Designing Socially Just Learning Communities : Critical Literacy Education Across the Lifespan

Demonstrating the power and potential of educators working together to use literacy practices that make changes in people's lives, this collaboratively written book blends the voices of participants in a teacher-led professional development group to provide a truly lifespan perspective on designing critical literacy practices. It joins these educators’ stories with the history and practices of the group - K-12 classroom teachers, adult educators, university professors, and community activists who have worked together since 2001 to better understand the relationship between literacy and social justice. Exploring issues such as gender equity, linguistic diversity, civil rights and freedom and war, the book showcases teachers’ reflective practice in action and offers insight into the possibilities and struggles of teaching literacy through a framework of social justice.

Designing Socially Just Learning Communities models an innovative form of professional development for educators and researchers who are seeking ways to transform educational practices. The teachers' practices and actions – in their classrooms and as members of the teacher research group – will speak loudly to policy-makers, researchers, and activists who wish to work alongside them.

Rebecca Rogers is Associate Professor of Literacy at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Her research focuses on language, identity, and power in and out of school contexts.

Melissa Mosley is Assistant Professor of Language and Literacy at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on critical literacy learning across the lifespan, particularly how teachers and students together use literacy practices toward social action in and out of the classroom.

Mary Ann Kramer is Coordinator for Adult Education and Literacy in the St.

Louis Public Schools. Prior to this position, she served as Director of the Southside

Women’s Center, a community-based women’s resource center.

The Literacy for Social Justice Teacher Research Group is a grassroots, teacher-led professional development group dedicated to exploring and acting on the relationships between literacy and social justice.