Vote for the Final Panel Topic

Deadline: August 26, 2025

1. Literacy for a Sustainable Future: What Should We Be Teaching Now?

Description:
What does literacy look like in a world facing rapid ecological, technological, and social change? This panel looks ahead: what kinds of literacies will learners need to navigate uncertainty, complexity, and climate disruption? It invites discussion on the future of reading, writing, and learning — from digital and data literacy to systems thinking and environmental responsibility — and how we can reimagine teaching to meet these needs.

Key Questions:

• What should future-ready literacy education include?
• How can schools prepare learners to understand and act in complex global systems?
• What role does sustainability play in curriculum design and teacher training?

2. Beyond the Classroom: Building Literacy-Rich Societies for All Ages

Description:
Literacy doesn’t only live in classrooms — it lives in homes, libraries, parks, social media, and public life. This panel explores how families, communities, and public institutions can help build inclusive, lifelong literacy environments. It highlights creative ways to support reading cultures, civic engagement, and environmental awareness beyond formal schooling.

Key Questions:

• What does a truly literacy-rich society look like?
• How can libraries, cultural institutions, and media support lifelong literacy?
• In what ways can public spaces promote reading and sustainability together?

3. From Reading the Word to Reading the World: Literacy as a Civic and Environmental Tool

Description:
Inspired by Paulo Freire’s concept of critical consciousness, this panel explores how literacy empowers learners to engage with both democratic life and environmental realities. What does it mean to “read the world” in a time of climate crisis and global misinformation? The panel invites ideas on using literacy as a tool for civic responsibility, environmental action, and systemic understanding — especially among young people.

Key Questions:

• What does it mean to be literate in the age of climate crisis?
• How can climate storytelling shape civic identity and responsibility?
• Can literacy education help build ecological resistance and resilience?

4. The Power of Place: How Environment Shapes Literacy — and How Literacy Shapes Place

Description:
Literacy is always connected to place — to where we live, learn, and imagine. This panel explores how different environments (urban, rural, Indigenous, digital) shape literacy practices and how literacy, in turn, can shape people’s relationship with land, water, and community. From nature-based learning to environmental storytelling, the panel highlights how place can be both context and content for literacy education.

Key Questions:

• How do changing environments affect literacy access and equity?
• What role can schools and libraries play in nurturing environmental imagination?
• How can we integrate place-based learning into national literacy strategies?

5. Whose Literacy Counts? Reimagining Inclusion Through Environmental and Cultural Lenses

Description:
This panel asks: Whose voices and knowledge systems are included in literacy education — and whose are left out? It explores how dominant models of literacy often ignore Indigenous knowledge, environmental justice, and lived experiences of climate vulnerability. The discussion invites participants to rethink inclusion, decolonize practices, and embrace multiple literacies that are culturally and ecologically grounded.

Key Questions:

• How can environmental justice become a core part of literacy education?
• What can Indigenous environmental literacies teach us about sustainability?
• How do we avoid “greenwashing” while promoting real inclusion in literacy?