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Mark A Sulzer

University of Cincinnati, Secondary Education, Faculty Member

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Mark A. Sulzer is Assistant Professor in the areas of Secondary English Education and Literacy & Second Language Studies at the University of Cincinnati. Previous to joining the faculty at the University of Cincinnati, he worked as a high school English language arts teacher and drum line instructor. His research and teaching focus on young adult literature, dialogic pedagogies, and phenomenological accounts of teaching.

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Papers by Mark A Sulzer

Assessment Strategies for Digital Multimodal Composition in ELA Teaching

Ubiquity: The Journal of Literature, Literacy, and the Arts, 2023

Digital multimodality has an increasing presence in English language arts (ELA) classrooms. Howev... more Digital multimodality has an increasing presence in English language arts (ELA) classrooms. However, for many ELA teachers, tensions arise about how to establish classroom assessment practices that support—rather than obstruct—students’ learning of digital multimodal literacies. To gain insight into how teachers and teacher educators address the tensions in digital multimodal assessment, we conducted a systematic review of three practitioner journals from the National Council of Teachers of English (English Journal, Voices from the Middle, Language Arts). Three themes emerged from our analysis: (a) building community through assessment practices, (b) expanding notions of text and quality criteria, and (c) repositioning teachers and students in ways that disrupt traditional roles. We interpret these themes through the framework of sociocultural assessment. Our discussion focuses on the much-needed matching of digital multimodal literacies to sociocultural assessment practices. We note in the implications that while the articles taken up in this review feature rich descriptions of what sociocultural assessment strategies look like in practice, more scholarly attention is needed about how teachers navigate state and national pressures, which often encourage the adoption of behaviorist assessment practices.

Silence as Absence, Silence as Presence: A Discourse Analysis of English Language Arts Teachers' Descriptions of Classroom Silences

Linguistics and Education, 2022

This article reports on a discourse analysis of five English language arts teachers' descriptions... more This article reports on a discourse analysis of five English language arts teachers' descriptions of classroom silences. Drawing on sociolinguistic and poststructuralist influences on discourse analysis, silence was theorized as a resource for building significance about aspects of classroom life and as an interface that connects local circumstances to social, cultural, and historical processes. Data analysis focused on teacher descriptions of silence in post-observation interviews and an excerpt from a 10th grade class discussion. Findings demonstrate how the teachers drew on two discourses of silence: silence as an absence of verbal participation and silence as a presence of dynamic interpretation. Teachers in the study used both of these discourses of silence to call forth particular aspects of their classrooms that would otherwise remain hidden to an outside observer, which is further analyzed through one teacher's use of discourses of silence to add layers of meaning to a one-minute excerpt from a class discussion about Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death." These findings are complemented by a critical analysis of silencing in the class discussion, arguing close reading interpretive practices as applied to a canonized text contributed to the silencing of students' backgrounds and knowledges. Implications of the study include using silence as a site of critical reflection in teacher education and theorizing silence, paradoxically, as (a) nonexistent and (b) a constant accompaniment to what is "sounded" in the classroom.

Tesseract as Becoming: A Rhizomatic Self-Study about Engaging Future English Language Arts Teachers in Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Journal of Research and Practice in College Teaching 7(2), 66-85, 2022

Animated in poststructuralist thought, this rhizomatic self-study is an entanglement with the pol... more Animated in poststructuralist thought, this rhizomatic self-study is an entanglement with the political, critical, and creative work of becoming. The writing is an act of experimentation 1. The purpose is to pursue insights about engaging future English language arts teachers in culturally relevant pedagogy. This inquiry is situated in a predominately White institution, written by a White teacher educator, and guided by data from five years of collaboration with the Cincinnati Critical Friends group. Themes include positionality, dilemmas, memory, movement, Whiteness, dimensionality, and youth imaginaries. Driven by the post qualitative impulse toward immanence, this study reaches toward unexplored territories through the image of the tesseract, a four-dimensional shape impossible to see in our world.

The Promises of Dialogical-Phenomenological Texts for Expanding Horizons of Teacher Reflection

Proceedings of the 2019 AERA Annual Meeting

Two Versions of Notorious RBG, Two Representations of Ruth Bader Ginsburg: How Are They Different and Why Does That Matter?

Annals of Social Studies Education Research for Teachers (ASSERT), 2021

The following book review is actually two book reviews. The first is about The Notorious RBG: The... more The following book review is actually two book reviews. The first is about The Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the second is about The Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Young Readers’ Edition). Both versions of the book trace Ginsburg’s ascendancy to the Supreme Court, from a young Jewish Brooklynite girl who lost her mother to cervical cancer to a law student who navigated too many layers of misogyny and anti-Semitism to name to a Columbia law professor and founder of the Women’s Rights Project and finally to a Justice who would come to be known as “the great dissenter.” However, these two versions of the book also come with different representations of Justice Ginsburg, raising questions relevant to social studies students: How is Ginsburg’s life represented differently and why does that matter? Below, I provide a brief portrait of each version of the book and suggest that reading across the original and youth editions in the classroom opens up opportunities for critical inquiry.

The Future Is Known. Now What? Using Macbeth to Explore the Social Complexity of the Climate Crisis and COVID-19

Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education, 2021

The English classroom is an indispensable site to critically engage the social complexity of the ... more The English classroom is an indispensable site to critically engage
the social complexity of the climate crisis and COVID-19. A question
comes up, however, about how to plan for such critical engagement
when teaching canonical literature that is seemingly removed
from the specific concerns of the current moment. The focus of this
article is on planning with canonical works to meet the current
moment. Using Macbeth as a focal text, I offer a seven-step heuristic
for generating lesson plan ideas that critically engage the social
complexity of the climate crisis and COVID-19. The heuristic is based
on juxtaposition, defined as a literary interpretive stance that opens
space for readers to make creative leaps between old texts and new
contexts.

Illuminating the dark side: A typology for preservice ELA teachers engaging in ideologies of digital texts

E-Learning and Digital Media, 2021

Set in English Language Arts, this article takes up recent trends in literacy toward investigatin... more Set in English Language Arts, this article takes up recent trends in literacy toward investigating ontological notions of digital texts. Two teacher educators recently implemented a series of readings and activities in their methods courses designed to help preservice teachers sophisticate their conceptions of texts beyond autonomous, neutral collections of information by considering digital age ideas such as software theory, textual ideology, and the algorithmic bias of the Internet. The authors review recent scholarship surrounding the integration of computational thinking and the humanities before illustrating a theoretical framework that combines software-driven interpretation and critical media literacy. Descriptions and applications of course texts and exercises precede a discussion on typological methodology. Through the analysis of semester-long writing reflections and course interactions, a typology of preservice teachers is then presented, illustrating three archetypes: Strategists, Hawkeyes, and Improvers. These archetypes are taken up to analyze the ways in which a range of teacher candidates considered ontological notions of digital texts to analyze instructional techniques, to sharpen their critical lenses, or to gain greater understanding of ELA as a discipline (or some combination of all three). This work demonstrates that as teacher educators and teacher candidates increasingly consider software-powered literacies, interrogations of who we are, who we are becoming, and what it all means requires attention to, and explicit practice with, the dark side of digital texts.

Disrupting the neoliberal discourse of teacher reflection through dialogical-phenomenological texts

Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 2019

In this article, we explore the propensity for the neoliberal discourse of education to constrain... more In this article, we explore the propensity for the neoliberal discourse of education to constrain reflective practice within teacher education programs (TEPs) and the potential for disrupting this neoliberal discourse by taking up concepts of dialogism and phenomenology. To pursue this goal, we developed a dialogical-phenomenological approach to teacher reflection. A dialogical-phenomenological approach to teacher reflection takes up lived experience as central to reflective practice and provides space for exploration through dialogue. Using examples from two TEPs, we describe two methods for enacting dialogical-phenomenological reflection: ahorizonalization method and a genre progression method. We found that a dialogical-phenomenological approach to reflection allowed for the creation of texts that (a) invited a range of teaching experiences into our discussions that were not reducible or resolvable but nonetheless crucial in building an understanding of teaching as implicated in social, cultural, and historical processes, and (b) invited preservice teachers to take a critical stance on the forces that structure their lived experiences in the classroom.

Fostering Critical Social Consciousness through "Text-to-Software" Connections with Brave New World

In M. Macaluso, & K. Macaluso (Eds.), Teaching the Canon in 21st Century Classrooms, 2019

Drawing on software theory, this chapter argues that living in a world powered by software has mu... more Drawing on software theory, this chapter argues that living in a world powered by software has much in common with dystopian themes of absolute control, inescapable environments, and rampant injustice. The chapter demonstrates ways English educators can use canonical dystopian literature to foster critical social consciousness of our contemporary world. Software theory provides new possibilities for critical reading.

Pursuing Mystery in A Tale for the Time Being: A Pedagogical Framework for Reading about Suicide with High School Students

In M. Falter, & S. Bickmore (Eds.), When Loss Gets Personal: Discussing Death through Literature in the Secondary ELA Classroom, 2018

This chapter draws on critical youth studies and dialogic teaching to present ideas for engaging ... more This chapter draws on critical youth studies and dialogic teaching to present ideas for engaging youth in literature about suicide in the secondary English language arts (ELA) classroom. The chapter presents a framework based on the concept of mystery, which emphasizes the often unresolvable nature of tensions, ambiguities, and contradictions in literature and life. The framework rejects reductive views of young people as unready for serious conversations and instead envisions youth as capable intellectuals who bring diverse experiences and perspectives to bear in the ELA classroom.

Doctors, Drugs, and Danger: Disentangling Discourses of Adolescence/ts in Dreamland (original version) and Dreamland (young adult adaptation) with Critical Comparative Content Analysis

Study & Scrutiny: Research on Young Adult Literature, 2021

Scholarship on young adult (YA) literature has long attended to the interrelationship of power, i... more Scholarship on young adult (YA) literature has long attended to the interrelationship of power, ideology, and narrative. Drawing on this scholarship, we examined a nonfiction text about the opiate epidemic. Using critical comparative content analysis (CCCA), our study examined differences in Dreamland (the original version) and Dreamland (the young adult adaptation) to better understand the changing nature of textual representation when youth become the imagined audience. We found that in the youth adaptation of Dreamland, the implied youth reader is (a) provided less information about the opiate epidemic, which is also delivered in a simpler structure; (b) kept at a greater rhetorical distance from people who might be deemed unsavory, and (c) given a more optimistic view of the opiate epidemic in terms of progress achieved rather than action needed. The youth adaptation of Dreamland, therefore, positions youth as needing simplicity, protection, and a sense of optimism. Our analysis demonstrates how the implied youth reader is a textual byproduct of discourses of adolescence/ts. As youth adaptations continue their prominence in the YA marketplace, scholars and teachers should critically engage how youth are positioned as readers and thinkers by the YA publishing industry. Next steps involve additional studies that focus on the implied (youth) reader through CCCA and studies that involve middle and secondary education students, the real readers of these texts. This study is supplemented by an interview with Sam Quinones, the author of the original version of Dreamland.

Border Crossing from Literature to Young Adult Literature: A Critical Comparative Content Analysis of Enrique's Journey (Original Version) and Enrique's Journey (Adapted for Youth)

The ALAN Review, 2020

Nonfiction books are increasingly being adapted for the young adult literature market. Previous r... more Nonfiction books are increasingly being adapted for the young adult literature market. Previous research has demonstrated that youth adapted books differ in patterned ways from their original counterparts, often sanitizing content and positioning youth readers as unready to grapple with the social complexity of important issues. Migration is one such important issue. This study used critical comparative content analysis (CCCA) to look at how migration was represented in the original and youth adapted versions of Enrique’s Journey. Enrique’s Journey was written and adapted by Sonia Nazario. Based on Nazario’s Pulitzer-Prize winning journalism, Enrique’s Journey recounts the story of a migrant teenager from Honduras who made his way across Mexico, crossed the US border, and reunited with his mother in North Carolina. This CCCA of Enrique’s Journey revealed patterned differences between the original and youth adapted versions, including adjustments to the narrative style, added section breaks, and a more focalized account of the journey from Enrique’s perspective; however, unlike many youth adaptations, the social complexity of migration was maintained across versions. For scholars of young adult literature, the content differences between the two versions of Enrique’s Journey forward our knowledge about this genre that marks youth as its reader—a genre, this study demonstrates, with the capacity to adapt content for a youth audience without sanitizing that content. That’s an important takeaway from this study because all too often, adaptations operate under reductive assumptions about who youths are as readers and thinkers: namely, that youth readers require role models who pursue their goals in a simplified reality. This study is supplemented by an interview with Sonia Nazario about the adaptation process as well as implications for students, teachers, and scholars.

Critical Comparative Content Analysis: Examining violence, politics, and culture in two versions of I am Malala

by Amanda Haertling Thein and Mark A Sulzer

Thein, A.H., Sulzer, M., & Schmidt, R. (2019). Critical Comparative Content Analysis: Examining v... more Thein, A.H., Sulzer, M., & Schmidt, R. (2019). Critical Comparative Content Analysis: Examining violence, politics, and culture in two versions of I am Malala. In R. Ginsberg & W. Glenn (Eds.), Engaging critically with multicultural young adult literature in the secondary classroom (pp. 153-161). New York: Routledge.

What is Adapted in Youth Adaptations?: A Critical Comparative Content Analysis of Military Memoirs Repackaged as Young Adult Literature

by Mark A Sulzer and Amanda Haertling Thein

Adapting and rebranding general market memoirs for the young adult literature market is a growing... more Adapting and rebranding general market memoirs for the young adult literature market is a growing trend in the publishing world. Grounded in Critical Youth Scholarship, this study explores this trend through an analysis of two general market memoirs of Navy SEALs and their revised and repackaged youth market counterparts. Using a systematic approach we call Critical Comparative Content Analysis (CCCA), this study found that the youth adaptations were substantially altered to produce worlds stripped of complexity, offering sanitized versions of military action, heroism, and humanity. We argue that through content changes, youth readers are denied access to complex portrayals of the world, as well as questions that might arise with and through them. Instead, youth readers are constructed as needing explicit life lessons and reductive depictions of lived experience. For scholars and teachers, this study demonstrates the importance of inquiries that not only critically approach the content of YAL, but also foreground and trouble limiting conceptions of youth readers themselves. This study also highlights the value of comparison as a conceptual and pedagogical tool for carrying out this work. Further, this study recommends continued methodological innovation oriented toward genre-specific qualities of young adult literature, including its production and marketing.

(Re)Conceptualizing Digital Literacies Before and After the Election of Trump

Purpose – As part of a larger global phenomenon, the election of Donald Trump in the USA represen... more Purpose – As part of a larger global phenomenon, the election of Donald Trump in the USA represents a crucial moment for the (re)conceptualization of digital literacies. The purpose of this paper is to build theory with respect to what this moment means for English education. Design/methodology/approach – This teacher reflection focuses on what digital literacies meant for my teaching before and after the 2016 election. Using a before-and-after format, I argue that the before conceptualization of digital literacies, while still relevant and useful for introducing many important ideas to English educators, was missing a direct treatment of political power. The after conceptualization takes up this topic. Findings – Themes taken up in the before section involve a parallel between digital literacies and disciplinary literacies and a distinction between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 interfaces. Themes in the after section address the propensity for governments and other well-resourced groups to occupy Web 2.0 environments for their own ends. Methods for accomplishing these ends involve restricting, surveilling and targeting flows of information and enacting three populist practices via internet trolling: aggregating the unmet demands of disparate groups, establishing popular subjectivity and dichotomizing the social space through the persistent construction of the enemy. Research limitations/implications – A critically conscious approach to digital literacies must consider the ways in which political entities occupy digital environments. Practical implications – Further research should be done in English education classrooms to understand the ways in which individual online meaning making becomes entangled within a nexus of political activity. Further research should investigate how online meaning making intersects with political power. Originality/value – The role of political entities is often downplayed or ignored in discussions of digital literacies. In an age of alternative facts, fake news and echo chambers, it is important to foreground the interplay between the social, the political and the digital in contemporary meaning making. This contribution offers concepts that can be taken up and expanded, as well as a set of questions for English educators to use in framing a critically conscious conversation about digital literacies.

Reconsidering the Hypothetical Adolescent in Evaluating and Teaching Young Adult Literature

by Mark A Sulzer and Amanda Haertling Thein

Sulzer, M. & Thein, A.H. (2016). Reconsidering the hypothetical adolescent in evaluating and teaching young adult literature. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 60(2), 163-171.

Illuminating discourses of youth through the study of first-person narration in young adult literature

by Amanda Haertling Thein and Mark A Sulzer

Thein, A. H., & Sulzer, M. A. (2015). Illuminating discourses of youth through the study of first-person narration in young adult literature. English Journal, 104(3), 47-53.

Grounded in the threepart literary concept of the narrator, the narratee, and the implied reader,... more Grounded in the threepart literary concept of the narrator, the narratee, and the implied reader, this article provides teachers and students with a heuristic for uncovering, attending to, and critiquing assumptions about youth found in the first-person narrative form that predominates in young adult literature.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Gates Foundation's MET Project: Discursive Respresentations of Teaching and Learning

63rd Yearbook of the Literacy Research Association, 2014

The common core state standards and the basalization of youth

English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 13(1), 134-154, May 2014

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were published by the Council of Chief State School Office... more The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were published by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association in 2010 as part of a widespread standards-based reform movement in the United States. The education marketplace has responded with CCSS-aligned products, including standardised tests, professional development training and curriculum materials. This essay examines the discourse of reading/readers that the CCSS promotes by analysing a CCSSaligned textbook intended for 9 th grade English/language arts students. In operating under a New Critical paradigm of textual interpretation, this CCSSaligned textbook positions reading as an activity comprised of a discrete skillset allowing readers to extract meaning from a text. Reading skills are envisioned as objective, neutral and eternal -and importantly, conducive to measurement. In drawing on dominant views of youth, this CCSS-aligned textbook positions young readers as "detectives" undergoing a training regimen. Young readers are envisioned only in terms of their progress toward college and career readiness, which prioritises their future importance and discounts their importance in the present. Together, these views ignore the transactional properties of reading and the creative capacities of the reader. In this essay, I examine how these views become normalised through metaphors, marginal notes, questions/prompts, standardised goals, and testing practice in Holt McDougal's Literature (Common Core Edition). I argue that under the CCSS, the creative activity of reading becomes simplified, and the identities of young readers become homogenised. Added together, these views promote a style of reasoning I refer to as the "basalisation" of youth.

Engaging students in democracy through adolescent literature: Lessons from two versions of Wes Moore’s memoir.

by Amanda Haertling Thein, Mark A Sulzer, and Renita R Schmidt

Thein, A.H., Sulzer, M. & Schmidt, R. (2013). Engaging students in democracy through adolescent literature: Lessons from two versions of Wes Moore’s memoir. English Journal, 102(2), 52-59., 2013

is article critiques didactic YA literature grounded in a developmental stage model of adolescenc... more

Assessment Strategies for Digital Multimodal Composition in ELA Teaching

Ubiquity: The Journal of Literature, Literacy, and the Arts, 2023

Digital multimodality has an increasing presence in English language arts (ELA) classrooms. Howev... more Digital multimodality has an increasing presence in English language arts (ELA) classrooms. However, for many ELA teachers, tensions arise about how to establish classroom assessment practices that support—rather than obstruct—students’ learning of digital multimodal literacies. To gain insight into how teachers and teacher educators address the tensions in digital multimodal assessment, we conducted a systematic review of three practitioner journals from the National Council of Teachers of English (English Journal, Voices from the Middle, Language Arts). Three themes emerged from our analysis: (a) building community through assessment practices, (b) expanding notions of text and quality criteria, and (c) repositioning teachers and students in ways that disrupt traditional roles. We interpret these themes through the framework of sociocultural assessment. Our discussion focuses on the much-needed matching of digital multimodal literacies to sociocultural assessment practices. We note in the implications that while the articles taken up in this review feature rich descriptions of what sociocultural assessment strategies look like in practice, more scholarly attention is needed about how teachers navigate state and national pressures, which often encourage the adoption of behaviorist assessment practices.

Silence as Absence, Silence as Presence: A Discourse Analysis of English Language Arts Teachers' Descriptions of Classroom Silences

Linguistics and Education, 2022

This article reports on a discourse analysis of five English language arts teachers' descriptions... more This article reports on a discourse analysis of five English language arts teachers' descriptions of classroom silences. Drawing on sociolinguistic and poststructuralist influences on discourse analysis, silence was theorized as a resource for building significance about aspects of classroom life and as an interface that connects local circumstances to social, cultural, and historical processes. Data analysis focused on teacher descriptions of silence in post-observation interviews and an excerpt from a 10th grade class discussion. Findings demonstrate how the teachers drew on two discourses of silence: silence as an absence of verbal participation and silence as a presence of dynamic interpretation. Teachers in the study used both of these discourses of silence to call forth particular aspects of their classrooms that would otherwise remain hidden to an outside observer, which is further analyzed through one teacher's use of discourses of silence to add layers of meaning to a one-minute excerpt from a class discussion about Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death." These findings are complemented by a critical analysis of silencing in the class discussion, arguing close reading interpretive practices as applied to a canonized text contributed to the silencing of students' backgrounds and knowledges. Implications of the study include using silence as a site of critical reflection in teacher education and theorizing silence, paradoxically, as (a) nonexistent and (b) a constant accompaniment to what is "sounded" in the classroom.

Tesseract as Becoming: A Rhizomatic Self-Study about Engaging Future English Language Arts Teachers in Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Journal of Research and Practice in College Teaching 7(2), 66-85, 2022

Animated in poststructuralist thought, this rhizomatic self-study is an entanglement with the pol... more Animated in poststructuralist thought, this rhizomatic self-study is an entanglement with the political, critical, and creative work of becoming. The writing is an act of experimentation 1. The purpose is to pursue insights about engaging future English language arts teachers in culturally relevant pedagogy. This inquiry is situated in a predominately White institution, written by a White teacher educator, and guided by data from five years of collaboration with the Cincinnati Critical Friends group. Themes include positionality, dilemmas, memory, movement, Whiteness, dimensionality, and youth imaginaries. Driven by the post qualitative impulse toward immanence, this study reaches toward unexplored territories through the image of the tesseract, a four-dimensional shape impossible to see in our world.

The Promises of Dialogical-Phenomenological Texts for Expanding Horizons of Teacher Reflection

Proceedings of the 2019 AERA Annual Meeting

Two Versions of Notorious RBG, Two Representations of Ruth Bader Ginsburg: How Are They Different and Why Does That Matter?

Annals of Social Studies Education Research for Teachers (ASSERT), 2021

The following book review is actually two book reviews. The first is about The Notorious RBG: The... more The following book review is actually two book reviews. The first is about The Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the second is about The Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Young Readers’ Edition). Both versions of the book trace Ginsburg’s ascendancy to the Supreme Court, from a young Jewish Brooklynite girl who lost her mother to cervical cancer to a law student who navigated too many layers of misogyny and anti-Semitism to name to a Columbia law professor and founder of the Women’s Rights Project and finally to a Justice who would come to be known as “the great dissenter.” However, these two versions of the book also come with different representations of Justice Ginsburg, raising questions relevant to social studies students: How is Ginsburg’s life represented differently and why does that matter? Below, I provide a brief portrait of each version of the book and suggest that reading across the original and youth editions in the classroom opens up opportunities for critical inquiry.

The Future Is Known. Now What? Using Macbeth to Explore the Social Complexity of the Climate Crisis and COVID-19

Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education, 2021

The English classroom is an indispensable site to critically engage the social complexity of the ... more The English classroom is an indispensable site to critically engage
the social complexity of the climate crisis and COVID-19. A question
comes up, however, about how to plan for such critical engagement
when teaching canonical literature that is seemingly removed
from the specific concerns of the current moment. The focus of this
article is on planning with canonical works to meet the current
moment. Using Macbeth as a focal text, I offer a seven-step heuristic
for generating lesson plan ideas that critically engage the social
complexity of the climate crisis and COVID-19. The heuristic is based
on juxtaposition, defined as a literary interpretive stance that opens
space for readers to make creative leaps between old texts and new
contexts.

Illuminating the dark side: A typology for preservice ELA teachers engaging in ideologies of digital texts

E-Learning and Digital Media, 2021

Set in English Language Arts, this article takes up recent trends in literacy toward investigatin... more Set in English Language Arts, this article takes up recent trends in literacy toward investigating ontological notions of digital texts. Two teacher educators recently implemented a series of readings and activities in their methods courses designed to help preservice teachers sophisticate their conceptions of texts beyond autonomous, neutral collections of information by considering digital age ideas such as software theory, textual ideology, and the algorithmic bias of the Internet. The authors review recent scholarship surrounding the integration of computational thinking and the humanities before illustrating a theoretical framework that combines software-driven interpretation and critical media literacy. Descriptions and applications of course texts and exercises precede a discussion on typological methodology. Through the analysis of semester-long writing reflections and course interactions, a typology of preservice teachers is then presented, illustrating three archetypes: Strategists, Hawkeyes, and Improvers. These archetypes are taken up to analyze the ways in which a range of teacher candidates considered ontological notions of digital texts to analyze instructional techniques, to sharpen their critical lenses, or to gain greater understanding of ELA as a discipline (or some combination of all three). This work demonstrates that as teacher educators and teacher candidates increasingly consider software-powered literacies, interrogations of who we are, who we are becoming, and what it all means requires attention to, and explicit practice with, the dark side of digital texts.

Disrupting the neoliberal discourse of teacher reflection through dialogical-phenomenological texts

Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 2019

In this article, we explore the propensity for the neoliberal discourse of education to constrain... more In this article, we explore the propensity for the neoliberal discourse of education to constrain reflective practice within teacher education programs (TEPs) and the potential for disrupting this neoliberal discourse by taking up concepts of dialogism and phenomenology. To pursue this goal, we developed a dialogical-phenomenological approach to teacher reflection. A dialogical-phenomenological approach to teacher reflection takes up lived experience as central to reflective practice and provides space for exploration through dialogue. Using examples from two TEPs, we describe two methods for enacting dialogical-phenomenological reflection: ahorizonalization method and a genre progression method. We found that a dialogical-phenomenological approach to reflection allowed for the creation of texts that (a) invited a range of teaching experiences into our discussions that were not reducible or resolvable but nonetheless crucial in building an understanding of teaching as implicated in social, cultural, and historical processes, and (b) invited preservice teachers to take a critical stance on the forces that structure their lived experiences in the classroom.

Fostering Critical Social Consciousness through "Text-to-Software" Connections with Brave New World

In M. Macaluso, & K. Macaluso (Eds.), Teaching the Canon in 21st Century Classrooms, 2019

Drawing on software theory, this chapter argues that living in a world powered by software has mu... more Drawing on software theory, this chapter argues that living in a world powered by software has much in common with dystopian themes of absolute control, inescapable environments, and rampant injustice. The chapter demonstrates ways English educators can use canonical dystopian literature to foster critical social consciousness of our contemporary world. Software theory provides new possibilities for critical reading.

Pursuing Mystery in A Tale for the Time Being: A Pedagogical Framework for Reading about Suicide with High School Students

In M. Falter, & S. Bickmore (Eds.), When Loss Gets Personal: Discussing Death through Literature in the Secondary ELA Classroom, 2018

This chapter draws on critical youth studies and dialogic teaching to present ideas for engaging ... more This chapter draws on critical youth studies and dialogic teaching to present ideas for engaging youth in literature about suicide in the secondary English language arts (ELA) classroom. The chapter presents a framework based on the concept of mystery, which emphasizes the often unresolvable nature of tensions, ambiguities, and contradictions in literature and life. The framework rejects reductive views of young people as unready for serious conversations and instead envisions youth as capable intellectuals who bring diverse experiences and perspectives to bear in the ELA classroom.

Doctors, Drugs, and Danger: Disentangling Discourses of Adolescence/ts in Dreamland (original version) and Dreamland (young adult adaptation) with Critical Comparative Content Analysis

Study & Scrutiny: Research on Young Adult Literature, 2021

Scholarship on young adult (YA) literature has long attended to the interrelationship of power, i... more Scholarship on young adult (YA) literature has long attended to the interrelationship of power, ideology, and narrative. Drawing on this scholarship, we examined a nonfiction text about the opiate epidemic. Using critical comparative content analysis (CCCA), our study examined differences in Dreamland (the original version) and Dreamland (the young adult adaptation) to better understand the changing nature of textual representation when youth become the imagined audience. We found that in the youth adaptation of Dreamland, the implied youth reader is (a) provided less information about the opiate epidemic, which is also delivered in a simpler structure; (b) kept at a greater rhetorical distance from people who might be deemed unsavory, and (c) given a more optimistic view of the opiate epidemic in terms of progress achieved rather than action needed. The youth adaptation of Dreamland, therefore, positions youth as needing simplicity, protection, and a sense of optimism. Our analysis demonstrates how the implied youth reader is a textual byproduct of discourses of adolescence/ts. As youth adaptations continue their prominence in the YA marketplace, scholars and teachers should critically engage how youth are positioned as readers and thinkers by the YA publishing industry. Next steps involve additional studies that focus on the implied (youth) reader through CCCA and studies that involve middle and secondary education students, the real readers of these texts. This study is supplemented by an interview with Sam Quinones, the author of the original version of Dreamland.

Border Crossing from Literature to Young Adult Literature: A Critical Comparative Content Analysis of Enrique's Journey (Original Version) and Enrique's Journey (Adapted for Youth)

The ALAN Review, 2020

Nonfiction books are increasingly being adapted for the young adult literature market. Previous r... more Nonfiction books are increasingly being adapted for the young adult literature market. Previous research has demonstrated that youth adapted books differ in patterned ways from their original counterparts, often sanitizing content and positioning youth readers as unready to grapple with the social complexity of important issues. Migration is one such important issue. This study used critical comparative content analysis (CCCA) to look at how migration was represented in the original and youth adapted versions of Enrique’s Journey. Enrique’s Journey was written and adapted by Sonia Nazario. Based on Nazario’s Pulitzer-Prize winning journalism, Enrique’s Journey recounts the story of a migrant teenager from Honduras who made his way across Mexico, crossed the US border, and reunited with his mother in North Carolina. This CCCA of Enrique’s Journey revealed patterned differences between the original and youth adapted versions, including adjustments to the narrative style, added section breaks, and a more focalized account of the journey from Enrique’s perspective; however, unlike many youth adaptations, the social complexity of migration was maintained across versions. For scholars of young adult literature, the content differences between the two versions of Enrique’s Journey forward our knowledge about this genre that marks youth as its reader—a genre, this study demonstrates, with the capacity to adapt content for a youth audience without sanitizing that content. That’s an important takeaway from this study because all too often, adaptations operate under reductive assumptions about who youths are as readers and thinkers: namely, that youth readers require role models who pursue their goals in a simplified reality. This study is supplemented by an interview with Sonia Nazario about the adaptation process as well as implications for students, teachers, and scholars.

Critical Comparative Content Analysis: Examining violence, politics, and culture in two versions of I am Malala

by Amanda Haertling Thein and Mark A Sulzer

Thein, A.H., Sulzer, M., & Schmidt, R. (2019). Critical Comparative Content Analysis: Examining v... more Thein, A.H., Sulzer, M., & Schmidt, R. (2019). Critical Comparative Content Analysis: Examining violence, politics, and culture in two versions of I am Malala. In R. Ginsberg & W. Glenn (Eds.), Engaging critically with multicultural young adult literature in the secondary classroom (pp. 153-161). New York: Routledge.

What is Adapted in Youth Adaptations?: A Critical Comparative Content Analysis of Military Memoirs Repackaged as Young Adult Literature

by Mark A Sulzer and Amanda Haertling Thein

Adapting and rebranding general market memoirs for the young adult literature market is a growing... more Adapting and rebranding general market memoirs for the young adult literature market is a growing trend in the publishing world. Grounded in Critical Youth Scholarship, this study explores this trend through an analysis of two general market memoirs of Navy SEALs and their revised and repackaged youth market counterparts. Using a systematic approach we call Critical Comparative Content Analysis (CCCA), this study found that the youth adaptations were substantially altered to produce worlds stripped of complexity, offering sanitized versions of military action, heroism, and humanity. We argue that through content changes, youth readers are denied access to complex portrayals of the world, as well as questions that might arise with and through them. Instead, youth readers are constructed as needing explicit life lessons and reductive depictions of lived experience. For scholars and teachers, this study demonstrates the importance of inquiries that not only critically approach the content of YAL, but also foreground and trouble limiting conceptions of youth readers themselves. This study also highlights the value of comparison as a conceptual and pedagogical tool for carrying out this work. Further, this study recommends continued methodological innovation oriented toward genre-specific qualities of young adult literature, including its production and marketing.

(Re)Conceptualizing Digital Literacies Before and After the Election of Trump

Purpose – As part of a larger global phenomenon, the election of Donald Trump in the USA represen... more Purpose – As part of a larger global phenomenon, the election of Donald Trump in the USA represents a crucial moment for the (re)conceptualization of digital literacies. The purpose of this paper is to build theory with respect to what this moment means for English education. Design/methodology/approach – This teacher reflection focuses on what digital literacies meant for my teaching before and after the 2016 election. Using a before-and-after format, I argue that the before conceptualization of digital literacies, while still relevant and useful for introducing many important ideas to English educators, was missing a direct treatment of political power. The after conceptualization takes up this topic. Findings – Themes taken up in the before section involve a parallel between digital literacies and disciplinary literacies and a distinction between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 interfaces. Themes in the after section address the propensity for governments and other well-resourced groups to occupy Web 2.0 environments for their own ends. Methods for accomplishing these ends involve restricting, surveilling and targeting flows of information and enacting three populist practices via internet trolling: aggregating the unmet demands of disparate groups, establishing popular subjectivity and dichotomizing the social space through the persistent construction of the enemy. Research limitations/implications – A critically conscious approach to digital literacies must consider the ways in which political entities occupy digital environments. Practical implications – Further research should be done in English education classrooms to understand the ways in which individual online meaning making becomes entangled within a nexus of political activity. Further research should investigate how online meaning making intersects with political power. Originality/value – The role of political entities is often downplayed or ignored in discussions of digital literacies. In an age of alternative facts, fake news and echo chambers, it is important to foreground the interplay between the social, the political and the digital in contemporary meaning making. This contribution offers concepts that can be taken up and expanded, as well as a set of questions for English educators to use in framing a critically conscious conversation about digital literacies.

Reconsidering the Hypothetical Adolescent in Evaluating and Teaching Young Adult Literature

by Mark A Sulzer and Amanda Haertling Thein

Sulzer, M. & Thein, A.H. (2016). Reconsidering the hypothetical adolescent in evaluating and teaching young adult literature. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 60(2), 163-171.

Illuminating discourses of youth through the study of first-person narration in young adult literature

by Amanda Haertling Thein and Mark A Sulzer

Thein, A. H., & Sulzer, M. A. (2015). Illuminating discourses of youth through the study of first-person narration in young adult literature. English Journal, 104(3), 47-53.

Grounded in the threepart literary concept of the narrator, the narratee, and the implied reader,... more Grounded in the threepart literary concept of the narrator, the narratee, and the implied reader, this article provides teachers and students with a heuristic for uncovering, attending to, and critiquing assumptions about youth found in the first-person narrative form that predominates in young adult literature.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Gates Foundation's MET Project: Discursive Respresentations of Teaching and Learning

63rd Yearbook of the Literacy Research Association, 2014

The common core state standards and the basalization of youth

English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 13(1), 134-154, May 2014

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were published by the Council of Chief State School Office... more The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were published by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association in 2010 as part of a widespread standards-based reform movement in the United States. The education marketplace has responded with CCSS-aligned products, including standardised tests, professional development training and curriculum materials. This essay examines the discourse of reading/readers that the CCSS promotes by analysing a CCSSaligned textbook intended for 9 th grade English/language arts students. In operating under a New Critical paradigm of textual interpretation, this CCSSaligned textbook positions reading as an activity comprised of a discrete skillset allowing readers to extract meaning from a text. Reading skills are envisioned as objective, neutral and eternal -and importantly, conducive to measurement. In drawing on dominant views of youth, this CCSS-aligned textbook positions young readers as "detectives" undergoing a training regimen. Young readers are envisioned only in terms of their progress toward college and career readiness, which prioritises their future importance and discounts their importance in the present. Together, these views ignore the transactional properties of reading and the creative capacities of the reader. In this essay, I examine how these views become normalised through metaphors, marginal notes, questions/prompts, standardised goals, and testing practice in Holt McDougal's Literature (Common Core Edition). I argue that under the CCSS, the creative activity of reading becomes simplified, and the identities of young readers become homogenised. Added together, these views promote a style of reasoning I refer to as the "basalisation" of youth.

Engaging students in democracy through adolescent literature: Lessons from two versions of Wes Moore’s memoir.

by Amanda Haertling Thein, Mark A Sulzer, and Renita R Schmidt

Thein, A.H., Sulzer, M. & Schmidt, R. (2013). Engaging students in democracy through adolescent literature: Lessons from two versions of Wes Moore’s memoir. English Journal, 102(2), 52-59., 2013

is article critiques didactic YA literature grounded in a developmental stage model of adolescenc... more

Teaching the Canon in 21st Century Classrooms Challenging Genres

by Michael Macaluso, Fawn Canady, Carlin Borsheim-Black, Mary L . Neville, Mark A Sulzer, Amanda Haertling Thein, and Mary Beth Hines

The canon, as much an ideology as it is a body of texts perceived to be intrinsic to the high sch... more The canon, as much an ideology as it is a body of texts perceived to be intrinsic to the high school English classroom, has come under scrutiny for maintaining status quo narratives about whiteness, masculinity, heterosexuality, ability, and even those associated with American ideals of self-reliance, the good life, and the self-made man. Teaching practices around these texts may also reinforce harmful practices and ways of thinking, including those connected to notions of culture, literary merit, and methods of reading, teaching, and learning.

Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English (Feb 2022)

by Anne Crampton, Tracey Pyscher, Jeff Share, and Mark A Sulzer

Research in the Teaching of English Volume 56, Number 3, 2022

This section focuses on digital literacy research that emphasizes technology and online platforms... more This section focuses on digital literacy research that emphasizes technology and online platforms for instructional purposes. Studies examine uses of technological tools, including e-books/e-reading, coding, HyperDocs, online discussion, digital video production, video games, and digital portfolios; digital and multimodal writing, production, communication, and reading tools/apps; and how social networking, online feedback, augmented reality, synchronous and asynchronous learning models, and learning management systems enhance literacy instructional practices. In light of the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing global demand for remote learning, priority was given to studies that address the use of digital technologies to facilitate literacy learning and the pedagogy, knowledge, and skills needed for teaching in online and hybrid contexts.

Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English (2021)

by Anne Crampton, Amy Frederick, Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr, Candance Doerr-Stevens, Mark A Sulzer, Amanda Haertling Thein, and Erin Stutelberg

Research in the Teaching of English, 2021

The goal of the annual bibliography is to offer a synthesis of the research published in the area... more The goal of the annual bibliography is to offer a synthesis of the research published in the area of English language arts within the past year that may be of interest to RTE readers. Abstracted citations and those featured in the “Other Related Research” sections were published, either in print or online, between June 2019 and June 2020. Categories include Digital/Technology Tools; Inclusive Literacy Instruction/Special Education; Literacy; Literary Response/Literature; Media Literacy; Professional Development/Teacher Education; Reading; Second Language Literacy; Social Justice/Critical Approaches; and Writing, with contributions from 28 authors.

2019 Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English

by Amy Frederick, Anne Crampton, Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr, Mark A Sulzer, Amanda Haertling Thein, Jodi Baker, and Jeff Share

NCTE, 2019

This section focuses on digital literacy research that emphasizes technology and online platforms... more This section focuses on digital literacy research that emphasizes technology and online platforms for instructional purposes. Priority was given to studies that address aspects of pedagogy connected to the knowledge and skills needed to use digital technologies to facilitate literacy learning. Specifically, digital literacy in English language arts contexts that incorporates digital writing, production, communication, or reading tools/apps; technology for instructional purposes including blogs, coding, wikis, e-books/e-reading, digital storytelling, online discussion, digital video production, podcasts, and digital portfolios; and how social networking, online feedback, and learning management systems enhance literacy instructional practices. (Candance Doerr-Stevens, lead contributor)

2017 Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English

by Amy Frederick, Richard Beach, Mark A Sulzer, and Amanda Haertling Thein

The research included in this section focuses on digital literacy research on technology for inst... more The research included in this section focuses on digital literacy research on technology for instructional purposes. Priority was given to studies that address aspects of pedagogy connected to the knowledge and skills needed to use digital technologies to facilitate literacy learning. Specifically, digital literacy in English language arts contexts incorporates digital writing, production, communication, or reading tools/apps; technology for instructional purposes, including blogs, coding, wikis, e-books/e-reading, digital storytelling, online discussion, digital video production, podcasts, and digital portfolios; and how social networking, online feedback, and learning management systems enhance literacy instructional practices. (Maggie Struck, lead contributor)

Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English 2015

by Ann Mason, Amy Frederick, Kris Isaacson, Jenna Cushing-Leubner, Tracy Colebrooke, Chelda Smith, Amanda Haertling Thein, Mark A Sulzer, L. Helman, and Lauren Liang

and literary character roles. Uses grounded theory to construct knowledge and question common ass... more and literary character roles. Uses grounded theory to construct knowledge and question common assumptions as one cycle in a larger action research project. Finds themes of (1) students enacting individual and character voice through character portrayal; (2) simulation game affordances of engagement and empowerment through opportunities to safely explore and constructively communicate multiple perspectives, respect for diversity, and democratic ideals; (3) increased student confidence and demonstration of literacy skills in authentic experiential learning activities; (4) students taking active roles in their learning and exploring unique avenues for making their voices heard; and (5) application to other types of curricula. #digital/technologytools #academictechnologyuse #perspectivetaking #motivation/engagement Rust, J. (2015). Students' playful tactics. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 58,[492][493][494][495][496][497][498][499][500][501][502][503] Describes the identity tactics adolescents employ within Ning, a classroom social networking platform, when it is used in two face-to-face high school English classes and its impact on curricular purposes. Uses a qualitative research methodology to investigate students' socially embedded identity practices within teachers' curricular actions and the environment. Finds that students compose a virtual self through use of pop culture, wit, and gossip (discourse regarding characters, not peers). Indicates that students' identity tactics transformed the classroom environment into an informal space; however, this did not detract from curriculum or standards engagement. Suggests that (1) English classrooms are an appropriate forum to instruct students in digital communication and navigation skills, and (2) teachers are responsible for co-constructing new learning platforms with students and defining common expectations. Provides tactics for teachers utilizing social networking spaces in formal learning environments. #digital/technologytools #discourse #socialnetworking #identity Schwartz, L. H. (2014). Challenging the tyranny of the five-paragraph essay: Teachers and students as semiotic boundary workers in classroom and digital space. Literacy, 48, 124-135. Examines how new media and youth practices affect students' traditional literacy practices in an Arizona urban high school within the US-Mexico borderlands region. Uses a sociocultural theoretical framework and a participatory action research design to investigate how the teacher/ researcher team drew on high school writing students' personal interests and motivations, as well as various semiotic resources across learning settings, to inform their pedagogical and curricular choices and to reframe the traditional "five-paragraph essay." Analyzes students' processes in the creation of hybrid multimodal texts. Findings suggest that positioning students and teachers as semiotic boundary workers affords a worthwhile framework for teachers and students in writing classrooms who desire to create literacy practices and activities that not only meet academic standards and testing requirements but also engage youth practices and digital tools in efforts to promote social change. #digital/technologytools #writing #socialnetworking #academictechnologyuse Siu, C. K. (2014). Developing information literacy and critical thinking skills through domain knowledge learning in digital classrooms: An experience of practicing flipped classroom strategy.

2020 Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English

by Amy Frederick, Anne Crampton, Jodi Baker, Richard Beach, Mark A Sulzer, and Amanda Haertling Thein

Research in the Teaching of English, 2020

This section focuses on digital literacy research that emphasizes technology and online platforms... more This section focuses on digital literacy research that emphasizes technology and online platforms for instructional purposes. Studies examine the use of digital writing, production, communication, and reading tools/apps; technology for instructional purposes, including coding, e-books/e-reading, digital storytelling, online discussion, digital video production, podcasts, and digital portfolios; and how social networking, online feedback, and learning management systems enhance literacy instructional practices. These studies address pedagogy, knowledge, and skills needed to use digital technologies to facilitate literacy learning. (Robin Jocius, lead contributor) Connolly, S., & Burn, A. (2019). The Story Engine: Offering an online platform for making "unofficial" creative writing work. Literacy, 53, 30-38. Describes the development and implementation of Story Engine, an online, mentor-assisted digital writing platform. Uses theories of creativity to interrogate discourses surrounding the teaching of creative writing, both in and outside of the classroom. Examines the implementation of a beta prototype of Story Engine with 120 adolescents in four British schools. Uses case studies to investigate whether an online creative writing platform develops creativity and complements school-based writing programs. Finds that Story Engine promotes schooled aspects of creative writing but can potentially allow for more creative freedom. Concludes that the Story Engine environment provided a variety of opportunities for students to draw on cultural resources to produce texts for specific audiences. Suggests that teachers can combine digital writing tools and offline engagement in order to bring together progressive classroom teaching techniques and online, playful pedagogies.

Beliefs for Integrating Technology into the English Language Arts Classroom

by Sean Connors, Nicole Damico, Candance Doerr-Stevens, Stephanie Loomis, Mary F Rice, and Mark A Sulzer

NCTE (http://bit.ly/3lat3ch), 2018

This statement, formerly known as Beliefs about Technology and the Preparation of English Teacher... more This statement, formerly known as Beliefs about Technology and the Preparation of English Teachers, was updated in October 2018 with the Beliefs for Integrating Technology into the English Language Arts Classroom.

LINK: http://bit.ly/3lat3ch

Originally developed in July 2005, revised by the ELATE Commission on Digital Literacy in Teacher Education (D-LITE), October 2018

Creative Contamination: Generating Enrichment Through Adaptation

by Mark A Sulzer, Crag Hill, and Terri Suico

Study and Scrutiny: Research on Young Adult Literature, 2021

This paper is the introduction to a special issue about adaptation in young adult literature in S... more This paper is the introduction to a special issue about adaptation in young adult literature in Study & Scrutiny: Research on Young Adult Literature. The introduction provides overviews of research articles that use Critical Comparative Content Analysis (CCCA), a critical study, interviews, and book reviews. The section titled "Empirical Studies with Critical Comparative Content Analysis" by Mark Sulzer describes the methodology of CCCA in its origins, conceptual bases, and four phases.