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Editorial Board Note

Written by Casey Pennington, Dianne Wellington, Katarina N. Silvestri, & Nance S. Wilson

We define literacy broadly to include reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and creating in many different modes and for many different purposes to interact with the world. Our readership consists primarily of practicing teachers and literacy specialists. We welcome articles focused on classroom practice, research, and theory in literacy. We encourage articles from K-12 practitioners, literacy researchers, and presenters from the NYSRA conference. Proudly, we are a home for teachers and researchers in New York State to share their work and perspectives, including classroom and school-based research, reviews of literature, and suggestions for classroom practice. As an editorial board, we work to humanize our authors, especially those who are early-career researchers, classroom teachers, and others aiming to advance their academic work.

This issue of Language and Literacy Spectrum aims to explore how researchers and practitioners, amidst a new wave of the perennial “Reading Wars,” invest in pedagogical transformations that center learners’ inquiry, literacy, voice, and liberation. The articles presented in this issue focus on research-based and systematic approaches to teaching literacy, and several specifically highlight student voices and experiences in literacy learning. The collected works presented in this issue create a bricolage of principled literacy pedagogies that braid together transformative and liberatory literacy practices with science of reading frameworks. This issue invites researchers and practitioners to engage and explore the transformative potential offered by a multiplicity of literacy pedagogues contributing to this issue of Language and Literacy Spectrum.

Call for Submissions: Language and Literacy Spectrum Summer 2026 Issue

The Language and Literacy Spectrum invites submissions for its upcoming Summer 2026 issue. We are currently seeking manuscripts that explore literacy and language from multiple perspectives, including teacher research/action research, practitioner-focused teaching articles, self-study research, and book reviews. We especially welcome work that highlights classroom-based inquiry, bridges theory and practice, and/or centers on the voices of educators and learners. Manuscript drafts are due by February 1, 2026.

We encourage educators, researchers, and literacy practitioners across all contexts to contribute to this dynamic professional dialogue. As an editorial board, we are especially committed to humanizing the publication process for our authors—particularly early career scholars, classroom practitioners, and those seeking to build and share their work in meaningful ways.

Reviewers for Language and Literacy Spectrum Spring/Summer 2025

We would like to extend our gratitude to our manuscript reviewers who supported the works published in the current issue of Language and Literacy Spectrum. Thank you for lending your expertise in literacy and language education to our authors in your thoughtful reviews.

• Reka Barton, University of Maryland at College Park
• Annemarie Basso Kaczmarczyk, Mercer University
• Deborah J Conrad, SUNY Potsdam
• Alex Corbitt, Syracuse University
• Sarah Fleming, SUNY at Oswego
• Carrie Eunyoung Hong, William Paterson University of New Jersey
• Bong Gee Jang, Syracuse University
• Karis Jones, SUNY Empire State College
• Jan Lacina, Texas Christian University
• Jennifer Lakas, University at Albany, State University of New York
• Gillian Mertens, SUNY Cortland
• Cara Monaco, SUNY University at Buffalo
• Keith Newvine, Corcoran High School
• Casey Pennington, SUNY Cortland
• Zoi A Traga Phillippakos, University of Tennessee at Knoxville
• Barrett Rosser, University of Pennsylvania
• Linda D. Smetana, California State University, East Bay
• Elizabeth Y. Stevens, Roberts University
• Jennifer Van Allen, Lehman College
• Dianne Wellington, SUNY Cortland
• Thea Yurkewecz, SUNY Geneseo

The editorial board would also like to graciously thank Leah VanDonsel and Madilyn Tiderencel for supporting this journal with their copyediting work prior to publication.