Perspectives and Provocations is the annually published journal of the Early Childhood Education Assembly, an assembly of early childhood researchers and educators within the National Council of Teachers of English. Perspectives and Provocations provides an outlet for Early Childhood teachers, researchers, and other constituents who have an interest in literacy and equity issues. We intend, through this publication, to create a space to critically advocate for diverse young children and their multiple and varied literacies. Articles in this publication should address the theoretical, research-based, and/or practitioner-oriented issues concerning children from birth through grade three, within various settings from home to school to community and beyond. Authors who publish within the journal should make clear connections between theory and practice that address timely, provocative topics. 

We welcome any creative pieces and scholarly articles from classroom teachers, emerging researchers, and established researchers in the field that explore: 

With ongoing marginalization, intense racism, and pervasive xenophobia within and outside the U.S., how can early childhood education respond with practices that uphold justice, safety, and belonging for all children and families? 

• How are early educators combatting antiblack ideologies, practices, and policies through their pedagogy and practice? 

• In what ways are early educators enacting pedagogies of care, resistance, and joy in response to the criminalization of immigrant communities, increasing surveillance, and policing by ICE in schools and neighborhoods? 

• What are the constitutive features of early childhood literacy classrooms that enable children with marginalized identities (racialized, dis/abled, gendered, etc.) to thrive in school and society? 

What expansive visions of language and literacy pedagogy and practice are being generated and enacted wherein children’s lived experiences, ways of being, home languages, and cultural knowledges are privileged? 

We also welcome creative pieces from young children that highlight the ways they are representing and understanding their lives in the contemporary moment. 

To be considered, submissions must be previously unpublished.

SUBMISSIONS DUE AUGUST 21, 2026

Banner image by Santi Vedri 

SUBMISSIONS-DUE AUGUST 21, 2026