These are difficult times for teachers and teacher educators. In a nationwide survey conducted 4 months after the 2016 presidential election, University of California, Los Angeles, researcher John Rogers and colleagues from the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (2017) found that teachers across the United States are witnessing increased instances of hostility toward students from racial and religious minority groups in their schools and overall increases in political polarization and incivility. Teachers are called upon to help students process any number of crises, from the epidemic of gun violence to the devastating effects of climate change and the rise of tribalism and hate speech.
What does it take to prepare English language arts teachers within this grim climate in ways that help them to acknowledge and respond to the challenges they will face with grace, determination, and a commitment to justice? What role does technology play in these efforts? Digital tools can be (and have been) wielded both to spread misinformation and amplify marginalized voices; they simultaneously have the power to contribute to echo chambers of like-minded views and introduce new perspectives to civic conversations. How can they be leveraged within ELA teacher education to support inquiry, empathy, and connection?
CITE – English Language Arts Education solicits rigorous conceptual and/or empirical manuscripts that explore innovative uses of technology in ELA teacher education that respond to the challenges of today’s civic and political context. The works to be included in this issue should go beyond simple description of ELA teacher education activities that utilize technology; they must include analysis of the nature and purpose of technology use by drawing upon rigorous theoretical and methodological principles. Special attention should be paid to issues of equity and access.
The most competitive manuscripts will take advantage of CITE Journal’s online platform by including multimedia content (i.e., images, video, web links, etc.). Note that multimedia content should be integral to the arguments being developed and not a decorative afterthought.
Abstracts for proposed manuscripts (maximum 500 words) should be submitted through the CITE Journal submission system (http://publish.aace.org/begin/cite/) by January 4, 2019, at 5 pm EST. Please title submissions “Special Issue Abstract.”
The authors invited to submit full manuscripts will be notified by January 15, 2019, and will be expected to submit their manuscripts for peer review no later than March 1, 2019, to allow time for revisions and publication in either the June 2019 or September 2019 issue.
Questions about the special issue should be directed to CITE English journal editor, Nicole Mirra, at [email protected].
