This forum contribution considers the complexities and importance of gender in the historiography of LGBTQ+ college students. After a brief introduction, we focus on four key areas in the existing historiography: women’s romantic relationships in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, higher education leaders’ enforcement of gender norms and purges of LGBTQ+ students through the mid-twentieth century, the gender dynamics within LGBTQ+ student organizations from the 1970s onward, and trans and other LGBTQ+ students’ expansion of gender possibilities, including through the use of drag. In so doing, we argue that gender analysis is important to the historiography of LGBTQ+ students, though most often that analysis has been implicit rather than explicit. Considering both the gaps in our historical knowledge and the rising attacks on LGBTQ+ individuals, we contend that continued gendered analyses are not only warranted but also needed.

This study developed and evaluated an online English speaking training approach that integrates corpora and artificial intelligence (AI) tools. The training integrated a self-developed spoken corpus, generative AI tools, and text-to-speech AI tools. Pre- and post-test results identified improvements in participants’ speaking performances. Participants attempted to use more positive linguistic features (e.g. producing complex sentences more frequently) and avoid using negative linguistic features (e.g. reducing the number of vowel errors) after receiving the training. Participants showed positive attitudes towards this corpus-based and AI-integrated English oral ability learning approach and affirmed the importance of integrating both tools. The corpus helped raise participants’ awareness of features that influence speaking performance and offered prompt engineering and feedback-checking functions, while the generative AI tools provided useful feedback and tailor-made sample responses. Additionally, text-to-speech AI tools offered learners with tailor-made native speaker samples for imitation and helped learners learn pausing. Results also revealed that this approach helped create an interactive oral ability learning environment, and the combination of corpora and AI tools provided more accurate feedback for each subskill of speaking.

This study investigated the impact of familiar versus unfamiliar environments on mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) task writing performance, English as a foreign language (EFL) writing proficiency, and learner perceptions. Fifty undergraduate students were divided into an experimental group and a control group. Both groups engaged in EFL learning in the classroom and later completed writing tasks in different learning environments outside the classroom: the experimental group in familiar environments and the control group in unfamiliar ones. Using a mobile learning system on tablet PCs, students completed five writing tasks describing resources in their environments, such as objects, people, situations, and scenarios. We assessed MALL task writing performance based on factors including the amount of writing, content quality, organization, creativity, grammar, and vocabulary, and compared results between the two groups. EFL writing proficiency was evaluated through a post-test directly related to the MALL tasks, and student perceptions of the MALL experience were measured through a survey. The results indicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group in both writing tasks and the post-test. Furthermore, the experimental group reported more positive perceptions of their MALL experience, reflected in higher emotional engagement and cognitive involvement. Based on these findings, we offer both theoretical insights into the role of familiar environments in facilitating language learning and practical suggestions for EFL teachers and researchers to incorporate real-world, contextually rich environments in MALL activities.

Humanity is facing a confluence of existential environmental and material crises threatening socio-economic sustainability and the web of life that predicates human existence. At the same time, the erosion of spiritual, social, political and economic assemblages is undermining social cohesion, the fabric of democratic societies and humanity’s ability to change course. The dynamics in which humanity now finds itself has been termed the metacrisis, an embodiment of a mythical, all-consuming Moloch, emerging from collective akratic actions. Here, the consequences of the metacrisis for education are discussed from Rupert Read’s (2017) thrutopian perspective, which sidesteps the paralysis arising from dystopian laments and major-utopian fantasies. This paper argues for a thrutopian curriculum that enacts Read’s call for attention to the present and a focus on adaptation through resilience building, environmental care, positive relations and enjoyment of the possible. Such a curriculum confronts dystopian visions as no longer avoidable challenges while pulling utopian concepts from the permanent deferral inherent in major utopias down to minor-utopian realisations in the daily here-and-now of adaptive survival. The paper contends that thrutopian thinking can empower curriculum writing, teaching and environmental education and defuse the rise of debilitating crisis anxiety across the age spectrum.

As the planet confronts an interconnected meta-crisis linked to natural, political, social, and psychological challenges, there are some pedagogical tendencies that should be challenged within university education. Drawing on the philosophical literature of the Ecological University, this article uses an eco-philosophical framework for considering mainstream university pedagogy. We emphasise that the increasing mental health challenges of so many young people at university is both a symptom and a feature of the meta-crisis and a key consideration for how we might respond as university educators. We argue that many of the existing neoliberal and liberal tendencies in university can be interpreted as “Miserable Pedagogies” — which typically fail to engage with the meta-crisis as a threat to the planet’s psychological, social, political, or natural ecosystems. We suggest that our “pedagogies of misery” need to be disrupted and radically contested with an ecological world-view we describe as “Anthropocene Intelligence.” After setting out the key features of Anthropocene Intelligence, we consider how an alternative teaching approach, used by one of the authors, reflects such an ecological worldview and potentially provides a basis for more meaningful and active ways of being and learning on this finite planet.

Learners’ confidence in using a second language (L2 self-efficacy) and their L2 grit are key psychological factors in developing intercultural competence (ICC). As English as a foreign language (EFL) students increasingly encounter diverse cultures though informal digital learning of English (IDLE), this study examines whether IDLE serves as a pathway connecting these psychological traits to ICC. Grounded in the broaden-and-build theory, this explanatory mixed-methods research investigates how L2 self-efficacy and grit contribute to ICC through IDLE among 416 Chinese EFL students. Structural equation modeling revealed that higher L2 self-efficacy fosters greater L2 grit, which in turn promotes more frequent engagement in both receptive IDLE activities (e.g. watching English media) and productive ones (e.g. participating in online conversations). This increased engagement was positively linked to higher levels of ICC. Qualitative findings further illuminated the mechanisms behind this process, illustrating how psychological strengths support meaningful digital encounters across cultures. The findings offer pedagogical insights: by cultivating students’ self-efficacy and grit, educators can encourage deeper engagement in IDLE, thereby equipping learners with effective and culturally sensitive communication in an increasingly interconnected digital world.

As a field, the history of education contains scant analyses of power, deprivation, or privilege from a white, patriarchal, or masculine viewpoint, a concerning limitation that obscures how power works to reinscribe, sustain, and proliferate itself. This claim reflects that to some degree, gender is racialized and race is gendered. To support this contention, I discuss the small body of history of education scholarship that has interrogated white, masculine, and/or patriarchal power, highlighting in particular the work of feminist scholars of Color.1 I also underscore what we as a field might gain in analyzing masculine, patriarchal, and/or white power with the same fervor many pay to racially, ethnically, and sexually marginalized communities, pointing out some seminal works and figures that stand to be further enhanced by gendered or racial analysis. I end with questions that could inform research directions toward these ends.

Collective memories of intergroup history persist as dynamic structures that shape how societies perceive foreign others. This article proposes a framework for understanding stereotypes rooted in collective memory as both premises for journalistic coverage – guiding story selection – and tools within it, offering adaptable templates for framing. Analysing Israeli media’s coverage of Poland across two decades of conflict, conciliation, and routine reporting, I show how journalists reproduce and renegotiate stereotyped perceptions, clarifying their dual role as memory agents: sustaining stereotype-laden perceptions anchored in collective memory, while recalibrating these perceptions in light of shifting political and narrative contexts. The study foregrounds journalism’s dual role in carrying forward and adapting the collective memory structures through which foreign nations are perceived.

Today, there is a tendency within the field of environmental education to argue that the current global metacrisis is intrinsically linked to idealist traditions in philosophy and culture. The underlying intuition appears to be that idealism ultimately relies on a Cartesian distinction between mind and body: that it privileges the mind while neglecting the body, thereby enabling a view of materiality – or “nature” – as something to be used or exploited. A similar assumption can be identified in the call for papers for this issue, where modern idealism is linked to neoliberal politics and economics. In contrast, the aim of our paper is not to reject idealism entirely but to argue that the real issue lies in particular ideas and worldviews associated with specific understandings of reality. To open up space for alternative ideas and imaginaries, we propose that educational theory and practice must engage with a process we term mundification: the initiation of individuals – though education and other cultural practices – into what it means for there to be something at all, that is; a world.

Central to drawn representations of activism and memory are ideas of embodiment and trace. From DIY protest signs to craftivism, the articulation of protest and memory is connected to the handmade trace of a witnessing individual present in time and place. This is reflected in comics scholarship through the notion of the drawn line conveying subjective experience through the trace of the body.

This article will consider the relationship between witnessing, truth claims, autographic drawing, and memory at a moment when AI image-generation tools have called into question the connection of drawn traces to their origin in time, space, materiality, and the body.

Although a combination of critical AI theory and comics studies, this article will outline ways in which generative AI presents a challenge to these ideas. Through comparison of Joe Sacco’s graphic reportage with recent AI images of conflict and history, the article considers the truth claims of images that are the products of computational and algorithmic processes considered broadly.

Comics scholarship has been slow to critically respond to these new conditions, and the task of disentangling the human/non-human in ontologies of trace is now compounded by generative drawings, which represent the outcome of archival reappropriation defined by opaque algorithmic parameters. This article will explore theoretical assumptions around authenticity and truth claims in analogue, computational, algorithmic, and generative drawing practice and ask what kinds of theory and practice are appropriate if activist graphic memoir is to endure as documents of political memory.

This article examines the short-lived Marvel comic Misty (1985–1986), created by feminist cartoonist Trina Robbins, as a case study in how comics can invite and depend on reader participation. We draw on an archival collection of over 1,000 fan letters and fashion designs submitted to Misty, along with recent communications with former readers, to explore how children and young adults influenced both the published comic and its surrounding culture. We argue that readers’ contributions – ranging from clothing designs to story ideas – constituted a form of activism: they challenged corporate publishing practices, promoted new story directions, and built local fan communities. Highlighting the recent memories of Misty’s reader contributors, we show how engaging in the comic’s participatory culture could, in turn, have lasting effects on readers, shaping their confidence, career paths, and creative philosophies. By reframing Misty’s collective participatory culture as activism and placing it in conversation with readers’ personal memories, this study contributes to scholarship on comics, fandom, and memory: even small acts of reader engagement can transform both cultural texts and individual lives.

Rotterdam, a city in the Netherlands, experienced significant bombing in its city centre during the Second World War. Despite the trauma associated with this event, in 1948, the city adopted a new motto: ‘Sterker Door Strijd’, translating as ‘Stronger Through Struggle’. This motto remains visible today under the city’s coat of arms, symbolising the resilience and strength of its inhabitants as they rebuilt their city. ‘Sterker Door Strijd’ has become a central aspect of Rotterdam’s development, particularly in its architecture and urban planning. It showcases a shift in the city’s memory from pain to pride and hope for the future. The motto beautifully embodies Rigney’s ‘memory–activism nexus’ from a spatial perspective, reconstructing the city’s traumatic memory of destruction into a narrative of resistance. The motto is widely known and felt by every Rotterdammer, including foreigners who live and work in the city, like me. The visual essay ‘From Struggle to Strength’ poetically focuses on the city of Rotterdam and its motto. It intimately follows my personal artistic journey and my embodiment in the city. The story unfolds as I walk and draw around the city. Additionally, I interviewed inhabitants focusing on the challenges of social housing issues in the city, such as displacement and demolition and considering how the residents are actively resisting these issues. Through these interactions, the visual essay reflects on the transformative power of memory and activism in shaping the city’s past, present and future.

In this article, we identify the comics of the Real Cost of Prisons Project as graphic memory work that denaturalises ‘penal common sense’ and engages in graphic witnessing. To show how the United States’ ‘crime problem’ established a seemingly natural link between crime and incarceration, we first review the criminological aspects of American comics memory. Then, we demonstrate how The Real Cost of Prisons Comix reworks the historical and social dynamics of the American carceral regime through its abolitionist framework. We discuss the importance of the image–text form for abolitionist pedagogy by reflecting on the position of comics in carceral textual cultures and the use of these comics in activist education. Finally, we emphasise that the comics created by the Real Cost of Prisons Project should be understood as pedagogical tools in a broader abolitionist movement whereby the historical and social education initiated by memory work aims to ignite collaborative praxis. In this sense, we show that their activist memory work is a means to demystify the historical processes of carceral expansion, enabling its audience to develop historical consciousness.

This article provides an overview of key challenges in second language (L2) pronunciation learning and teaching within the context of instructed second language acquisition (SLA), with the goal of identifying promising directions for future research. It begins by examining persistent difficulties in L2 pronunciation instruction, such as the typically limited quality of input and the dominant emphasis on grammar and vocabulary in communicative language teaching (CLT). These conditions often result in learners having limited awareness of their pronunciation needs and teachers facing challenges in incorporating pronunciation instruction into CLT-based curricula. The article then reviews emerging instructional approaches that aim to integrate attention to phonetic form within CLT, highlighting the need for further empirical investigation. In addition, several pronunciation training techniques, some underexplored (HVPT, shadowing, embodied pronunciation training, captioned video, accent imitation, and pronunciation self-assessment), are briefly described, with an emphasis on their pedagogical potential both inside and outside the classroom. Finally, the article considers the role of individual differences in L2 pronunciation development and proposes directions for future research in instructed SLA.