This book explores the dynamic range of literacy practices in and out of school that are reconstructing youth gender identities in both empowering and disempowering ways and the implications for local literacy classrooms.

Offering diverse and wide-ranging perspectives on gender, sexualities, and literacies, this volume examines the intersection of these topics from preschool to adulthood. With a focus on current events, race, and the complex role of identity, this text starts with an overview of the current research on gender and sexualities in literacies and interrogates them from a range of multimodal contexts. Not restricted to any gender identity or age group, these chapters provide a much-needed and original update to the ways representations and performances of gender and sexualities through literacy practices are viewed in educational and sociocultural contexts. Scholars share their insights and transformative visions that respect and embrace difference while creating space for new and deeper understandings of contemporary issues.

Showcasing cutting-edge findings on adolescent literacy teaching and learning, this unique handbook is grounded in the realities of students' daily lives. It highlights research methods and instructional approaches that capitalize on adolescents' interests, knowledge, and new literacies. Attention is given to how race, gender, language, and other dimensions of identity--along with curriculum and teaching methods--shape youths' literacy development and engagement. The volume explores innovative ways that educators are using a variety of multimodal texts, from textbooks to graphic novels and digital productions. It reviews a range of pedagogical approaches; key topics include collaborative inquiry, argumentation, close reading, and composition.ÿ

This edited volume highlights recent research related to how issues of diversity are addressed within literacy instruction for K-12 learners.

This work offers parents, educators, and librarians a practical guide to discovering the ways gender identities are constructed through literacy practices, providing recommendations for addressing gender inequities in schools and in the community at large. Gender and Literacy: A Handbook for Educators and Parents focuses on issues related to the gendered experience of students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12, promoting an understanding that the issues surrounding gender cannot be reduced to broad generalizations. Author Karen A. Krasny seeks to make clear the complex notion of gender construction within the context of redefining what constitutes legitimate literacy practices in schools. This handbook will help to guide educators, parents, and librarians by assisting them in the selection and evaluation of print and media resources. The first chapter explains the need to understand the complex relationship between gender and literacy. The bulk of the book provides readers with a critical review of the studies conducted to investigate gendered literacy practices, while the last three chapters focus on actionable strategies and policy making.

As classrooms across the globe become increasingly more diverse, it is imperative that educators understand how to meet the needs of students with varying demographic backgrounds. Emerging Issues and Trends in Education presents case studies from academics who have all at one point been teachers in K–12 classrooms, addressing topics such as STEM as well as global issues related to race, gender education, education policy, and parental engagement. The contributors take an international approach, including research about Nigerian, Chinese, Native American, and Mexican American classrooms. With a focus on multidisciplinary perspectives, Emerging Issues and Trends in Education is reflective of the need to embrace different ways of looking at problems to improve education for all students.

Liminal Spaces of Writing in Adolescent and Adult Education addresses the persistent gap in writing reform at the middle, secondary, and post-secondary level. Through an examination of “useful” and “liminal” writing, the book explores the intellectual and creative space where structured expectations verge with individual imagination in writing. The premise of the book is built around a multiplicity of ways to invite adolescent and adult students to enter into states of liminality where they are encouraged to experiment with style, form, genre, and voice. Through research featuring the perspectives of adolescents, classroom teachers, teacher educators, graduate students, and literacy researchers, the book offers numerous insights into fostering a liminal and useful approach to writing instruction. Each author takes the reader through a journey of finding the liminal as teachers, writers, and researchers. Taken together, this tapestry of perspectives puts forth the argument that liminal moments are necessary caveats to explore in order to cultivate fully actualized writing where students are in control of structures and traditional writing expectations but also free to imagine new ways of breaking with conventions and being as writers. Thus, the book argues liminal writing is critical in bringing about sustained writing reform.