Introduction to the Special Issue: Emancipatory Pro‐Black, Latinx and Indigenous Reading Research and Teaching

I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me. In 2025, in a diverse United States and global society, curricula continue to be dominated by Eurocentric norms instituted through colonization. This legacy of colonization has led to stereotypes and misinformation about Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people that has led to mass waves of censored histories, stories, and curricula. As Ellison poignantly wrote, “I am invisible, understand simply because people refuse to see me.” This invisibility describes the erasure of People of Color within education, where their lived realities and identities are distorted or rendered unseen by the dominance of Eurocentric narratives. In recent years, there has been a rise in anti-Black, Latinx, and Indigenous policies, and censorship in institutions of higher learning, state legislatures, school districts, and classrooms. The curriculum has long needed a transformation, as the absence of normalized and accurate curricular foci on histories, heritages, communities, and languages can oppress and diminish the academic opportunities of Students of Color. This special issue is a call to action for reading research and teaching that centers on the lived experiences, histories, and knowledge systems of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities. For far too long, these communities have been marginalized in educational spaces, their rich and diverse contributions to reading pedagogy and practice overlooked and undervalued. This issue foregrounds emancipatory approaches rooted in the cultural wealth and resilience of these communities, challenging the pervasive Eurocentric frameworks that dominate curricular design. We draw inspiration from current educators like Mary Wood, an English teacher from Chapin, SC, who has faced backlash from a few private citizens, and even state legislators for her courageous efforts to teach Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Similarly, we are moved by the resilience of Black families in Florida who, in the face of restrictive bans, have taken Black history into their own hands by teaching lessons in local churches in Florida. These current acts of resistance highlight a long-standing truth: restrictive education is nothing new. Understanding this context, we were particularly interested in work that explores how classrooms can amplify the voices of students who speak back to systemic racism and inequities while fostering connections between community knowledge and contemporary educational practices. By doing so, this issue highlights how teachers and researchers can help students develop a deeper appreciation of their own identities and cultural contributions to society. By centering pro-Black, Latinx, and Indigenous perspectives in reading instruction, we create space for a transformative understanding of literacy—one that celebrates the joy, brilliance, and agency of students and communities often relegated to the margins. In issue five, we share nine articles that illustrate the joy, brilliance, and agency of these communities. We look forward to adding articles to this collection that share a range of perspectives for elementary classrooms and teachers. In “I Am the Universe:” Toward a Reader Model that Centers Culture, Nash and Peel introduce the Cultural Sustenance View, a reading model born from their years of engagement with culturally sustaining pedagogies. Recognizing that existing reading models fail to incorporate the critical role of culture in reading development, the authors propose an approach that moves beyond mere responsiveness or relevance. Through this lens, Peel highlights how a young reader's ways of knowing—ancestral, linguistic, and cultural knowledge—along with their values and ways of being, are centered in literacy events. This model underscores the necessity of embedding cultural sustenance within literacy practices to fully honor students' identities. Similarly, in From Dreaming of Freedom to Freedom Dreaming: Developing Students' Abolitionist Praxis through Interdisciplinary Literacy Instruction, the authors explore how elementary Students of Color engage with freedom dreaming as a pathway to envision and enact prison and police abolition. This study reveals the transformative potential of centering abolitionist praxis in elementary classrooms, fostering critical consciousness and empowering students to imagine a world free from systemic oppression. Expanding on the cultural dimensions of literacy, Broadening English-Centric Early Literacy Pedagogy: Building on Young Spanish-English Bilingual Children's Language and Home Literacy Practices shifts the conversation to bilingualism. This article advocates for a holistic, sociocultural approach to early literacy by drawing on studies from Spanish-dominant countries and the U.S. The authors highlight the commonalities and differences in home literacy practices across languages, emphasizing the need to integrate young bilingual children's linguistic resources into early literacy instruction. In What Mamá Gallina Can Teach Literacy Educators About Healing Biliteracies, the metaphor of Mamá Gallina is used to explore bilingual literacy through personal connections, cultural practices, and linguistic pride. Drawing from three elementary classrooms, this work demonstrates how healing biliteracies—grounded in cultural and linguistic relevance—can sustain and nurture students' bilingual identities. Complementing this perspective, Book Expansion for Language and Linguistic Justice illustrates how educators can transform monolingual, placeless texts into culturally rich, linguistically diverse resources through a critical participatory action research (CPAR) approach. Both articles emphasize the importance of linguistic justice and the power of culturally affirming literacy practices in the classroom. Further advancing this focus on representation, Deepening Explorations of Racial and Linguistic Representation in Picturebooks Through Critical Translingual Literacies critiques the narrow, skill-based focus of early literacy curricula. Zapata, González Ybarra, and Adu-Gyamfi advocate for amplifying the linguistic, cultural, and sociopolitical strengths of marginalized communities by centering translingual literacies in picturebooks read-alouds. Their collaborative planning guide offers educators a liberatory approach to literacy that celebrates linguistic diversity and resists the dominance of standardized English. Pro-Black pedagogies are another central theme explored in these works. In Cultivating the Genius Within: A Conceptual Framework for Black Feminist Text Selection, the authors examine Angela, an experienced Black educator, who uses text selection as a practice of care and community building. By prioritizing Black feminist texts, Angela creates a classroom environment that uplifts and empowers her students. Similarly, Black is Beauty: Jamaican Teachers Embracing Pro-Blackness in American Classrooms highlights how Jamaican teachers use pro-Black pedagogy to affirm Blackness and empower students, providing practical strategies for engaging with pro-Black texts and reflecting on teaching practices. Finally, Stories from a Literacy Coach: Developing Pro-Black Instruction within a Eurocratic Mandated Curriculum recounts the experiences of a literacy coach collaborating with a first-grade teacher to embed pro-Black pedagogy within a restrictive curriculum. This article underscores the challenges and opportunities of serving Black students by centering their cultural, historical, and community knowledge in literacy development. Together, these articles illuminate the transformative possibilities of emancipatory literacy practices that center the cultural, linguistic, and historical strengths of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities. They collectively challenge the status quo, offering actionable pathways for educators to create more inclusive, justice-oriented, and affirming spaces for all learners. In this issue, we are also excited to kick off our children's column, edited by Allison Briceño and Roberta Price Gardner. This issue's book reviews are written by elementary teachers and seek to explore classroom literacy practices that honor and build upon the lives, languages, and experiences of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students. Finally, we want to give a big shout-out to our very own editor, Navan Govender, for creating the beautiful issue art to elucidate the beauty of students and communities. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.