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Full-Text Articles in Education
Defining Critical Literacy: A Challenge To A Power Structure, Matt Albert
Defining Critical Literacy: A Challenge To A Power Structure, Matt Albert
Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education
Defining the concept of critical literacy is a difficult task because of its inherently murky boundaries. As time has progressed in the last four to five decades, attitudes and perceptions of literacy have shifted in ways which necessitate a redefining of the concept. This paper presents a retelling of an actual task presented to a graduate student by his committee. In that task, the committee asked for a concise (150 words or fewer) construction of a definition of critical literacy. This article begins with a very brief reflection on the task itself followed by the execution that attempted to circumvent …
Putting Out Fires Through A Re-Grounded Critical Literacy: Slowing The Spread Of Misinformation Through Teacher Education, Noah Asher Golden, Breanna Couffer
Putting Out Fires Through A Re-Grounded Critical Literacy: Slowing The Spread Of Misinformation Through Teacher Education, Noah Asher Golden, Breanna Couffer
Literacy Practice and Research
In this essay, we discuss the challenges teacher educators face when preparing secondary teachers to educate adolescent learners in an age of seemingly-ubiquitous online mis- and disinformation. Mis- and disinformation about COVID-19, the climate crisis, or even the shape of the planet Earth are abundant in our mediasphere, and teacher educators can play a central role in supporting secondary-level learners in navigating the multiple and conflicting claims they come across. We explore a literacy teacher education approach that marries discursive analysis with empirical investigations, and share an example of critical textual analysis bolstered by scientific investigation.
The Stance, The Text, And The Talk: Three Components Of A Critical Race-Oriented Interactive Read Aloud, Rebecca Witte
The Stance, The Text, And The Talk: Three Components Of A Critical Race-Oriented Interactive Read Aloud, Rebecca Witte
Michigan Reading Journal
The flexible structure of an interactive read aloud (IRA) provides a platform to address issues of race for those educators who have the desire, but may not know how or where to start. Using a visual of a three circle diagram, the paper illustrates the importance of aligning a critical racial stance, the text, and the talk together to maximize student learning. One text, Can I Touch Your Hair? (Latham & Waters, 2019) is highlighted as a model to show the possible convergence of the three components. In addition, the author notes the importance of reflexivity and provides suggestions on …
An Analysis Of Critical Literacy In Featured Manuscripts Appearing In Two Major Literacy Journals (2011-2020), Kathleen A. Gormley, Peter Mcdermott
An Analysis Of Critical Literacy In Featured Manuscripts Appearing In Two Major Literacy Journals (2011-2020), Kathleen A. Gormley, Peter Mcdermott
Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning
Literacy journals provide an important resource for teachers’ professional development. Although school districts offer in-service education for their faculty and teachers often attend conferences and workshops sponsored by professional teaching organizations, journal reading remains an important source of information for teachers’ ongoing learning. In this study we examined what elementary teachers would learn about teaching critical literacy from reading major journals in literacy education. Critical literacy served as our focus because of the increasing importance of readers knowing how to recognize political, social and cultural perspectives embedded in the texts that they read. Content analysis served as our research method …
“It Kind Of Shows The Terrible Morality Of This Scene": Using Graphic Novels To Encourage Feminist Readings Of Jewish Hebrew Texts With Religious Significance, Talia Hurwich
Journal of Multilingual Education Research
This study considers whether and in what ways graphic novel adaptations of traditional Jewish Hebrew texts can encourage adolescent Modern Orthodox girls to adopt autonomous critical responses when encountering narratives that present women in unequal roles vis a vis men. According to scholars, Jewish literacy should teach students to read traditional Hebrew texts reverently while forming autonomous interpretations and opinions. Instead, Jewish educators teach normative readings posed by approved rabbinic authorities. This is particularly the case when teaching issues relating to gender among Modern Orthodox Jews, a conservative Jewish denomination, strives to synthesize tradition with the values of modern, secular …
Elementary School Library Collections: A Content Analysis Of Science Trade Books, Sandra W. Watson, Sheila F. Baker
Elementary School Library Collections: A Content Analysis Of Science Trade Books, Sandra W. Watson, Sheila F. Baker
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
In this study, science trade books from the libraries of 10 elementary schools across the United States were evaluated using the modified Hunsader rubric for their overall quality pertaining to science content, literacy, and critical literacy criteria. Findings indicate that 62% of the books met the overall science content criterion, 99% met the overall literacy criterion, and 41% met the overall critical literacy criterion. The majority of science trade books in each school were life science books, and the majority of books across all schools were 18–23 years old, with many being much older. Implications and recommendations are provided.
Collaborative Inquiry To Support Critically Reading Children’S Literature, Laurie Rabinowitz, Amy Tondreau
Collaborative Inquiry To Support Critically Reading Children’S Literature, Laurie Rabinowitz, Amy Tondreau
Language Arts Journal of Michigan
This article provides an overview of a qualitative study investigating how K-5 classroom teachers describe their beliefs, concerns, and planning process for enacting read alouds featuring characters with disabilities. The study explored educators' close reading of picture books to elicit the unpacking of beliefs about individuals with disabilities conveyed by children’s literature. Through dialogue about social issues in picture books with colleagues, teachers sharpened their own critical literacy skills to bring into the classroom. Based on our findings, we offer a collaborative inquiry cycle that teacher groups can replicate to critically read children’s literature for different social justice issues.
Developing Critical Communities For Critical Conversations In K-12 Classrooms, Natalie Sue Svrcek, Henry Cody C. Miller
Developing Critical Communities For Critical Conversations In K-12 Classrooms, Natalie Sue Svrcek, Henry Cody C. Miller
Language Arts Journal of Michigan
As marginalized identities are still largely denied representation in society and students from dominant groups lack sociocultural knowledge to live in a multicultural democracy, books are a powerful tool to address injustices. This article provides teacher candidates as well as practicing teachers with tools to address social justice topics in their classes by building critical communities to support critical conversations and subsequently using texts as tools for teaching in socially just ways. We offer a three part framework including 1) How teachers can begin to prepare to engage in critical conversations with students; 2) Laying out necessary steps for structuring …
Teacher Candidates’ Use Of Critical Literacy To Shift Thinking About Texts And Social Justice, Aimee Papola-Ellis
Teacher Candidates’ Use Of Critical Literacy To Shift Thinking About Texts And Social Justice, Aimee Papola-Ellis
Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts
It is essential to support teacher candidates in becoming culturally responsive and learning about social justice in the classroom as schools across the country become more culturally and linguistically diverse. In this qualitative study, the author looked at children’s literature as a way to support teacher candidates’ learning about critical literacy and social justice. Teacher candidates constructed an annotated bibliography of children’s texts centered around a topic of their choice. Findings suggest teachers increased their understanding and use of a critical literacy lens on the literature they selected and developed a deeper understanding of the potential connections between children’s texts …
Utilizing A Critical Literacy Framework To Discuss Issues Of Power And Privilege With Elementary Students, Barbara A. Pollard
Utilizing A Critical Literacy Framework To Discuss Issues Of Power And Privilege With Elementary Students, Barbara A. Pollard
Intersections: Critical Issues in Education
This action research study utilizes a critical literacy framework to bring issues of privilege and power into critical dialogue with elementary students. The study is based on the idea that disadvantaged groups can eventually agitate for societal change if they are prompted to begin to critically question systemic inequalities from a young age. Thus, instead of allowing dominant culture to dictate unfair norms and practices by simply abiding to the status quo, this study suggests that elementary teachers should aim to be the vehicle for transformational change by implementing pedagogy that encourages students to think deeply and critically. Over time, …
Toward Diversity In Texts: Using Global Literature To Cultivate Critical Perspectives, Rick Marlatt
Toward Diversity In Texts: Using Global Literature To Cultivate Critical Perspectives, Rick Marlatt
Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education
Abstract Literature study in the 21st Century should be characterized by the inclusion of global texts that afford diverse students the opportunity to engage in their literacy development through and alongside authors, characters, and storylines that represent their own linguistic and cultural traditions. In this narrative analysis, I reflect on the importance of equity-driven literature study from my perspective as a teacher educator at a Hispanic-Serving Institution in the Southwestern United States. Following an introduction to the political and institutional contexts surrounding text selection in schools and a brief review of the literature, I situate myself and my students as …
Transcribing Arts And Identities: A Case Study On Literacies At Guadalupe Middle School, R. Joseph RodríGuez
Transcribing Arts And Identities: A Case Study On Literacies At Guadalupe Middle School, R. Joseph RodríGuez
Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice
Through single-case study research at a middle school site, students whose first language is Spanish gain instruction in an English language arts classroom using literary works with guided, close reading. Moreover, students’ background, cultural, and prior knowledge are consulted by the teacher as literature comes to life via socially responsible biliteracies, which value students’ identities and cultural and linguistic wealth in the presence of bilingual literary narratives. Through a teacher’s literary lesson planning that complements students’ social interests, students are able to communicate their developing and bridging biliteracies, increase critical literacy awareness, and practice bilingual abilities through interactive instructional lessons …
What Is Critical Literacy?, Ira Shor
What Is Critical Literacy?, Ira Shor
Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice
We are what we say and do. The way we speak and are spoken to help shape us into the people we become. Through words and other actions, we build ourselves in a world that is building us. That world addresses us to produce the different identities we carry forward in life: men are addressed differently than are women, people of color differently than whites, elite students differently than those from working families. Yet, though language is fateful in teaching us what kind of people to become and what kind of society to make, discourse is not destiny. We can …