The International Literacy Association (ILA) announced today the appointment of a new dynamic and diverse editorial team for the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (JAAL), the field’s foremost peer-reviewed journal dedicated to learners ages 12 and up. Composed of renowned scholars and practitioners in the field of literacy education, this team brings together a wealth of experience and expertise to lead the journal into its next chapter.
The editorial team for the 2024–2028 term is as follows:
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Jill Castek, professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies, University of Arizona
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Eric Claravall, associate professor in the Teaching Credential Branch, California State University, Sacramento
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Eric Junco, director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Northern Illinois University’s College of Education
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Jung Kim, professor of literacy and cochair of the Department of Education, Lewis University
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Michael Manderino, associate professor in the Curriculum and Instruction Department, Northern Illinois University
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The team’s vision is grounded in a commitment to social justice, critical literacies, and civic engagement. Their shared interests include disrupting challenges and injustices in literacy practices, deconstructing ideologies, amplifying silenced voices, and fostering the exchange of global and local knowledge.
“We are a multi-institutional, multi-racial, and multi-cultural team that represents a multifaceted team,” the team stated. “Collectively, we embrace literacies as inclusive, expansive, empowering, and centered on praxis. We will call attention to the erasure of the contributions from, and ingenuity within, educators and communities that have been historically excluded and marginalized.”
In addition to encouraging multiple perspectives, the team’s goal is to embrace a transformative approach to literacy—a pluralistic view that empowers learners of all backgrounds.
In the coming years, they plan to prioritize critical issues such as culturally responsive pedagogies, adult and family literacy, assessment and data-driven instruction, literacies in social movements, and the role of artificial intelligence in literacy development. By spotlighting these issues and engaging with a diverse range of authors, the journal will continue to serve as a leading resource that meets the real-world needs of today’s literacy practitioners and researchers.
The incoming team’s four-year term is effective July 15, 2024, and concludes June 30, 2028. Their first year overlaps with the final year of outgoing editors Judith Franzak, Koomi Kim, and Heather Porter of Salisbury University.
JAAL provides high-quality, classroom-tested ideas as well as reflections on literacy trends, issues and research. The reach and influence of the journal is extensive. JAAL had 450,000 article views in the last year and has a circulation of more than 6,500 academic institutions.