Dear JAAL Readers,

We write this introduction at a time when many people in the United States, where we are based, are participating in protests and other intense conversations about race, many of them sparked by ongoing policing of Black people and the disproportionate impact of COVID‐19 on communities of color. Although it remains to be seen whether lasting change will result from these conversations, recognition of institutional racism seems to involve more people and a wider swath of constituencies than ever before. We are guardedly optimistic that Americans might be beginning to reckon with some painful complexities of our nation’s history and the inequitable institutional structures that remain.

To highlight this potential, we chose Reckoning as the theme for this issue. Some of the authors we feature offer work that speaks directly to the term’s meaning around the settling of accounts and redress of past and present wrongs. Other articles in the issue are better aligned with the use of reckoning in a navigational context, where mariners use a fixed position and factors such as speed and time to calculate progress toward a desired location. Still other contributions speak to the idea of reckoning as an appraisal or judgment—a meaning with clear implications for practitioners seeking to assess students’ literacy learning or the success of their own interventions. Regardless of the meaning that applies best, we think you will find the issue’s contents as relevant to your work at this challenging but compelling moment in time as we did.

Our commentary for this issue, “Educational Progress‐Time and the Proliferation of Dual Enrollment,” by our Syracuse University colleague Brice Nordquist and his coauthor Amy Lueck, may prompt readers’ reckoning about unexamined costs related to dual enrollment programs for secondary students. They carefully analyze the current system of high school courses that yield college credit and call for a critical perspective on what some advocates present as beneficial in unproblematized ways.

The first two feature articles in this issue have in common their authors’ reckoning with previously gathered data or a previous relationship with a student. In “Rethinking ‘Availability’ in Multimodal Composing: Frictions in Digital Design,” T. Philip Nichols and Kelly Johnston reanalyze data from a group’s multimedia composing to illustrate the fact that newly available designs do not necessarily follow from implementation of novel digital tools. Instead, the usefulness of such tools is tied to their interplay when used in concert with one another to complete literacy tasks. Patricia Abril‐Gonzalez describes the powerful lessons she learned from interactions with an adolescent whom she formerly taught in elementary school in “Accompanying a Nepantlera ‘Border Artist’s’ Empathy: One Mexican Teen’s Testimonios of Healing, Empowerment, and Transformation.” Both articles demonstrate the value of teachers and researchers revisiting their past work and assumptions.

The next two feature articles speak to the potential of literacy instruction that invites students themselves into the reckoning process. In “Tell the Story, Speak the Truth: Creating a Third Space Through Spoken Word Poetry,” Katelyn Jones and Jen Scott Curwood describe how interacting with mentor poets from the community helped youth who felt marginalized in school to express their views and resist what the authors call “oppressive paradigms.” Thea Williamson, Kira LeeKeenan, and Sinelia Peixoto offer insights about how teachers can help students resist “the hauntings” of narrowly focused language ideology in “More, Faster, Neater: Middle School Students’ Self‐Assessed Literacy Concerns.” Both studies suggest the value of accounting for youths’ perspectives as an important influence on instructional decision making.

The two feature articles that appear next in our lineup invite students to reckon with reading strategies that address their varied reading goals. “Mindful Reading: Eye‐Tracking Evidence for Goal‐Directed Instruction,” by Jacob Downs and Eric D. Mohr, delineates readers’ burgeoning awareness of their strengths through discussion of their eye tracking during reading. In “Using Question Generation to Improve Reading Comprehension for Middle Grade Students,” Elizabeth Stevens, Christy Murray, Sarah Fishstrom, and Sharon Vaughn offer clear, research‐based guidance to show how teachers can foster students’ strategizing through use of self‐generated questions when reading.

Our final feature article in this issue is “‘I Desperately Need Visions of Black People Thriving’: Emancipating the Fantastic With Black Women's Words” by S.R. Toliver. Toliver’s argument for futuristic literature that offers healthy, multifaceted images of—and for—people of color seems particularly compelling at a moment when many Black women are leading movements focused on social justice and equity.

This issue’s invited departments also call on readers to confront the inequities connected to literacy in explicit, innovative ways. For example, in Chauncey Monte‐Sano’s department, Culturally Sustaining Disciplinary Literacies, Alexis Patterson Williams addresses equity issues in science literacies in “Sustaining Disciplinary Literacy in Science: A Transformative, Just Model for Teaching the Language of Science.” Lorena Germán demonstrates how one teacher fosters her students’ sense of social justice issues in “Books & Freedom: A Lesson on Literacy,” a contribution to Kimberly N. Parker’s department, Students and Teachers: Inquiring Together.

Elizabeth A. Severson‐Irby, Cynthia Finlay, and William Muth argue for prison educational programs that explicitly support individuals’ ability to make sense of their worlds in “Expanding College Programs in U. S.Prisons: Insights From Virginia” for Kristen H. Perry’s We’re All Adults Here column. Jon Wargo and Gabrielle Oliveira’s department, Community Literacies: Anthropological Perspectives in Practice, provides JAAL readers with a chance to reckon with immigrants’ experiences in “Developing the Language to Immigrate: Immigration Discourses in the Lives of Mexican Immigrant Youths,” by Isabel Martinez. Finally, in “Reimagining Literacy Assessment Through a New Literacies Lens,” Elena Forzani, Julie Corrigan, and David Slomp describe new ways to navigate the assessment of a range of everyday, digital literacies for Slomp’s Literacy Assessment for Learning department.

The departments in our Text & Resource Review Forum also provide opportunities for reckoning with issues of inclusion in texts and disciplinary pedagogy. For her Global Texts and Contexts department, E. Sybil Durand offers “YA Literature as Homeplace: Black Love Matters” to share texts that center underrepresented positive relationships. Mary B. McVee, Jessica Swenson, Ken English, and Lynn Shanahan describe what readers will learn in “A Review of Theory and Methods for Sociocultural Research in Science and Engineering Education” for Cynthia Helen Brock and Vassiliki Zygouris‐Coe’s Professional Resources review department.

We think it is both telling and hopeful that so many of the contributions to this issue offer so many ideas for reconciling sources of inequity in new, more explicit ways. It is telling because it is rare that all the submissions for one issue converge so explicitly around such a current, public set of concerns. On one level, this convergence could be serendipitous. But on another, it could reflect a shared conviction that the status quo needs to redress its inequities past and present. We are hopeful that these more representative texts and instructional designs will yield more equitable literacy opportunities for all.

Best,

Kelly and Kathy

Note. © urbazon/Getty Images. The color figure can be viewed in the online version of this article at https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/.

尊敬的JAAL读者，

我们写这篇简介的时候，是我们总部所在地美国的许多人参加抗议活动和其他有关种族的激烈对话，其中许多是由于黑人持续治安以及COVID-19对人类的不成比例的影响而引发的颜色社区。尽管这些对话是否会带来持久的变化还有待观察，但对制度种族主义的认可似乎比以往任何时候都涉及更多的人和更多的选民。我们谨慎地乐观地认为，美国人可能会开始考虑我们国家历史上某些痛苦的复杂性以及仍然存在的不平等的体制结构。

为了突出这一潜力，我们选择了“计算”作为本期的主题。我们精选的一些作者提供的工作直接围绕该术语的含义以及对过去和现在的错误的纠正而表达该术语的含义。本期中的其他文章更适合在航海环境中使用推算，航海者使用固定位置以及诸如速度和时间之类的因素来计算向所需位置的进度。还有其他贡献谈到“算作评估或判断”的想法，这对寻求评估学生的素养学习或他们自己的干预措施是否成功的从业者有明确的含义。无论采用最合适的含义，我们都认为您会在这个充满挑战但令人信服的时刻找到与您的工作相关的内容，就像我们所做的那样。

我们锡拉丘兹大学的同事Brice Nordquist和他的合著者Amy Lueck对我们这个问题的评论“教育进展时间和双重入学的扩散”，可能会促使读者对与中学生双重入学计划相关的未经审查的费用进行反思。他们仔细分析了获得大学学分的当前高中课程体系，并呼吁对一些倡导者以毫无疑问的方式表示有益的观点提出批评。

本期的前两篇专题文章的共同点是作者认为先前收集的数据或先前与学生的关系。在T. Philip Nichols和Kelly Johnston的“重新思考多模式组合中的“可用性”：数字设计中的摩擦”一文中，他们重新分析了一个小组的多媒体构成中的数据，以说明新的设计并不一定源于新型数字工具的实现。相反，当这些工具相互配合使用以完成扫盲任务时，其实用性就取决于它们之间的相互作用。帕特里夏·阿布瑞尔·冈萨雷斯（Patricia Abril‐Gonzalez）描述了她从与青少年的互动中学到的强大经验，她以前在小学时曾在《与Nepantlera边境艺术家的同情心：一个墨西哥少年的治疗，授权，和转型。” 这两篇文章都展示了教师和研究人员重新审视自己过去的工作和假设的价值。

接下来的两篇专题文章讲述了扫盲教学的潜力，该课程邀请学生们自己进行测算过程。凯特琳·琼斯（Katelyn Jones）和詹·斯科特·库伍德（Jen Scott Curwood）在“讲故事，讲真话：通过口语诗歌创造第三空间”中，描述了与社区导师诗人的互动如何帮助那些在学校中被边缘化的年轻人表达他们的观点并抵制那些作者称“压迫范式”。Thea Williamson，Kira LeeKeenan和Sinelia Peixoto在“更多，更快，更整洁：中学生的自我评估的文化关注”中，提供了有关教师如何帮助学生抵抗狭focused的语言意识形态的“困扰”的见解。两项研究都表明，考虑青年观点对于评估教学决策具有重要意义。

接下来出现在我们的阵容中的两篇专题文章邀请学生思考可以解决他们不同阅读目标的阅读策略。雅各布·唐斯（Jacob Downs）和埃里克·D·莫尔（Eric D. Mohr）撰写的“正念阅读：针对目标指导的眼动追踪证据”通过讨论阅读过程中的眼动追踪描述了读者对自身优势的新兴意识。伊丽莎白·史蒂文斯（Elizabeth Stevens），克里斯蒂·穆雷（Christy Murray），莎拉·菲斯特罗姆（Sarah Fishstrom）和莎朗·沃恩（Sharon Vaughn）在“利用问题生成来提高中级学生的阅读理解”中提供了明确的，基于研究的指导，以展示教师如何通过使用自我生成的问题来促进学生的战略阅读时。

我们在本期的最后一篇专题文章是SR Toliver撰写的“'我迫切需要黑人蓬勃发展的愿景'：用黑人妇女的话语解放幻想”。在许多黑人妇女领导着关注社会正义和平等的运动的那一刻，托里弗提出的关于未来派文学的论点尤其引人注目，这些论点提供有色人种以及为有色人种提供健康，多面的图像。

本期特邀部门还呼吁读者以明确，创新的方式应对与扫盲相关的不平等现象。例如，在昌西·蒙特·萨诺（Chauncey Monte-Sano）的部门中，“在文化上保持学科文盲”，亚历克西斯·帕特森·威廉姆斯（Alexis Patterson Williams）在“在科学领域中保持学科学科的素养：一种变革性的，公正的科学语言教学模式”中谈到了科学文学方面的平等问题。洛雷娜·格曼（LorenaGermán）在“书籍与自由：扫盲课程”中展示了一位老师如何培养学生的社会正义感，这是对金佰利·帕克（Kimberly N. Parker）系“学生和老师：一起探究”的贡献。

Elizabeth A. Severson-Irby，Cynthia Finlay和William Muth为监狱教育计划辩护，该计划明确支持个人理解世界的能力。所有成人在这里列。Jon Wargo和Gabrielle Oliveira的部门，“社区文学：实践中的人类学观点”，提供JAAL伊莎贝尔·马丁内斯（Isabel Martinez）的读者将有机会了解移民的经验，“发展移民语言：墨西哥移民青年生活中的移民话语”。最后，在“通过新的文艺视角重新构想扫盲评估”中，Elena Forzani，Julie Corrigan和David Slomp描述了新的方法来导航对Slomp的学习扫盲评估部门的日常数字扫盲评估。

我们的“文本与资源审查论坛”中的部门也提供了机会，以解决包含在文本和学科教学法中的问题。E. Sybil Durand为她的全球文本和语境部门提供了“ YA文学作为家园：黑色的爱情问题”，以分享那些被低估的积极关系为中心的文本。玛丽·B·麦克维（Mary B. McVee），杰西卡·斯文森（Jessica Swenson），肯·英语（Ken English）和琳恩·沙纳汉（Lynn Shanahan）描述了读者在辛西娅·海伦·布罗克（Cynthia Helen Brock）和瓦西里基·齐古里斯·科（Vassiliki Zygouris-Coe）专业资源审查部门的“科学与工程教育中的社会文化研究的理论和方法综述”中将学到的内容。

我们认为，对这一问题的众多贡献为以新的，更明确的方式调和不平等现象的根源提供了如此之多的想法，这既令人鼓舞，也充满希望。这是有说服力的，因为很少有一个问题的所有意见如此明确地围绕这样一种当前公开的关注点而收敛。一方面，这种融合可能是偶然的。但另一方面，它可能反映出一种共同信念，即现状需要纠正其过去和现在的不平等现象。我们希望，这些更具代表性的教科书和教学设计将为所有人带来更公平的扫盲机会。

最好，

凯利和凯西

注意。©urbazon /盖蒂图片社。可以在本文的在线版本中通过https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/查看颜色图形。