This retrospective is a group effort between my children and me to make sense of their literacies over the past 26 years. Sharing in the authoring of this retrospective, we take a look back at the ways those literacies unfolded across their childhood. Emily, Tristan, and Simon used different literacies to define who they were and to construct a…

A number of literacy theorists have worked to describe what is new and different about youth enactments of literacy in the digital age. In doing so, many invoke "digital dichotomies," or oppositional framings meant to differentiate among various enactments of literacy (i.e. digital vs. analog, online vs. offline, out-of-school vs.…

This article has its roots in both literacy studies and environmental education. Beginning with a critical consideration of what it might mean to be 'literate' I argue that a re-evaluation of what it means to be "ecoliterate" is in order. I challenge current articulations of ecoliteracy, both in their relation to foundational literacy…

Becoming literate is emotional work. From the time we are born, we engage in multiple literacies, constructing new knowledge and powerful ideas that, together, bridge new understandings. With those new understandings, we are constantly being challenged and provoked with new information. The authors, two educators who have taught many students…

In this review essay, I refer to two recently published scholarly works that explore the notions of transcultural, mobile and placed literacies: in "Languages and literacies as mobile and placed resources" edited by Sue Nichols and Collette Snowden, and "Literacy lives in transcultural times" edited by Rahat Zaidi and Jennifer…

One of the key facets of educational globalisation has been the increasing diffusion of learning programmes based on 'Western' principles, whether this is in the context of school curriculum frameworks, educational policy, or standalone 'international education programmes' (Casinader, Culture, transnational education and thinking: Case studies in…

This paper explores the use of testimonio methodology, born from Chicana/Latina feminist thought and epistemologies as a way of exploring the languaging and knowledge production practices of minoritized communities as a platform to share their/our wisdom/voices in applied linguistics. As such, testimonio is a methodology that allows racialized…

Research on academic socialization has predominately focused on the L2 educational experiences of international students. While foreign language (FL) research has explored "multiliteracies" and "intercultural learning," literacy in a FL continues to be understood as the use of foreign words and grammar combined with culturally…

Literacy scholarship has established the importance of teaching, supporting, and facilitating digital literacy education for 21st century students. Stuart Selber goes a step further, arguing that students must be functionally (using digital technology), critically (questioning digital technology), and rhetorically (producing effective digital…

Signed languages around the world have tended to maintain an "oral," unwritten status. Despite the advantages of possessing a written form of their language, signed language communities typically resist and reject attempts to create such written forms. The present article addresses many of the arguments against written forms of signed…

In this Insights essay, we propose a new concept of "offlineness" that builds on current language around digital practices, yet addresses an element of young people's experience that is not adequately represented in current research or educational discourse. This work is informed by a recent cross-national arts-based research project…

This paper aims to further understand the future development of literacy theory and language learning in contemporary Chinese universities through the research on the current situation of EFL students' literacy in Chinese universities and the teaching characteristics of contemporary Chinese teachers. In this study, literature analysis method,…

In this article, the authors, two teacher educators and three high school teachers, examine the impact of a professional development seminar held in spring 2017. In that seminar, participants read and composed brief autobiographical sketches in a variety of media and learned a new lexicon for multimodal close reading, composition, and design.…

In this joint reflection, the authors discuss the nature of literacy in relation to "New Literacies: A Dual-Level Theory of the Changing Nature of Literacy, Instruction, and Assessment" (Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, Castek, & Henry, 2013), a chapter reprinted in this issue of the "Journal of Education." They reflect on the meaning…

In this article, we examine fugitivity and fugitive literacies as they are enacted by transfronterizx youth--young people who cross and experience life on both sides of the border between Mexico and the United States. Through a community-based literacy project located on the border between El Paso, Texas, USA, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico,…