Navigating the Landscape of College English Journals: A Comprehensive Guide

College English journals serve as vital platforms for educators, scholars, and students to engage in critical discussions, share innovative pedagogical approaches, and contribute to the ever-evolving field of English studies. These journals cover a wide array of topics, from literary and cultural criticism to composition and rhetoric, and play a crucial role in shaping the direction of research and teaching in higher education. This article provides a comprehensive overview of college English journals, highlighting their unique focuses, submission guidelines, and contributions to the field.

Scholarly Journals and Their Focus

The Mid-Atlantic Review

Published annually by the College English Association Mid-Atlantic Group (CEAMAG), The Mid-Atlantic Review is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. It focuses on literary and cultural criticism, discussions of pedagogy, public humanities work, reviews of scholarly books, personal essays concerned with the teaching of English, and creative writing related to the humanities, teaching, or the craft and art of writing. The Mid-Atlantic Review believes that scholars and creative writers should be paid for their labor. The journal accepts research articles and essays (2,000-5,000 words), reviews of scholarly books (1,000 words), poetry (500 words per poem, maximum three poems), and short fiction (1,500 words). While simultaneous submissions are allowed, reprints are not accepted. Bowie State University (BSU), Maryland’s oldest HBCU, is the digital home of CEAMAG.

Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture

Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture is an innovative journal dedicated to fostering a vibrant discourse around teaching in English studies. This journal distinguishes itself by exclusively focusing on pedagogical issues across the entire discipline, filling a gap in mainstream English studies publications. Pedagogy covers all areas of English studies from literature and literary criticism to composition and cultural studies. It seeks to reverse the long history of the marginalization of teaching and of the scholarship produced around it.

Teaching English in the Two-Year College (TETYC) and College English (CE)

In a collaborative effort, the editors of Teaching English in the Two-Year College (TETYC) and College English (CE) co-edit and publish a series of symposia. These symposia address significant challenges facing students, faculty, research, and academic programs in the field, with a focus on faculty working at two-year colleges and access-intensive institutions. These symposia are designed to address significant challenges facing students, faculty, research, and academic programs in the field. Faculty working at two-year colleges and open- or access-intensive institutions comprise the majority of college English instructors and work with the most diverse student populations in higher education. The first symposium in this series addresses the inequitable educational experiences our students encounter in higher education English classrooms and programs. The journal intends to publish five short articles (around 2,000 words each) demonstrating what English studies faculty at two-year colleges and access-intensive institutions are doing to address the material inequities our students encounter in higher education English classrooms and programs.

Journals Focused on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

Several journals outside the immediate field of English studies offer valuable insights into teaching and learning in higher education, providing instruction librarians and teaching faculty with a broader perspective on pedagogical strategies. The ACRL Instruction Section Research & Scholarship Committee provides a selective list of teaching and learning journals that focus on instructional strategies in higher education. This list is updated every three years. The following categories were selected and annotated in 2024.

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence is a bi-annual publication by Utah State University that provides practical and experience-based insights from higher education professionals. This open-access journal is invaluable for educators seeking to enhance their teaching practices with experience-based strategies.

Journal of College Orientation, Transition, and Retention

The Journal of College Orientation, Transition, and Retention publishes theoretical and empirical articles, how-to articles, and reviews related to the matriculation, orientation, transition, and retention of college students of up to 30 pages. It is an open-access resource for understanding and improving student success in higher education.

Journal of Postsecondary Student Success

Journal of Postsecondary Student Success publishes interdisciplinary peer-reviewed theory, research, policy, and practice related to student success in higher education. This open-access journal is essential for researchers and practitioners focused on enhancing student outcomes.

Journal of The First-Year Experience & Students in Transition

The Journal of The First-Year Experience & Students in Transition publishes empirical studies of up to 30 pages on student transitions within post-secondary education. It provides insights into the challenges and opportunities of the first-year experience.

Journals Focused on Literacy and Reading

Several journals focus specifically on literacy and reading, offering valuable resources for English educators:

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Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy [POA]: Publishes original research, literature and media reviews, commentaries, and discussions on theory and practice of teaching literacy.
Journal of Research in Reading [POA]: Publishes empirical research and review articles that focus on the psychological and educational approaches of reading, spoken language and writing.
Reading Psychology: Publishes original research, experiential or philosophical explorations, theoretical pieces, practitioner accounts, and literary or humorous pieces encompassing the fields of reading, literacy, and associated psychology disciplines.

Journals Focused on Active Learning and Problem-Based Learning

For educators interested in active learning and problem-based learning approaches, the following journals offer relevant research and insights:

Active Learning in Higher Education [POA]: This international journal, published by Sage, provides a platform for publishing research about effective teaching, learning and assessment across higher education disciplines.
American Society for Engineering Education [OA]: ASEE hosts a variety of conferences focused on engineering education in K-12 and higher education settings, providing a platform for publication on PBL and active learning as related to engineering or scientific educational settings.
Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem Based Learning [OA]: Hosted by Indiana University, this journal provides an outlet for research on all aspects of problem based learning in both K-12 and higher education settings.
Journal of Problem-Based Learning [OA]: This interdisciplinary journal contains articles on both PBL and related approaches to learning, including research on theory, curriculum design and implementation.

Journals Focused on Community Engagement

These journals emphasize the importance of service-learning and community engagement in higher education:

International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement [OA]: Published annually by the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement.
Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship [OA]: Published by the University of Alabama Division of Community Affairs.
Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement [OA]: Quarterly publication from the University of Georgia.

English Journal: A Focus on Secondary Education

English Journal is the official publication of the Secondary Education section of the American National Council of Teachers of English. The journal's editors are Toby Emert, Ph.D., of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, and R. Joseph Rodríguez, Ph.D., of California State University, Fresno. English Journal publishes articles of general interest, centering classroom practice and contextualizing it in sound research and theory. The journal prioritizes manuscripts that foreground critical approaches to secondary English language arts and move the field toward justice for marginalized youth.

Special Issues and Calls for Proposals

English Journal frequently features themed issues and invites proposals for special, guest-edited issues. For example, a recent call focused on youth leadership, activism, and imagination, featuring manuscripts from youth (approximately ages 14-21) or cowritten with youth. Another special issue explored possibilities for bringing food-related topics and assignments into secondary education, encompassing writing/composing works in various forms; exploring representations of food in literature, film, or other media; making interdisciplinary connections; engaging in hands-on learning; and examining issues in our world today. English Journal also seeks to explore how secondary English language arts (ELA) teachers curate a transnational curriculum while helping students develop transnational literacies as they learn how to make meaning across borders, essentially preparing them to be globally connected citizens.

Columns in English Journal

English Journal includes several recurring columns that focus on specific areas of interest for English educators:

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Black Literacies Column: Dedicated to the teachers, teacher educators, community members, and young people who are committed to the liberatory futures of Black youth. This column welcomes commentary that attends to the expansive language and literacy lives of Black young people.
Possibilities for Teaching Literature Column: Explores pedagogical possibilities for teaching literature in critical ways, targeting the how of literature study.
Critical Curation Column: Invites both students and teachers to take critical stances and “explore multiple perspectives, challenge dominant ideologies, and include marginalized voices within and beyond the literary canon”.
The Future Is Now Column: Explores inquiries related to ELA teachers who are navigating the early stages of their professional learning journeys as preservice or inservice teachers with 1 to 4 years of teaching experience.
Intersectional LGBTQIA+ Identities Column: Seeks to share English educators’ stories on how they learn about, recognize, and affirm intersectional LGBTQIA+ identities.
GenAI in Secondary Classrooms Column: Seeks to amplify the voices of English educators who are exploring the role of GenAI in secondary classroom settings.

Submission Guidelines for English Journal

English Journal welcomes cartoons, teacher photographs of classroom scenes and individual students, and original poems. The journal also invites essays of 1,000 to 1,500 words that speak out on issues concerning English language arts teaching and learning.

Addressing Consent in English Studies: A Special Issue

College English editorial team welcomes proposals for special, guest-edited issues of the journal. A recent special issue focused on the idea of consent, viewing it as a crucial topic for consideration. The co-editors define consent as the successful, autonomous and willing communication of all parties’ desire to engage in an interaction, including but not limited to the verbal and embodied acts that indicate affirmation or refusal of requests. Rhetorical consent is the idea that we can invent the rhetorics necessary to negotiate our power, pleasure, autonomy, interdependence, participation and bodies within and beyond institutions of higher learning, as queer and historically marginalized people have always done. The issue explores how an expanded understanding of consent shapes the way we respond to student writing, approach program assessment, and enact effective teacher training. It also considers how consent frameworks can influence writing program and writing center administration, critique sedimented practice and imagine more capacious approaches on local, national, and international scales. The contributions in this special issue may come at any of these questions and categories obliquely. The journal is specifically seeking contributions from scholars, teachers, and activists from historically marginalized groups and/or contributions that attend to the intellectual traditions of these groups-critical AI studies, machine learning, critiques or advances of EduTech, Critical Race Theory, Critical Literacies, Decolonial/Anti-colonial critiques, Critiques of American Empire, Multilingual language learners and global Englishes, Black feminist praxis, Queer of Color critique, new Methods and Methodologies that emerge from a deep consideration of consent as a practice of writing.

Critical Race Theory and Storytelling in English Studies

Throughout the movement’s history, CRT-related scholars have reached out to the humanities, especially English studies (inclusive of literature, creative writing, and rhetoric and writing studies). Scholars in the humanities have the tools to recognize the most recent attack on CRT as the marketing and branding exercise it is. As English studies scholars, we know that we must ﬁght story with story. Through their stories, legal storytelling exemplars such as Richard Delgado, Jean Stefancic, Patricia J. Williams, and Derrick A. Bell tell us (but also their ﬁeld and any other ﬁeld or person who has read their work) that story is how to do this work-story is the way. Telling stories is how we invite a multiplicity of audiences into the conversation, how we build opportunities for collaboration, and how we effect change.

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