This article analyzes fat male figures in children’s picture books examining gendered anti-fatness and advocating for stories that challenge biases and promote understanding. Educators and children can view spaces of fat joy without shame that ultimately beg the question: How can we imagine and create these spaces?

The column celebrates the awardees of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction.

This essay advocates integrating the Active View of Reading Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy and Universal Design for Learning for holistic literacy development and inclusive classrooms.

Seven teacher educators critically examined writing instruction to disrupt whiteness center student agency and foster equitable justice-oriented and culturally sustaining pedagogy.

Within this issue of Voices the editors have created space to celebrate and honor the contributions Kylene Beers has made not only to the profession but to the National Council of Teachers of English. She was a fixture within NCTE and particularly within Voices from the Middle. We hope you enjoy reading the stories of some of the people who remain profoundly touched by her work.

In this article the authors argue for including African literacy practices such as oral storytelling and Adinkra symbols as abolitionist practices in teaching literacy to Black and African students in schools. The article concludes with recommendations on incorporating oral storytelling and Adinkra symbols in classrooms.

This article describes four art-infused writing engagements to inspire freedom dreamers of all ages to seek educational justice.

The purpose of this column is to discuss describe and provide recommendations for teaching African American children’s literature exploring several interdisciplinary scholars who historically focus on the importance of Black culture pedagogy and children’s literature.

This study examines how translanguaging and multimodal pedagogies enable emergent bilingual students to use their full linguistic repertoire while developing biliteracy. It also explores how various modes of text representation facilitate the collection and dissemination of new knowledge while promoting inquiry-based learning.

In this essay we reflect on whether there can ever realistically be a one-size-fits-all solution to the complexity of teaching reading. Working together in a school-university partnership we speak about the importance of giving space to the teacher’s unique expertise in the crafting of reading instruction.

We provide recommendations for how teachers may employ translanguaging writing pedagogy to cultivate positive multilingual learners’ identities.

Explore suggestions for uplifting immigrant experiences through schoolwide policies teacher learning and instructional choices.

This article debunks the common rationale for enforcing the use of only “standard” English among Black Language speakers—it will help students “get a job” in the future. On the contrary I argue that Black Language is an important vehicle for learning the content that is required for future job placement. Ignoring this truth forces Black students to only learn in white mainstream English. Finally I explain how phonics instruction has never honored Black Language phonology and offer suggestions for practitioners.

As foundational reading curricula are being rapidly scaled up it is essential to consider how teachers navigate these shifts alongside their existing and multifaceted expertise in bilingualism early childhood pedagogy and reading development. This article examines the challenges bilingual teachers face when implementing foundational reading instruction in bilingual early childhood classrooms focusing on the instructional practices and experiences of two early childhood bilingual teachers. It highlights the need for professional learning and teacher agency grounded in a broad and interconnected literacy ecosystem.

Using narrative inquiry the author describes how three middle school literacy teachers developed a Community of Practice around a shared goal of adding a queer and intersectional lens to their curriculum.