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Author Biographies

Grace Kang is an Associate Professor of Elementary Literacy at Illinois State University. She teaches various literacy courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels and her research explores humanizing and critical perspectives and social justice-oriented teacher education, specifically in writing. She can be contacted at gykang@ilstu.edu

Sonia Kline is currently an Associate Professor at Illinois State University. She teaches language arts courses, with a focus on expanding definitions of literacy, at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her research focuses on writing in teacher education. She can be contacted at skline@ilstu.edu

Abstract

Given the pressures, demands, and standardization teachers face in our sociopolitically charged times, teachers need opportunities to reflect and reimagine their instruction. Drawing on critical and related scholarship, we conceptualize critical humanizing writing pedagogy. We share our instructional moves as teacher educators for enacting humanizing writing pedagogy in a graduate course and supporting teachers to enact humanizing writing pedagogy in their K-12 classrooms. Specifically, we show how a graduate student and practicing teacher found ways to shift toward critical orientations as she navigated her school’s curriculum and state standards. We argue that sociocultural and critical lenses provide powerful tools for reflecting and reimagining writing instruction in ways that resist standardization and oppressive practices in schools.

Publication Date

8-2025

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