Review written by: Farhana Ghaffar

From the images of snaking queues outside community food banks in the US to the ongoing campaigning over the funding of free school meals for schoolchildren from the poorest backgrounds in the UK, as Covid-19 has blazed across the world, it has exposed in its wake the glaring universal injustice of food insecurity that has stalked the reality of everyday existence for many long before the pandemic struck. Against this backdrop, Broton and Cady’s Food Insecurity on Campus: Action and Intervention, a collection of essays which threads together the experiences and expertise of a richly diverse group of US Higher Education practitioners, student activists and academics, each chapter offering a unique insight into the effects of food insecurity and potential practical solutions to eradicate it from our campuses, is a timely and highly pertinent contribution, with relevance to those with a vested interest in student inequalities both in and beyond the US.

Written by: Kurt Thumlert, Bryan Smith, Cristyne Hébert, Brittany Tomin

Abstract: This article reports on a research project, Re/Map, that looked at how pre-service teachers might question the taken-for-granted nature of digital maps as constructed sociotechnical artefacts, and then creatively speak back to the dominant historical narratives embedded within them through the production of their own media artefacts. Though analysis of pre-service teacher projects and interviews, we discuss the diverse ways pre-service teachers mobilized place-based inquiry and critical re-mapping practices to interrogate the hidden curriculum of everyday ‘city-texts,’ challenge dominant geographic imaginaries embedded in digital mapping tools, and consider the impacts of the project on their own future teaching. We signal the opportunities of this kind of inquiry-driven investigation to not only enable students to critique digital maps and visualization media, but also to support pre-service teachers in critically engaging with the places they find themselves teaching and living within.

Keywords: critical cartography, critical remix, digital maps, critical media literacies, remapping, teacher education, visualization technologies

Written by: Jason Toncic

Abstract: High school English (Language Arts) teachers are experiencing the most impactful shift in literacy practices since the advent of digital word processing: Artificial Intelligence literacies, which impact the production of writing with high-accuracy grammar suggestions. However, the specific role that AI grammar checkers play in teaching and assessing writing has been widely overlooked to date. In this focused study, seven New Jersey (USA) high school English teachers were initially asked about their current writing and grammar pedagogy and assessment. When participants were then introduced to an AI grammar checker, the emergent findings of this study showed that grammar is an implicit factor in student assessment, despite many high school English teachers no longer explicitly teaching grammar lessons. Furthermore, the participating teachers perceived AI grammar checkers as possible “personal assistants” that could improve student writing, teach grammar, and reduce teacher workloads. This study suggests that online grammar checkers can bring about meaningful critical reflection regarding the assessment of Standard English in high schools for teachers and researchers.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, new literacies, grammar checkers, critical pedagogy

Written by: Barbara Franz

Abstract: This paper arises out of a very contemporary problem that is plaguing higher education: how the notion of ‘free speech’ is being misused to hamper truly scholarly debate and encourage hate and fear primarily through misinformation. To understand how this issue has arisen and become important, the paper explores the origins and growth of a loose group of disgruntled pro-white far-right reactionaries (DPWFRR), who market themselves using the term ‘Alt Right.’ Free speech is but one of many of their ‘concerns’ and perhaps not a central one. The intellectual ambitions and financial foundations of these groups on the one hand and the identity needs of young people on the other hand serve as explanatory frameworks to understand the attraction of students to the DPWFRR’s digital networks. This paper reveals the underlying depth of the problem and suggests that institutions and staff have a clear (though difficult) path ahead if there is to be a powerful and effective revolt against this popular reactionary right-wing network.

Keywords: academia; free speech; ‘Alt Right’; misinformation; doxing; TPUSA; DPWFRR

Written by: Zachary J.A. Rondinelli

“This is a manifesto, not an academic text” (Buckingham, 2019, p. 119).

One of academia’s preeminent scholars on media literacy education and young people’s interactions with electronic media, David Buckingham has authored, co-authored, or edited thirty books, and published more than 220 articles and book chapters. That said, his latest offering, The Media Education Manifesto, is a provocative, accessible call-to-arms. This short, reader-friendly text is a personal statement built on a lifetime of research and educational experience that presents a new vision for media education and how it should be approached to prepare students for 21st -Century life. The book is written with passion, expertise, and determination. Buckingham clearly and precisely expounds upon the history, both political and educational, of media literacy/education in the UK, while also describing how these insights could be used more globally.