English Education - Volume 57, Issue 4, 2025

Alexander et al. (2023) reported that, between 2021 and 2022, there were 563 measures introduced by government officials aimed at restricting teaching about race and racism; of those, 241 were passed. Given this reality, there has never been a more important time to help our English education preservice teachers understand that nothing is apolitical. In this article, the authors share findings from a two-year study that explored the following question: What kind of political vision do preservice teachers develop in a structurally and conceptually coherent English education program? Findings show that a cohered program around a shared political vision helped the PSTs highlighted in this article develop their own political vision for teaching, which included the understanding that students are citizens, teaching is relational work, and perspective taking is foundational to teaching.

Teaching is political work—now more than ever, perhaps—and this article seeks to contribute to the conversation on the politics of English language arts education by trying to understand how English teacher educators take up activist stances in their work. Informed by a critical pedagogy perspective, indebted to Paulo Freire particularly, we write through the following question: How do ELA teacher educators describe making activism part of their preparation of future teachers? Our findings, informed by a national survey and follow-up interviews with 19 participants, suggest myriad tactics and strategies ELA teacher educators use to enact a progressive, activist vision in teacher education classrooms. We imagine this article as both manifesto and manual with respect to what an activist ELA teacher education can be for a world to come.

Underscored by bell hooks’s assertion that “no education is politically neutral,” this essay describes one teacher educator’s praxis with preservice undergraduate students. We engage with scholarship about desire-based ways of knowing and thick solidarity to articulate our values, connections, and practices for teaching and learning. Students develop rigorous imaginations for educational possibilities, a critical practice for English teachers and teacher educators amid mounting regulation, constraint, and criminalization of social justice praxis. This essay includes a discussion and examples of a social justice vision board project, a curricular tool designed for preservice and inservice preK-12 teachers to articulate their educational values, connections, and practices.

This essay examines the development of collaboration, listening, and learning in a graduate English education program, as teacher candidates navigate sociopolitical challenges such as book bans and restrictions on teaching divisive concepts. Focusing on community-building and reflective practice in a methods course, this article discusses collaborations with colleagues, doctoral students, teaching artists, and international educators to help candidates explore how we make choices in education, emphasizing listening and collaboration as key to learning how to become a teacher and to center students’ humanity. Theater partnerships offer innovative approaches to Shakespeare while virtual exchanges with Caribbean universities provide a global perspective on text selection and pedagogy; doctoral students bridge academia and public schools, offering practical insights.

Teacher educators and teachers are navigating increasingly repressive educational climates amid the ongoing crisis in Palestine. As a group of justice-centered teacher educators, we argue for the urgent need to teach about this crisis through inquiry-driven, critical literacy approaches. Grounding our work in Lewison et al.’s (2002) framework, we explore how critical literacy can support teacher educators in naming and resisting dehumanizing narratives, analyzing power, and fostering action for social justice. We offer pedagogical resources, guiding questions, and text recommendations to help teacher educators, teachers, and students critically engage with the region’s histories and contemporary realities.