Literacy Voices

Dear Colleagues,

This year has presented incredible challenges for educators, but also opportunities to reflect and reframe our practices as teachers. To begin, we would like to take this time to first applaud your efforts in creating meaningful content and experiences for the children you teach.

This issue allows us to reflect on lessons learned from our experiences and how our teaching practices may have shifted as the result of the pandemic. Dewey asserted that a teacher’s reflective abilities could liberate them from the tyranny of technique (Dewey, 1901/1933). Many of our practices this year have changed, no matter where or who you teach, and this has led to some reframing at all levels of education. Roskos, Vukelich, and Riskos (2001) define “reframing, that is, to use reflection, not to abandon previous beliefs and understandings, but to expand upon them and to take on new perspectives by problematizing situations and ideas” (p. 609). The reframing of practices that has occurred because of the pandemic provides us all an opportunity to expand our pedagogical toolbox and to take on new perspectives.

During this year of pivoting our professional practices, we urge to consider ways in which we have experienced growth both as practitioners and as a profession. Perhaps you have gained an enhanced appreciation for in-person learning. Or, perhaps you have fostered ways in which we can reach students in new and exciting ways in virtual environments. Certainly, we will all embrace the time in which we can again be physically close with our students and we can see their faces once again. In this issue, we are excited to share lessons learned from one teacher’s reflective practices (Weaver & Ellsworth, 2021).

In this article, the authors explore ways in which this year have shaped foundational practices in reading. We hope that the article will also allow you the opportunity to pivot back to thinking of your own practice, as well as help you continue to reframe as we get through this year together. Finally, we hope that you are all staying safe during this challenging time. We know that this year’s journey has not been easy and we are thinking of you as you navigate these challenges.

It is through exploration of some foundations of reading and education that we can pivot back to while we reframe.

Drs. Kari Dahle-Huff and Rachael Waller

References
Dewey, J. (1933). How we think. Lexington, MA: C.C. Heath. (Original work published 1901).

Roskos, K., Vukelich, C., & Risko, V. (2001). Reflection and Learning to Teach Reading: A Critical Review of Literacy and General Teacher Education Studies. Journal of Literacy Research, 33(4), 595– 635. https://doi.org/10.1080/10862960109548127


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