Essays in Edited Volumes (authored and co-authored)

Thomas, P.L. (2020). The critical redneck experience: “How can anybody know/How they got to be this way?” [and] Excavating intimacy, privacy, and consent as youth in a hostile world.  In S.R. Steinberg & B. Down (eds.), The SAGE handbook of critical pedagogies * (pp. xx-xx). London: SAGE Publishing.

* 2022 Winners of the AESA Critics’ Choice Book Award

Thomas, P.L. (2019). The ethical dilemma of satire in an era of fake news and the brave new world of social media. In K.H. Turner (ed.), The ethics of digital literacy: Developing knowledge and skills across grade levels (pp. 171-177). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Thomas, P.L. (2019). Reflection: Teaching and writing as activism: Can scholars be too literal in post-truth Trumplandia? In S.L. Raye, S. Masta, S.T. Cook, & J. Burdick (eds.), Ideating pedagogy in troubled times: Approaches to identity, theory, teaching and research (pp. 157-164). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Thomas, P.L. (2019). History of violence: Guns, U.S. education, and American exceptionalism. In S. Shaffer, G. Rumohr-Voskuil, & S. T. Bickmore (eds.), Contending with Gun Violence in the English Language Classroom (pp. 9-15). New York, NY: Routledge.

Thomas, P.L. (2019). From Marvel’s Daredevil to Netflix’s Defenders: Is justice blind? In S. Eckard (ed.), Comic connections: Building character and theme (pp. 81-98). New York, NY: Rowman and Littlefield.

Thomas, P.L. (2018). Wonder Woman: Reading and teaching feminism with an Amazonian princess in an era of Jessica Jones. In S. Eckard (ed.), Comic connections: Reflecting on women in popular culture (pp. 21-37). New York, NY: Rowman and Littlefield.

Thomas, Paul L. (2017). Teaching against provincialism in the conservative, anti-intellectual rural South. In W. Reynolds (ed.), Forgotten places: Critical studies in rural education (pp. 15-30). New York, NY: Peter Lang USA.

Thomas, P.L. (2017). Zombie politics and all the big lies reborn in Trumplandia. In United we stand, divided we fall: Opposing Trump’s agenda (pp. 44-57). New York, NY: Garn Press.

Thomas, P.L. (2017). Can superhero comics defeat racism?: Black superheroes “torn between sci-fi fantasy and cultural reality.” In C.A. Hill (ed.), Teaching comics through multiple lenses: Critical perspectives (pp. 132-146). New York, NY: Routledge.

Thomas, P.L. (2016). Miracle schools or political scam? In W.J. Mathis & T.M. Trujillo, Learning from the Federal Market-Based Reforms: Lessons for ESSA. Charlotte, NC: IAP.

Svec. M., & Thomas, P.L. (2016). The classroom crucible: Preparing teachers from privilege for students of poverty. In A.L. Hurst & S.K. Nenga (Eds.), Working in class: recognizing how social class shapes our academic work. Landham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Thomas, P.L. (2015). Ignored under Obama: Word magic, crisis discourse, and utopian expectations. In P. R. Carr & B. J. Porfilio (Eds.), The phenomenon of Obama and the agenda for education: Can hope (still) audaciously trump neoliberalism? (pp. 45-68). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Thomas, P.L. (2014). Educated and educating in the post-Civil Rights–Era South: A critical memoir. In Ed. W. M. Reynolds, Critical studies of Southern place: A reader (pp. 226-240). New York: Peter Lang USA.

Thomas, P.L. (2014). Adventures in adaptation: Confronting texts in a time of standardization. In Eds. P. Paugh, T. Kress, & R. Lake, Teaching towards democracy with postmodern and popular cultural texts (pp. 7-20). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Thomas, P. L. (2014). When the obvious isn’t true: What’s really wrong with teacher quality and teacher education? In Eds. J. Gorlewski, D. Gorlewski, J. Hopkins, & B. Porfilio, Effective or wise?: Teaching and the meaning of professional dispositions in education (pp. 55-76). New York, NY: Peter Lang USA.

Thomas, P.L. (2014).  Schools as prisons: Normative youth pedagogies. In A. Ibrahim & S. Steinberg (Eds.), Critical Youth Studies Reader. New York, NY: Peter Lang USA.

Thomas, P. L. (2013). The inequity gap of schooling and the poverty of school “reform.” In P. Gorski & J. Landsman (Eds.), The Poverty and Education Reader: A Call for Equity in Many Voices. Sterling ,VA: Stylus Publishing.

Thomas, P. L. (2013). Radical scholar as public intellectual in a marketplace of ideas. In Dangerous Counterstories in the Corporate Academy: Narrating for understanding, solidarity, resistance, and community in the age of Neoliberalism (pp. TBD). Eds. E. A. Daniels & B. Porfilio. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

—-. (2013). The cult of personality v. expertise in the education debate. In Gorlewski, J., & Porfilio, B., eds., Left behind in the race to the top: Realities of school reform (pp. 209-225). Charlotte NC: Information Age Publishing.

—–. (2012). Speaking empowerment to crisis: Unmasking accountability through critical discourse. In Using standards and high-stakes testing for students: Exploiting power with critical pedagogy. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.

—–. (2012). Song of myself: Honoring the individual as critical scholarship in Challenging status quo retrenchment: New directions in critical qualitative research. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

—-. (2012). Muted voices, scripted texts: The silenced writing curriculum in a high-stakes era. In H. Hickman & B.J. Porfilio (Eds.),  The new politics of the textbook: Critical analysis in the core content areas (pp. 179-192). Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Co-authored with Schmidt, R. (2012). All that jazz: Doing and writing CQR in a material world. In G. S. Cannella & S. R. Steinberg (Eds.), Critical Qualitative Research (CQR) Reader (pp. 91-103). New York: Peter Lang USA.

—–. (2012). Daredevil: The man without fear; Elektra lives again; science fiction.  [entries]. In Critical Survey of Graphic Novels: Heroes and Superheroes. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press.

—–. (2012). Writing community: Composing as transformation and realization. In R. C. Mitchell & S. A Moore (Eds.), Politics, participation & power relations: Transdisciplinary approaches to critical citizenship in the classroom and community (pp. 153-168). Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Co-authored with Welchel, E. (2011). The practitioner has no clothes: Resisting practice divorced from philosophy in teacher education and the classroom. In Eds. J. Kincheloe & R. Hewitt, Regenerating the philosophy of education: Whatever happened to soul (pp. 43-54). New York: Peter Lang USA.

—–. (2011). The educational hope ignored under Obama: The persistent failure of crisis discourse and utopian expectations. In P. R. Carr & B. J. Porfilio (Eds.), The phenomenon of Obama and the agenda for education: Can hope audaciously trump neoliberalism? (pp. 49-72). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

—–. (2010). Comics and graphic novels. [entry]. In S. R. Steinberg, M. Kehler, & L. Cornish (Eds.), Boy Culture, vol. 2 (pp. 319-328). Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press.

Co-authored with Schmidt, R. (2009). Competition and education: How the market forces failure on and in our schools. In Eds. W. B. Worthen, A. S. Henderson, P. R. Rasmussen, & T. L. Benson, Competition: A multidisciplinary analysis (pp.169-180).Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

—–. (2009). “No damn cat, and no damn cradle”: The fundamental flaws in fundamentalism according to Vonnegut. In D. Simmons (Ed.), New critical essays on Kurt Vonnegut (pp. 27-45). New York: Palgrave.

—–. (2006). The cult of prescription—Or, a student ain’t no slobbering dog. In J. Kincheloe & S. Steinberg (Eds.), What You Don’t Know about Schools (pp. 103-113). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

—–. (2003). Our Rodney Dangerfield profession. In M. Scherer (Ed.), Keeping good teachers (pp. 195-201). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

—–. (2002). Being honest about writing and individual freedom—Or, children, there ain’t no rules. In C. Moore & P. O’Neill (Eds.), Practice in Context: Situating the Work of Writing Teachers (pp. 149-157). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

—–. (2002). Entry—Lou LaBrant. In The Encyclopedia of Education, 4. Second Edition. New York: Macmillan Reference USA.

—–. (1996). When Wordsworth is too tame: Merging minority literature with the classics in the secondary language arts curriculum. In L. Cooke & H. C. Lodge (Eds.), Voices in English Classrooms: Honoring Diversity and Change, 28 (pp. 177-185). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.