Assistant Professor of English Education, Kelli Rushek and recent Miami alumnus, Ellie MacDowell ('23), have had their manuscript published in the Journal of Language and Literacy Education. The manuscript challenges the Eurocentric literary canon often employed in secondary English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum.

Rushek, an Assistant Professor at Miami University, brings a wealth of experience from ten years teaching high school English in Chicago Public Schools. Her research focuses on transformative, innovative, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive teaching and learning, with a specific emphasis on disrupting whiteness in ELA and literacy education.

MacDowell, a recent graduate of Miami University and a first-year high school English teacher in Columbus, Ohio, is keen on exploring best practices for creating relevant curriculum and establishing meaningful student connections. Together, their work contributes to the ongoing dialogue on developing Culturally Sustaining Literacy Pedagogy, aiming to disrupt traditional teaching approaches and foster critical literacy instruction around present-day issues of racism and injustice.

(AI tools Grammarly and ChatGPT 3.5, a language model developed by OpenAI, assisted in writing this news story.)