January Newsletter
Scholars Speak Out, Take 2, and Call for Spring Manuscripts
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Disrupting the World as We Know It: Addressing Racism in ELA Teacher Education By Melanie Shoffner, James Madison University
I’ll be honest: I have struggled to write this essay. What more can I add to the conversation about racial issues today? Even as an English teacher educator, what more can I say about racism in education? Educators far wiser than I have considered connections and pondered problems with issues of race, advocacy and pedagogy as long as I’ve been alive—well before and, likely, well after, too (e.g., Anderson, 1988; Banks, 1996; Delpit, 1995; Fecho, 2004; Freire, 1989; Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Sleeter, 2005; Tatum, 1997). As yet another white, mid-40s, from working-class-to-middle-class, former-teacher-now-professor female, I am reluctant to add yet another whitesplaining voice to our discussions on race. What can I offer that hasn’t been said before by people far more equipped to say it?
To read the rest of this month's Scholars Speak Out article, click here.
Introduction by Mariah Copeland Parker, Academic Book Review Editor
In 2012, we published Jacqueline B. Koonce’s “Oh, Those Loud Black Girls!”: A Phenomenological Study of Black Girls Talking with an Attitude.” Koonce’s sophisticated examination of the experience of Talking with Attitude in school settings shines a light upon a particular kind of student-teacher disconnect but as well evidences the phenomenology’s power to help us close such gaps. Her exploration begins with a journey through her own African American adolescence; Koonce teases apart the nuances of class and gender that heat interactions between young black women, and along the way, Koonce herself notes how a lack of understanding of attitude’s uses among young Black girls may be a deterrent to reaching them, even for educators like herself who identify with such students in race and gender but not in age.
I bring us back to this piece now for two reasons. First, it’s been a wild year for Black America, a year in which white supremacists drive cars into crowds of protesters, on the one hand, and films like Get Out masterfully humanize the struggle to be young, Black and well-understood, on the other. I think phenomenology has a special power to hold up into the light what this is like, not just what it seems, and this is critical for bridging divides in a time where our society feels ever more polarized. Thus Koonce’s piece is a profound mentor text for those not simply interested in dissecting or categorizing but sitting with and absorbing the experiences of students of color--or any group of students, for that matter--and one that demands attention even six years later.
To read our Take 2 introduction for this semester, click here.
Spring 2018 Call for Papers
We invite you to submit a manuscript to The Journal of Language and Literacy Education’s (JoLLE) themed Spring 2018 issue. The theme of this year’s issue follows our annual conference theme: Reframing Pedagogical Practices and Language and Literacy Research: Teaching to the Future (more information below).Manuscripts are due by February 13, 2018 by 11:59 p.m. EST. Please refer to the JoLLE guidelines for submission, found here.
In her presidential address at the annual American Education Research Association conference, Dr. Vivian Gadsden encouraged educators and researchers to reframe pedagogical practices, seek places of optimism, and find interdisciplinary synergy to strengthen educational ideals. This invitation echoes various scholars who understand the necessity to reimagine and redefine how we research, how we teach, and how we acknowledge and sustain differences in language and literacy. For this year’s conference and themed journal edition, we aim to heed Gadsden’s call by expanding, reimagining, and reshaping the boundaries that may constrain progress. We invite scholars to generate new ideas aimed to push research to new conceptual, empirical, and philosophical heights. We invite innovators and originators to think about ways to create inventive symbiosis. We invite traditionalists and those who enjoy the classics to reinvent current practices and find the inherent synergy that can create renewed vigor for classic approaches. We invite people from all facets of education to think about the ways we can join together to propel ideas about language and literacy into the future.
If you have a manuscript that you think would be a great fit for our spring issue, please email jolle.submissions@gmail.com. For more information, please consult our submission guidelines.
Call for Submissions for Poetry, Fiction, and Visual Art
JoLLE@UGA is now accepting submissions of poetry, fiction, and visual art that relate to language and/or literacy education. Work will be chosen based on artistic merit and relevance to the field.
For the spring issue, fiction submissions (20,000 words or less) are due by Friday, February 16th, 2018; poetry (written or spoken word), and/or visual arts submissions are due by Friday, March 2, 2018, at the latest for consideration in our spring issue.
JoLLE@UGA is now accepting submissions of poetry, fiction, and visual art that relate to language and/or literacy education. Work will be chosen based on artistic merit and relevance to the field.
Poetry*
We accept poetry submissions related to language and/or literacy education of up to four (4) poems in a single word or text (.doc, .rtf, or .txt) document. Poems do not have to be on separate pages. Please single space and put your name and email address on the first page. Spoken poetry in mp3/video format may also be submitted along with the written text. We reserve the right to accept all or some of your poetry.
*For this issue, we will also begin accepting MP4 or H.264 formatted spoken word submissions. If interested, please also submit the poem/s in a single word or text (.doc, .rtf, or .txt) document.
Fiction
We accept submissions related to language and/or literacy education (20,000 words or less), in a single word or text (.doc, .rtf, or .txt) document.
Art
We accept art submissions related to language and/or literacy education of up to four (4) works of art (photos, drawings, paintings, music, videos, drama, comics, etc.) in .jpeg, .tiff, .png, .gif or other relevant format.
For more information, please consult http://jolle.coe.uga.edu/poetry-and-art/ or email jolle.art.literature@gmail.com.
About Us
Email: jolle.communicate@gmail.com
Website: jolle.coe.uga.edu
Location: 110 Carlton Street, Athens, GA, United States
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Twitter: @jolle_uga