Educating for a Just Society: The 41st Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers Yearbook

Abstract

The theme for the 62nd annual conference of the Association of Literacy Educators
and Researchers was Educating for a Just Society. Connie Briggs, previous
Program Chair, reminded us that, “Education has always been the foundation of
a democratic nation. It is important that our students understand the principles
upon which our nation was founded and develop personal qualities that value
and celebrate diversity and equality leading to critical and independent thinking.
Individual and collective potential will only be realized when community
concern, social responsibility, and moral commitment of social justice is actioned
by and for all of society, particularly the marginalized of our nation.”

The indelible work we do as literacy professionals is reflected in this message
and in the thinking that was shared as we gathered together in Louisville,
Kentucky in 2018. From graduate students to senior scholars, the presentations
and personal conversations all served as sites of opportunity to reflect on and
enact this ambitious value. It’s continued to challenge us as editors through the
process of conscientization (Friere, 1970), or continual reflexivity, in our multiple
roles as editors, educators, researchers, advisors, administrators, and friends.
In each context, we wondered how can we celebrate others that aren’t normally
celebrated. Even more importantly, we’ve wrestled with how our teaching and
research practices and policies might approximate greater justice for all of those
we work with spanning the minoritized and majoritized spectrum (Sensoy &
DiAngelo, 2017).

Throughout the conference and since this time, a quote from renown bilingual
writer and artist, Sandra Cisneros, has pierced my (Ale’s) heart, ultimately
taking up residence to stay. In doing so, it’s both motivated and haunted me in
response to the question, “Why consider and teach literacy from a social justice
lens?” It’s “because the world we live in is a house on fire and the people we love
are burning” (Cisneros, 2018). While Cisneros shares this sentiment in relation
to why she writes, this quote adjusts my theoretical lenses to clarify that literacy
research is primarily about people, not acts or skills in and of themselves; it's about developing skills in people that allow them greater agency and human
flourishing. We view our students as people we love first and then we value
them as speakers, readers, writers, visual communicators, and change makers. To
varying degrees, they utilize their literacies across time and space, but they are
in danger. Often this danger occurs in the illegitimacy of their literacies; even
more, this danger comes in the form of systemic, institutional, interpersonal, and
internalized marginalization; but it’s always about being in danger of a reified
humanity: for the teacher and the student; for the historically minoritized and
the historically majoritized. Thus, it’s incumbent upon us, as literacy educators
and researchers, to urgently see, feel, and respond to those who are in danger. In
other words, we must teach and research with armed love (Freire, 1998).
Dr. Briggs’ hope and Sandra Cisneros’s quote substantially inform the
editorial team’s organization of this year’s yearbook.