Critical Literacy Research Research Articles

How Can Digital Storytelling Open Up Spaces for Activist Citizenship Where Young Children Create Stories of Hope and Resilience Across the World?

This article examines how 8-year-old children in a primary school in England develop new understandings of hardship and survival through the process of digital storytelling. The research presented here is part of a larger global literacy ‘Critical Connections Multilingual Digital Storytelling Project’ (2012-ongoing) working across 15 countries (Algeria, Australia, Cyprus, Egypt, England, Germany, India, Italy, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Palestine, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, U.S.A.) in over 36 languages. We build on critical literacy research which argues that in creating texts, such as digital stories, with an ethic of social justice, children have to navigate tensions existing within cultures, languages, and communities. In our research, we look at what happens when children create their own collaborative digital story, interrogating these tensions surrounding ideas and realities of social justice, and decide how to represent their lives and the lives of others. We analyze the filmmaking process and how a class of 8-year-old children create a digital story, A Reflection on Water, for the project. As part of the process of creating their digital story, these children walk around their school playground carrying heavy buckets of water, raise money for Water Aid, create a website, and want children across the world to get clean water. These young children become part of a wider digital storytelling community at a global film festival, and we examine their reflections on the digital story, From my Window- De ma Fenêtre, created by older 10-year-old children in their school. A Ukrainian child joined this class during the project and their digital story shifted to incorporate their collective response to the Ukrainian crisis. In conclusion, we return to the Critical Connections Pedagogical Model and demonstrate collaborative filmmaking can open up spaces for activist citizenship with young children, and stories of hope and resilience.

“What they allow us to learn”: exploring how white English teachers cultivate students’ critical literacies through curriculum and pedagogy

PurposeThis qualitative research study examines classroom observations and transcripts, teacher and student interviews and student writing to investigate how white English teachers can cultivate students’ critical literacies regarding race and oppression through classroom literature. As research and practice in the field of critical literacy has yet to effectively center black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) lives and histories, this study aims to expand on existing critical literacy research by examining how literature teachers disrupt the perpetuation of whiteness through literature instruction that explicitly grapples with race and structures of oppression.Design/methodology/approachThis research examines the pedagogical practices of two white English teachers through a yearlong investigation of classroom instruction and curriculum in an urban high school in a large Northeastern city. The overarching question of this study asks, how do white English teachers cultivate students’ critical literacies regarding race and social justice through classroom literature? Additional questions that guided this study are: How do students in these classes learn about structures of oppression? What language is used in these classrooms to discuss ideas about power? What texts and materials do these teachers use to engage students in critical literacy practices?FindingsThe findings of this study provide insight as to how white English teachers can foster students’ critical literacy development regarding race and oppression through their pedagogy and curriculum. The two teachers’ introduction of critical language and frameworks in the classroom supported students’ ability to critically engage with classroom literature and with their own social worlds. In addition, these teachers’ practices emphasize the need for white teachers to decenter their own knowledge and identities to effectively foster students' critical and sociopolitical development.Originality/valueThis research responds to McLean et al.’s (2021) call for a disruption of the “perpetuation of Eurocentric, hegemonic perspectives by white scholars” in the field by centering race in approaches to critical literacy development in the classroom. By analyzing data from classrooms in the same school with distinct curricular approaches, this study examines not only what but also how educators are teaching in classrooms designed to cultivate students’ critical and sociopolitical development through English Language Arts. This study offers hope for developing critical and culturally sustaining pedagogies among non-BIPOC educators who teach Black and Latinx populations.

Centering Black women’s ways of knowing: A review of critical literacies research in early childhood

In the most recent edition of the Handbook of Reading Research, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas and colleagues (2020) identify the need to recontextualize critical literacy pedagogy and research in ways that center Black and Indigenous communities. Although critical literacy has a rich tradition in emancipatory work (e.g. Freire, 1996), Thomas et al. argue for the need to begin elsewhere, with the knowledge and traditions of Black and Indigenous communities, to produce literacy research and pedagogy that is more responsive to current social issues and iterations of racism. In this article, I combine their insights with those of early literacy researchers, such as Candace R. Kuby and Tara Gutshall Rucker, (e.g. Kuby, 2013; Kuby and Rucker, 2020) to suggest that the shifting of theoretical framings may be a useful way of broadening the context of critical literacies research and scholarship. Kuby and Rucker’s (2020) examination explores offerings from postructural and posthumanist theories for expanding conceptions of literacy in efforts to challenge our ideas of literacies, inequalities, and justice in early literacy research. Similarly, I analyze the affordances of Pro-Black and marginalized theories in critical literacies research, such as Black Feminist Thought (Collins, 2002), for understanding and expanding how we attend to positionality in early literacy educational research. Grounded in Black Feminist theories (Collins, 2002) and methodologies (Evans-Winters, 2019) as well my own positionality as a Black woman, this article takes up one specific concern from the call for this special issue, that is to address the lack of Pro-Black research in early literacy education. In so doing, I aim to broaden the ways that a historically praxis-oriented body of research in early childhood and elementary education, critical literacies research, is theorized and enacted by integrating more thoroughly Black women’s ways of knowing. I explore how to leverage our individual and combined perspectives, which are grounded in our rich history of resistance and thriving in the face of adversity, to produce knowledge and literacy practices useful for justice-oriented education. Through an analysis of academic literature related to critical literacies research and Black women educators in early childhood and elementary education, I address the question: How are Black women’s ways of knowing integrated in early childhood and elementary critical literacies research with participants who are Black women educators? I offer a sense of the extent to which Black women educators’ ways of knowing are associated with the term critical literacy and also identify fruitful strategies that critical literacies researchers can use to integrate Black women’s ways of knowing into the knowledge base and practices of critical literacies in early literacy research. Some strategies include integrating Black women educators' emotions and spiritual knowledge into the research and co-researching with Black women who are also participants.

A Taxi Ride to Critical Literacy: High School Students as Co-Researchers and Text Analysts

This article describes a critical literacy research project undertaken with English Additional Language students at a South African township school. Students were invited to take on the position of researchers in gathering and analysing bumper stickers found in commuter minibuses known as itekisi (taxi). These everyday texts in English and African languages are salient for the students’ discourse communities. Bringing them into English lessons validates the use of languages and discourses that multilingual students inhabit and draws on their ability to move fluidly between languages. Framed by critical discourse analysis theory, this project aimed to facilitate students’ abilities to develop and use critical literacy knowledge and skills in analysing taxi bumper stickers. The findings indicate that the students were able to demonstrate some criticality as they investigated multiple interpretations of the texts by community members and themselves. Inviting students to investigate texts drawn from their own communities was envisaged as enabling their development as critical readers with a social justice orientation to texts. However, their relentless negativity towards taxi drivers made it difficult for them to keep their focus on the texts, suggesting that teachers’ selection of salient texts for lessons with a focus on critical literacy may not always achieve the intended outcomes.

Re(thinking) Critical Language Education with Children and Teacher Education During (and After) Pandemic Times

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to discuss teachers’ perspectives on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the teaching of English to young learners (TEYL). We focused on one specific question (from a 10-question online questionnaire) in which participants shared their thoughts, experiences and concerns about TEYL in pandemic times. The answers were analyzed in a qualitative perspective, based on critical literacy research and studies in the field of TEYL. The results indicate the participants’ exhaustion due to dealing with unusual situations, and teaching focused exclusively on content in an attempt to show how teachers are reinventing themselves despite uncertainties and lack of training. The present moment requires reflections about goals and expectations in TEYL and in teacher education.

Consent is not as Simple as Tea

In this article, I report on an action project undertaken by a group of young women (aged 18 to 20) to foster public discussions about the prevalence of rape culture on their university’s campus. Students proposed this action project during a book study of a young adult (YA) novel that focused on rape culture and sexual violence. Discussions during the book study resulted in the women creating a video designed for university orientation events that addressed common misconceptions about issues such as consent, relationship violence, sexual coercion, and victimhood. Using case study and narrative methods, I recount my experience of witnessing unexpected activism in my classroom. Framed within critical literacy research, I consider the outcomes of making space for student activism and I discuss implications for practitioners.

Creating Critical Literacy Praxis: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

Although research in critical literacy has long been conducted in English as a second language contexts, a modicum of critical literacy research in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts in which English is seldom used outside the classroom environment has also been undertaken. This article aims to discuss the introduction of critical literacy in the Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages (TESOL) profession, which has been neglected by TESOL researchers and practitioners in EFL contexts. The article reviews and synthesizes the existing literature by providing conceptualizations of the critical literacy approach to TESOL, examples of critical literacy implementation, and the benefits and challenges of implementing critical literacy pedagogy. The article concludes by calling for more critical literacy research in EFL contexts.

Post-critique in contemporary ELT praxis

Abstract This article investigates the importance of critical thinking in English language teaching. It begins with an examination of the notion of praxis and its relevance for current critical literacy research and teacher education programmes. One such programme was a distance-learning course offered to English teachers from Brazilian public schools from November 2016 to November 2017. An analysis of excerpts from posts on Moodle forums and online chats from this course was made in order to ascertain whether participants acknowledge the importance of critical literacy and are able to identify any hindrances to its implementation in the classroom. This article concludes by advocating a post-critical (HOY, 2005) approach to the development of English teachers’ critical praxis, based on the concepts of self-reflexivity and ethics.

Conceptualising and enacting the critical imagination through a critical writing pedagogy

PurposeImagination in critical literacy research is usually referred to as a taken for granted concept that is seldom theorised, leaving the assumptions unchecked that everyone has a shared understanding of imagination. This paper aims to challenge critical literacy researchers to rethink the relationship between criticality and imagination and its implication for a critical writing pedagogy. It aims to synthesise the imagination and criticality in the context of critical literacy, both theoretically and empirically and in doing so to illustrate what form a critical writing pedagogy that foregrounds the critical imagination might take.Design/methodology/approachThis argument is illustrated through analysing two sets of data that contain embodied enactments of contested gender issues across different modes and genres. Data from student teachers’ embodied enactments of contested gender issues and from their writing on these issues were analysed thematically.FindingsA crucial aspect of the critical imagination entails creating pedagogical spaces that mobilise affect and empathy alongside criticality. Embodied literacy work across different modes and genres can play a significant role in facilitating the critical imagination by enabling students to enact, perform and immerse themselves in different discourses, ultimately generating new insights and ways of seeing.Research limitations/implicationsData was drawn from a relatively small sample of 30 assignments in the context of teacher education in South Africa. More empirical research needs to be conducted across a wider range of contexts.Practical implicationsThe paper provides a theoretical framework and practical ideas for implementing a critical writing pedagogy that foregrounds the critical imagination and thus could be used in both teacher education contexts and school literacy classrooms.Originality/valueThis paper challenges critical literacy researchers to rethink the relationship between criticality and imagination and its implication for a critical writing pedagogy.

Rereading assent in critical literacy research with young children

Literacy researchers often include young children in the research process. Yet discussions about the complexities of gaining and keeping assent are often missing in research reports. In this paper, we report on our attempts to make the assent process, a typical requirement for Institutional Review Boards, an educative experience for children in a critical literacy Kindergarten classroom. We asked: When assent is treated as a text to be read, revisited, interpreted and negotiated, what meanings are made by young children? We designed research lessons and collected artefacts of students’ learning, including interviews. Our analysis traced children’s developing recognition and critical analysis of concepts such as voluntary participation, understanding of procedures, confidentiality, benefits and risks of the study, and the right to ask questions. We found that when assent is treated as an educative process, particularly in the context of critical literacy education, young children learn and make meaning about their rights and responsibilities as participants. We present evidence of meaning-making, transfer and voluntariness of each ethical concept. Implications for literacy research with young children are discussed.

Critical Literacy: Conflicts, Challenges, Adaptations and Transformation?

<p><em>This case study explored how the involvement of two ESL instructors in critical literacy research, including master’s thesis, made them experience different challenges, ideological conflicts and successes. One of them was teaching ESL in secondary classes when she carried out her thesis about critical literacy. She also cooperated with the researcher in a critical literacy study after she had finished data collection for her thesis. The other participant taught ESL in elementary classes and is currently teaching at universities. The study, which took place in Lebanon, revealed how the varied ideological positions, views and contexts of the two instructors made them go through different transformations. The data suggests that involving teachers and masters’ students in critical literacy research constitutes and important platform to train them in the various complex dimensions of critical literacy, particularly in settings where this approach faces significant resistance. </em></p>

Developing Critical Hip Hop Feminist Literacies: Centrality and Subversion of Sexuality in the Lives of Black Girls

The present article explores discourses surrounding the bodies of Black1 women and girls as they engage the meanings of Black womanhood in (American) society in an afterschool setting. Drawing on Black and hip hop feminisms, African American literacies, and critical discourse perspectives, the author analyzes two young girls' narratives, which reveal competing and controlling discourses of Black female sexuality. Bria's2 narrative of being sexually harassed by older boys while riding the bus is favorably assessed by the community of Black female interlocutors because she projects herself as asexual. Thus, the community of Black females bestows compassion upon her. Assata's narrative shares her budding womanhood and sexuality and is evaluated negatively by the group of Black females. Although both 11-year-old girls and the community of Black female interlocutors enact critical literacies amidst dominating racist, sexist, classist, and patriarchal discourses, their resistance strategies also perpetuate the very dominance they seek to oppose. Juxtaposition and critical analyses of the differential discourses invoked by the two narratives provide insight into the lived experiences of Black women and girls in relation to dominating discourses. As Black women and girls' sexual agency, desire, and early sexualization figure prominently in larger economies of power, knowledge, and society, their embodied and societal knowledge around these issues must be mined for the purposes of self-validation and the creation of new knowledge for collective empowerment (Hill Collins, 1991). Implications for critical literacy research, pedagogy, and theory are presented.

The Editorial We: Themed Issue on Critical Literacy Research with Urban Youth: Implications for Teaching and Teacher Education

Editor Michael Moore and Guest Editor Valerie Kinloch preview this special themed issue on Critical Literacy Research with Urban Youth: Implications for Teaching and Teacher Education.

Researching Critical Literacy: A Critical Study of Analysis of Classroom Discourse

Studying critical literacies includes examining how research practices influence what is learned about classroom activity and the world. This article highlights the processes and practices used in studying 1 classroom conversation. The data, drawn from an elementary school classroom of a Critical Literacy in Action teacher-researcher group member, features 2 girls exploring issues of hairstyle, race, and cultural identity. Data were analyzed using 3 lenses—grounded theory, existing typologies for content analysis, and critical discourse analysis. Findings highlight how the students drew on and used diverse textual resources, sources of knowledge, and critical practices, as well as how participants situated themselves within larger social discourse. These findings were then collectively analyzed to further understand the nuances of using each analytic tool and the implications for this classroom and critical literacy research at large. Our research design, experiences, and findings invite further exploration of the promises, challenges, and complexities of studying classroom practices from critical perspectives.