Call for Manuscripts

English in Texas, Vol.57.1- Spring/Summer 2027

 

THEME: Designing Future-Ready ELAR Learning: Integrating Experiential STEM, Inclusive Technologies, and AI Literacy

 

MANUSCRIPT DEADLINE: April 1, 2027

 

English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR) educators find themselves at a critical intersection where literacy instruction must adapt to prepare students for a technologically complex world. Far from being disconnected from technical disciplines, foundational literacy skills like reading, writing, and purposeful discourse, serve as the bedrock for all interdisciplinary learning, particularly within experiential Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) spaces. Concurrently, the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has refined what it means to be literate. Because generative AI tools are built upon Large Language Models (LLMs), AI literacy is fundamentally a linguistic phenomenon. Therefore, examining how learners read, critique, compose, and communicate with these tools is inherently an ELAR responsibility and challenge. 

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Moving these concepts from theoretical frameworks into active classroom practice requires an intentional focus on student agency and equity. Future-ready ELAR teaching and learning should center on how inclusive and assistive technologies expand access to instruction, ensuring that students with disabilities, emergent bilingual learners, and historically marginalized learners can fully engage with complex texts and express their ideas in varied, multimodal ways. Across Texas, from sprawling urban centers to rural communities navigating the digital divide, educators are creatively reimagining instruction to meet these demands. Some campuses are currently piloting highly integrated, AI-infused curricula that challenges teachers to carefully balance technological instruction with social and interpersonal skills. Investigating how these visions are enacted, and how teachers are supported through collaborative coaching and professional development, is essential to understanding the changing identity of the modern ELAR professional. 

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At the heart of this call is a commitment to exploring developmentally appropriate technology use across all grade bands. In early childhood and elementary spaces, future-ready learning often thrives when paired with inquiry-driven, play-based pedagogies. Educators continually make nuanced decisions regarding which foundational literacy skills are best built entirely without digital intervention, what aspects of learning should be scaffolded by tools like voice assistants or image generators, and what spaces must be actively protected from them. We welcome critical, cautious, and enthusiastic perspectives that examine how these approaches can empower Texas students and educators to become active and reflective knowledge generators in their classrooms, schools, and communities. 

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We welcome submissions on conceptual, reflective, pedagogical, research-based, or theoretical manuscripts that explore a diverse range of contributions, including but not limited to:

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• Manuscripts demonstrating how core ELAR skills (reading, writing, academic discourse) are successfully integrated within inquiry-based STEM activities to support student conceptual communication. 

• Explorations of AI use, including critical perspectives on which skills are best built without technology, how educators decide what to scaffold, and what boundaries to maintain. 

• Implementation of multimodal tools (such as audio/video composition, augmented reality, closed captioning, and translation features) that expand access to complex texts for diverse learners. 

• Case studies of technology-supported co-teaching practices between ELAR educators and special education or bilingual/ESL teachers. 

• Examinations of how pre-service and in-service teachers learn to design, implement, and critique future-ready pedagogies through professional learning, coaching, and collaborative teacher inquiry. 

• Research and narratives highlighting how educators in historically under-resourced contexts creatively bridge structural inequities while maintaining high quality ELAR-STEM learning. 

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FOCUS ON THE THEME: We invite manuscripts that are conceptual, reflective, pedagogical, research-based, or theoretical as they relate to the design of future-ready ELAR learning through the integration of experiential STEM, inclusive technologies, and AI literacy. 

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INQUIRIES AND INNOVATIONS: We also welcome educational research relevant to the work of ELAR educators, whether theme-dependent or generally applicable to the ELAR community.

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STANDING COLUMNS: Brief contributions in the form of standing columns are encouraged. These can center on topics of interest that do not necessarily align with the issue’s theme.

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• Teaching on the Front Lines: Texas ELAR teachers are facing unprecedented

challenges to their professional judgment and students’ access to diverse texts. This

column will share stories of navigating censorship in Texas schools, highlighting

strategies for advocacy, collaboration, and text selection. We seek to empower

educators to build resilient systems that ensure all Texas students can engage with a

wide range of voices and stories.

 

• Emerging Voices: This column will highlight the vital inquiries of beginning Texas

ELAR teachers (preservice or in-service with 1–5 years of experience) as they

navigate the early stages of their professional journeys. Inspired by the “Future Is

Now” roundtable sessions at NCTE, we provide a platform for emerging scholars to

share their questions, explorations, and insights.

 

• Youth as Knowledge Generators: This column will champion the power of youth as

knowledge creators, challenging the traditional research paper and exploring how

young people’s original research and creative scholarship can inform public policies

and activism in Texas. We seek to publish accounts of innovative youth-led projects

conducted in schools and communities across the state.

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Submission Guidelines: For detailed manuscript submission guidelines, please refer to the Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts–English in Texas website. For any questions, feel free to contact the editorial team at EnglishinTexas@twu.edu 

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Send manuscripts and inquiries regarding publication to:

 

TCTELA Headquarters/English in Texas

919 Congress Avenue, Suite 1400

Austin, Texas 78701

512.617.3200

Email: EnglishinTexas@twu.edu (subject line: “English in Texas Submission or Query”)​