Reshaping the narrative: An opportunity for justice

Sakeena Everett, an assistant professor in the department of language and literacy education in the College of Education, developed a consequential literacy pedagogy to provide support for high-achieving young, black men and their English language arts educators.

Her findings were published in Research in the Teaching of English, a flagship journal for English educators from the National Council of Teachers of English. The article, “Untold Stories: Cultivating Consequential Writing with a Black Male Student through a Critical Approach to Metaphor,” is considered “the 2018-2019 Research in the Teaching of English article most likely to have an impact on educational practice.”

Everett received the Alan C. Purves Award from the NCTE in Baltimore, MD, on Nov. 23. Receiving the award is an affirmation of the work Everett is doing. “I wanted to have teachers think about metaphor as a theoretical and pedagogical framework to rethink our work as teachers to move beyond metaphor as a literary device,” she said.