Dr. Earl Aguilera (any pronouns) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum
and Instruction at California State University, Fresno. He is an award-winning teacher
educator, as well as an internationally-recognized scholar on issues at the intersection
of literacy, technology, and educational justice.
Dr. Aguilera’s approach to teacher-education draws on his experiences as a high school
English / Language Arts teacher and K-12 reading specialist working with students
of marginalized backgrounds. He regularly teaches courses in teacher preparation programs,
including cross-disciplinary and subject-specific teaching methods. At the graduate
level, he teaches specialization courses in multicultural education, educational technology,
digital media, and literacy education. His teaching philosophy is grounded in principles
of critical digital pedaogy, drawing inspiration from the work of Paulo Freire, bell
hooks, Allan Luke, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Jesse Stommel.
Dr. Aguilera's parents, Maria Antonette Benedicto Aguilera, and Edilberto C. Aguilera,
who immigrated from the Philippines, provided the support for him to become the first
in his family to complete a B.A., M.A., and Ph. D. here in the United States. He continues
the work of his maternal grandmother, Emiliana la Serna Benedicto (Lola Miling), who
was herself a lifelong educator, and his father, who became a teacher later in life.
Building on this legacy, Dr. Aguilera is committed to transforming the educational
landscape for first-generation students, students of color, and all of those who have
been marginalized by educational and social institutions in the United States and
beyond.
Dr. Aguilera often describes himself as a scholar of critical digital literacies (CDL). For him and his collaborators, CDL can be defined in two ways:
- First, CDL can be understood as using the tools of Critical Theory to navigate, interrogate,
and critique digital technologies and the ways they reinforce structures of power,
ideology, and inequity in society today.
- Secondly, CDL seeks to highlight the voices of young people, community organizations,
and activists using digital technologies themselves to navigate, interrogate, and
resist structures of hierarchical oppression in their everyday lives.
For graduate students looking for advising, collaborators looking for a thought partner,
or organiziations seeking a speaking engagement, Dr. Aguilera's related areas of interest
include:
- Critical Pedagogy
- Online Learning
- Multicultural Education
- Literacy Education
- Critical Media Literacy
- Game Based Learning
- Multimodality
- Discourse Analysis
- Adolescent and Adult Literacies
- English/Language Arts Teaching Methods
- The New Literacy Studies
- Digital Humanities
- Critical Computational Studies
While Dr. Aguilera hesitates to label himself as having "expertise" in any of these
areas, his interests and curiosity have led him to learn deeply from the people who
have dedicated their life-work to these fields.
Selected Publications (email him if you want a copy of anything):
Aguilera, E., & de Roock, R. (2022). Digital Game-Based Learning: Foundations, Applications,
and Critical Issues. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1438
Aguilera, E., & Pandya, J. Z. (2021). Critical literacies in a digital age: current
and future issues. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 16(2), 103-110.
Mehta, R. & Aguilera, E. (2020). A critical approach to humanizing pedagogies in online
teaching and learning. Journal of Information and Learning Technology, 37(3), 109-120.
Aguilera, E. & Lopez, G. (2020). Centering first-generation students’ lived experiences
through critical digital storytelling. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 63(5). DOI: 10.1002/jaal.1037
Aguilera, E. Stewart, O.G., Perez Cortes, L., & Mawasi, A. (2019). Seeing beyond the
screen: A multidimensional framework for understanding digital-age literacies. In
Sullivan, P. M., Lantz, J. J. & Sullivan, B. (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Integrating Digital Technology with Literacy Pedagogies. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Aguilera, E. & Pandya, J.Z. (2018). Critical digital literacies. LSLP Micro-Papers, 54. Available from http://www.literaciesinl2project.org/lslp-micro-papers.html
Aguilera, E. (2017). More than bits and bytes: Developing digital literacies beyond
the screen. Literacy Today. 35(3). Available: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/701a63a7#/701a63a7/14
