Literacy and Learning in Times of Crisis

This is a timely, important, and substantial intervention in scholarship on trauma pedagogy, crisis, and literacy learning, with contributors offering a usefully wide array of accounts and analyses of responses by teachers, students, and institutions to COVID 19, racism, mass shootings, and climate catastrophes at U.S. college and university communities. -Bruce Horner, Endowed Chair in Rhetoric and Composition, University of Louisville How do literacy educators combat the unprecedented crises of the 21st century? The authors of this collection do so bravely, not by turning away but rather by turning toward, by facing what is happening in the world and giving their students and themselves room to speak and write about the dislocation, the fear, and the threats surrounding them and their families. Together they forge pedagogies based on empathy and community, pedagogies that have the potential to heal. A timely read for any teacher seeking good company in this crisis-laden world. -Sondra Perl, Professor Emerita, CUNY Graduate Center In the first half of 2020, as the onset of Covid converged with Black Lives Matter protests, wildfires, anti-Asian violence, and four years of Trumpist ultra-nationalism, it felt like we were living in an unprecedented state of emergency. Literacy and Learning in Times of Crisis is the story of how teachers responded to this moment of crisis: the emotional labor suddenly called for, the felt need for anti-racist pedagogies, the hidden fault lines in higher education that were revealed, and the resources teachers wish had been available. -John Trimbur, Professor Emeritus, Emerson College To live right now is to live in a state of constant emergency, whether because of the climate crisis, global pandemic, racial and gender violence, or any number of other disasters. The contributors of this volume provide an unflinching examination of what literacy teachers are up against while also offering a way forward. Literacy and Learning in Times of Crisis offers thoughtful and systemic analysis of the impact of these traumas in our classrooms alongside teaching practices to help us develop a necessary praxis for our students and for ourselves with an eye towards survival. -Amy J. Wan, Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center