This book offers critical perspectives on global literacies, connecting research, theory, and practice. An emerging concept in the literacy field, many scholars agree on the need for students to develop global literacies, yet few agree on a widely accepted definition. Based on a synthesis of the literature, the editors formulate a definition of global literacies with four dimensions, including: literacy as a human right in all nations around the world; critical reading and creation of multimodal texts about global issues; intercultural communication and reciprocal collaboration with globally diverse others; and transformative action for social and environmental justice that traverses borders. Taking this shared, proposed definition as a starting point, the chapters then offer contextualized examples of global literacies from K-12 and teacher education classrooms to make explicit links between research and practice. The contributors interact with and interrogate the book’s definition of global literacies using a common framework of critical theory. As such, this book provides both emerging and established scholars with critical frameworks for positioning global literacies in ways that are relevant, dynamic, and forward thinking.
Introduction: Towards an Overarching Definition of Global Literacies. Section I. Literacies as a Human Right in all Nations Around the World. 1. Geopolitics of Knowledge in Multiliteracies Research. 2. Literacies Made in Brazil: Global and Subaltern Cosmopolitan Literacies. 3. Who Decides What Is Legitimate Literacy? Affirming the Importance of African Languages in the Global Literacies Field. 4. The Digital Literacy Divide Across the Rural Lifeworld: From Remote Possibility to Global Connectivity. Section II. Critical Reading and Creation of Multimodal Texts About Global Issues. 5. Doing Justice to the Other: Developing Cosmopolitan Dispositions Through Critical-Ethical Pedagogies in Global Literacies Education. 6. Somali-Canadian, Muslim, Female YouTubers & Teachers Make Videos as a Global Literacies Practice. 7. Storying Climate Change: Discursive Possibilities for Teaching Climate Justice Literacies. Section III. Intercultural Communication and Reciprocal Collaboration with Globally Diverse Others. 8. Critical Narratives on Intercultural Communication in Global Literacies Education. 9. Reaching Beyond Personal Borders to Narrate Cross-Cultural Connections. 10. Our Linguistic Landscape: Preparing Teachers and Students to See, Hear, and Affirm Our Communities. 11. Measuring the Teaching of Global Literacies. Section IV. Transformative Action for Social and Environmental Justice that Traverses Borders. 12. Rhetoric, Racial Positioning, and Resistance: Asian Americans and the Need for Critical Global Literacies Across Diaspora. 13. Fostering Climate Crisis Global Literacies in the Classroom. 14. Community-based, Literacy Makerspaces: Opportunities for Critical Global Literacies. 15. Project-Based Inquiry (PBI) Global: Border-Crossing Discourse Within a Collaboration of Students from China and the United States. Index
Shea N. Kerkhoff is Assistant Professor of Literacy and Secondary Education at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, United States. Hiller A. Spires is Executive Director and Professor Emerita at North Carolina State University, United States.
