacy research as integral to contemporary youth culture and their potential as a learning resource continues to be explored in current literature. This paper examines the use of "Minecraft" as a pedagogical tool to motivate girls' literacy practices within the secondary English classroom. The data…

As demographics change, our school populations are ever changing. Preservice teachers (PSTs) need to be aware of how to meet the needs of all of their future students. Teacher education programs have been charged with the duty of preparing these PSTs for the diverse school population they will encounter. This qualitative multiple case study…

Public education's distinctive and primary challenge is to ensure all children, across all communities, have access to the skills and knowledge required for their full participation in democratically regulated social, cultural, and vocational life. This is an aspiration increasingly difficult to realize under present-day conditions of austerity in…

In this paper, the author reviews "Sense & Sustainability: Educating for a Circular Economy," by Ken Webster and Craig Johnson. He reviews the core text that underpins the work of the education team at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/). He shows that while it is strong on some technical aspects of…

The author proposes that teachers of critical literacy must not only decenter texts as infallible authorities, but also decenter teachers as infallible (textual) authorities. She outlines problematic aspects of pursuing critical literacy as outcome, where there is heavy emphasis on having students parrot the teacher's viewpoint, and of pursuing…

What are new literacies and how do they mesh with core curriculum? Classroom teachers who find their students' interests and bases of knowledge about new technologies expanding exponentially often ask this question. While broadening the definition of new literacies beyond internet literacy this article explores the history of new literacies and…

How professional development is delivered in today's networked world has shifted greatly, and research into online spaces of learning is growing. Numerous questions, however, remain regarding how online spaces can be leveraged to foster meaningful conversations that address current critical educational issues. This qualitative study examines the…

Transmedia play is a new way to understand how children develop critical media literacy and new media literacies through their interactions with contemporary media that links stories and structures across platforms. This essay highlights five characteristics of transmedia play that make it particularly useful for learning:…

This action research study examines what happened when exemplary practices found in low-income rural schools in South Carolina, and critical and culturally responsive theories became the lens that pre-service teachers studied literacy practices in Reading Pedagogy and Children's Literature classes. To see how pre-service teachers acted on these…