Educate to Liberate. The Forty-Third Yearbook: A Double Peer-Reviewed Publication of the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers

The theme of this year was educate to liberate. A reminder to the literacy community that education, and literacy extend beyond the content and courses we teach. As Freire puts it, "Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people--they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are liberated: they oppress." As literacy educators we should strive to work along with our students, to co-create with them, to learn from them. Freire reminds us that "the (literacy) teacher is of course an artist...What the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for students to become themselves." Therefore, as literacy educators it is our duty to provide access and opportunities for students of all socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds as they navigate their way in our classrooms. All the articles within this Yearbook represent a portion of the sessions presented at the conference. After a peer-review process for conference acceptance, the ensuing articles underwent an additional two rounds of double-blind peer review before acceptance in the Yearbook. It is our sincere hope that the articles reflect the theme and embolden our practice as literacy educators and researchers.