English Education - Volume 57, Issue 3, 2025

This article addresses how teacher educators prepare literacy teachers to respond to the politicization of reading and literacy in current contexts. Utilizing a humanizing pedagogies framework, the authors explore four nested cases within a case study of one cohort of preservice teachers’ literacy mentoring in a two-semester course-based practicum. They ask how preservice teachers practice humanizing pedagogy and how they reflect toward their future teaching. A qualitative analysis of course artifacts reveals particularities in how participants learn about themselves as they mentor young readers, leverage those understandings to build their teaching practice, and connect their experiences to the politics of schooling. Participants envision cultivating belonging and critical literacy within their future classrooms, conscious of the conditions of schooling, and hopeful about their capacity to teach critical literacy. Implications for teacher education include designing spaces to come to know and meet preservice teachers where they are in their journeys toward humanization.

This review of teacher research published in four NCTE journals from 2003–2023 considers who is authoring teacher research articles about which middle and secondary contexts and for which audiences. Despite teacher research’s history in English education, epistemic injustice has fragmented its contributions to our field’s knowledge base. Consequently, a recent history is critically important to document. Drawing on positioning theory to analyze how article authors position themselves and others through writing for publication, this research reveals that most teacher research published in these NCTE journals is authored by English educators. It identifies three vantage points from which English educators differently position themselves in relation to teacher research and teacher-researchers as they contribute to ELA’s emancipatory aims. At a sociopolitical moment when teacher agency and intellectualism are particularly threatened, this review calls English educators forward. By capitalizing on our collective power to publish and seek sustainable change with classroom teacher-researchers, we champion shared roles as knowledge producers and agents of change working together to emancipate students and one another from oppressive systems of inequities.

This reflective essay explores the evolution of an educator’s understanding of the inherently political nature of teaching, inspired by Paulo Freire’s philosophy and deepened through personal experience and professional development. Initially resistant to integrating politics into pedagogy, the author recounts how mentoring new teachers and a pivotal experience with a mentee exposed the inadequacy of apolitical teaching. A Fulbright fellowship further shifted the author’s perspective, revealing that classrooms are critical spaces for civic discourse and democratic engagement. Embracing this insight, the author began explicitly incorporating political texts and discussions while maintaining a focus on analytical thinking over partisan debate. The essay concludes with a framework for preservice and new teachers to navigate political content thoughtfully and responsibly. It argues that avoiding politics is not a neutral act but rather a missed opportunity to equip students for active citizenship in a complex, polarized world.

Grounded in theories of care and humanizing pedagogy, in this praxis piece, two teacher educators explore strategies to navigate complex, polarizing topics in educational settings. Drawing on examples such as facilitating “listening arguments” and welcoming discomfort in critical reflection, educators are encouraged to resist binaries and promote understanding of diverse perspectives. Through care and humanization, educators can create spaces where disagreements become opportunities for growth, healing, and deeper civic engagement, even in restrictive educational environments.

Teacher educators in the United States who are committed to promoting critical pedagogy are certain to face tension and doubt during Trump’s second term as president. In this reflective piece, two teacher educators explore some of their tensions and discuss the insight gained from reflecting upon and responding to moments of tension and doubt.