English Language Arts as an Emancipatory Subject

Andrew Goodwyn is President of the International Federation for the Teaching of English and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. He is also Emeritus Professor, The University of Reading, UK. Jacqueline Manuel is Professor of English Education, Sydney School of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, Australia. Cal Durrant is retired Associate Professor in English Curriculum and Director of the Literacy Research Hub, Australian Catholic University, Australia. Wayne Sawyer is Emeritus Professor, School of Education, Western Sydney University, Australia. Marshall George is Olshan Professor of Clinical Practice, Hunter College, City University of New York, USA. Melanie Shoffner is Professor of English Education, James Madison University, USA.

Part I: Establishing English as an Emancipatory Subject

1. Knowing the Subject, Knowing its History: Examining Key Figures in English who Contributed to its Emancipatory Nature

2. English as an Emancipatory Subject in England: A Historical Perspective, 1875-2024

3. English Teaching for Democratic Futures: The Role of Language, Literacy and Literature in Developing Creative and Critical Thinkers

4. The English Language Emerging as an Identity for Migrants and Refugees

5. Describing the World with Our Students in it: ELA and the Power of ‘Recognition’

Part II: Reconfiguring the Curriculum of Emancipatory English

6. Teaching English to Nurture Social Imagination in the Early Years of Schooling: Emancipation versus Constraints

7. English, Literature and Questions of Emancipation: What does Literature Offer?

8. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion through Children’s Literature in Higher Education

9. Making English Good and Right: Curriculum Reform in Aotearoa New Zealand

10. The Power of English Within and For the Lives of Migrant and Refugee Students

11. Rurality, Writing and English: Spatial Justice for Rural Students through English Teaching and Writing Pedagogy

12. Transitioning from Critical Literacy to the Ecocritical

Part III: Emancipatory English in Practice

13. Cultivating Critical Thinking Through Canonical and Non-Canonical Texts: Using a Social Justice Framework to Shape Curriculum and Instruction

14. Applying Country-Centred Place Pedagogies to Include All Learners in English

15. The Dignity of Choice: Independent Reading’s Emancipatory Potential as an Instructional Practice

16. Ungrading for Social Justice: De-Centering Grades, Inequity, and White Supremacy

17. Recovering Truth-Seeking Ethical Pedagogies for the Literature Classroom in a Post-Truth Age

18. Shaping Identities: How Marginalized Students Harness Discourse to Reclaim Power in English Language Arts

19. “I Make it What I Want”: Cultivating Fugitive Spaces of Acceptance and Resistance for Minoritized Students in the ELA Classroom

Part IV: Teachers of Emancipatory English

20. Possibilities and Practicalities: English Teachers and Their Creation of Spaces for Students’ Voices and Agency

21. U.S. Teachers, Book Bans, and Sustaining the Self in the Southern Discourse

22. From Teacher to Teacher Educator: Developing an Anti-Racist, Anti-Biased Stance
Kristen Hawley Turner

23. Reflection and Liberation: The Reimagination of an English Methods Course
Madison Gannon and Jennifer Ervin