Critical Reading Research Articles

The affective injustice of colonial statues and monuments: ethical, political and pedagogical issues

ABSTRACT This paper draws on affect theory and new materialism to argue that it is crucial to pay attention to how and why some people, especially from oppressed and marginalised communities, are so strongly opposed to colonial statues and monuments. Through a critical reading of colonial statues and monuments that highlights their affectivity and materiality, the analysis suggests that there is pedagogical value in both removing and recontextualising colonial statues. This analysis does not settle the debates in favour of one side or the other, but rather adds a neglected theoretical perspective to discussions about the educational value of removing or recontextualising colonial statues and monuments, namely, the concept of affective injustice. The paper draws on this concept to propose an affective pedagogy of ‘living inquiry’, a pedagogical approach that enables educators and students to engage in critical inquiry about the ethics, affectivity, materiality, and politics of colonial statues and monuments.

Starting again: National spatial planning and the quest for compact growth in Ireland

In 2002, the Irish Government launched the National Spatial Strategy, aimed at achieving effective national spatial planning. A lack of political support and the primacy of localism in planning and development led to its demise in 2014. However, in 2018, the government launched the new National Planning Framework, which had compact growth at its core. It is supported politically by central government, is backed by legislation and must be adhered to by the regional and local layers of government. The National Planning Framework was accompanied by planning policies which sought to increase apartment development and to loosen restrictions on urban height, thereby creating the conditions for increasing residential densities. As the National Planning Framework sets out plans to 2040 and is subject to periodic revision, this article examines initial perceptions of its contents and the prospects for its implementation. Simultaneously, the ongoing housing crisis in Ireland impacts directly on planning policies, as the government introduces major market interventions to increase supply, which can conflict or undermine existing planning policies. This research is based on a critical reading of key compact growth planning policies and is augmented by semi-structured interviews with key players in policy implementation. These interviews analyse the viewpoints of senior built environment professionals who are involved in the implementation of compact growth policies in Dublin. The results indicate the complexity and difficulty of implementing compact growth policies where there has been a legacy of urban sprawl and where the attempts at centralisation lead to tensions with local planning. Starting again is not easy.

I VR therefore I am: toxic binary thinking in visions of the metaverse

ABSTRACT While the metaverse is typically billed as representing a radical break with the past and an invention of a new reality in a virtual form it merely reproduces historical patterns of anthropocentric dominance, exploitation, and violence. The Western intellectual tradition has long billed the human (or a privileged part of humanity) as the bearer of special rights, moral status, and epistemic capacities, which were seen as rendering the rest of the world not only subservient, but even existing solely for human benefit. Moreover, particularly since the Enlightenment, this dualism was also extended within the human by drawing a dividing line between the body and the mind. To trace the morphing of such ideas into the digital domain, this article provides a critical reading of the mainstream accounts of the metaverse. Crucially, the metaverse functions as a perfect manifestation of the vision for a domain of the mind, radically separated from all embodiment and always adjusting to human needs through data-based rendering of virtual worlds. However, the metaverse not only represents the conquest of the embodied physical world but also reproduces expansionist and colonialist tropes of (virtual) land grab, subjection of the world to human will, and exploitation of (digital) resources. In this way, visions for the metaverse enable seemingly guilt-free reenactment of the behaviours and attitudes that have led to great injustices in the past and in the present.

Enacting Reading Comprehension: Using Diverse Literature to Engage Children's Critical, Sociopolitical Knowledge

AbstractThe current climate of K‐12 education in the United States has seen a narrowing of literacy instructional practices, exponential amounts of book bans, and contrived hysteria about liberal indoctrination and Critical Race Theory (CRT). Yet, as the world becomes increasingly connected across difference, and as research increasingly demonstrates that we must engage young children from all backgrounds in discussions about sociopolitical issues, it is urgent that classroom teachers foreground children's experiential knowledge in comprehension instruction. In this article, we address the following question: In three early elementary literacy contexts, how did educators use culturally sustaining practices with diverse children's literature to enact reading comprehension and engage young children in critical, sociopolitical meaning making? Three teacher educators of Color share findings from qualitative studies in the United States Northeast and Southwest that examine this integration with the use of diverse children's literature. The first finding illustrates how teachers utilized book introductions to situate a diverse group of early elementary‐aged students in various sociopolitical issues and engage them in critical readings about texts. The second finding illustrates how a series of after‐school literature circle discussions enabled first‐grade African American children to make meaning dialogically and communally about enslavement. The third finding illustrates how the teacher created space for second‐grade Latinx students to translanguage as they drew on multiple reading comprehension strategies and made sense of immigration. The implications from these studies invite a rethinking of the dominant paradigm of reading comprehension instruction.

“They're Like Slash”: Multimodality and Embodied Agency in Students' Critical Engagements with Texts

AbstractDespite recent calls to more fully incorporate multimodal perspectives into literacies research, there is still limited scholarship examining how students critically engage in reading activities by drawing on embodied practices. Racially and linguistically minoritized students are particularly disadvantaged by dominant logocentric and developmentalist approaches, which privilege oral and written discourse and often position these students as less capable of performing complex literacy practices. Drawing from three independent ethnographic studies, our multimodal interactional analysis examines how students of a range of ages and raciolinguistic backgrounds use embodied actions and other semiotic resources to agentively navigate text, task, and ideological constraints in activities involving reading and analyzing texts. Our analysis demonstrates the crucial role of students' embodied practices in expanding upon and challenging the constraints of literacy activities, focusing particularly on how students leveraged epistemic stance‐taking, embodied affective responses, and embodied forms of argumentation to negotiate and co‐construct meaning. Through a focus on embodied agency, this paper presents and applies an interactional perspective on the embodied nature of literacy activities; shows how students' creative mobilizations of embodied and other semiotic resources contribute to their critical readings of texts; and offers pedagogical and methodological implications for ways educators and researchers can attend to the intricacies of students' embodied sense‐making in literacy activities.

Surrendering Noble Lies Where We Buried the Bodies: Formative Civic Education for Embodied Citizenship

AbstractTo enact democracy, which is to live in communication with difference, requires a formative process that involves an education of the whole person for and through civic life. Drawing on Charles Mills's theory of Herrenvolk ethics and Jonathan Lear's analysis of psychosocial lapses that ail us, Sheron Fraser‐Burgess and Chris Higgins pursue a critical, historiographical, and psychosocial reading of our failures to live up to this aspiration, offering (1) a critique of our tendency to saddle ourselves with a false choice between a homogenizing unity and a differentiated but fractured republic; (2) a demonstration of why we must eschew a thin universalism of principles and confront difference as embodied; (3) an argument from the ethics of risk against the urge to reify and compartmentalize difference; and (4) an evocation of how deep pluralism itself might serve as a unifying creed. Civic education is not a matter of informing but of forming and cultivating vision and values. In pursuing the credal deep pluralism that is required to do justice to the prospects and perils of our democracy‐in‐the‐making, the task of the formative educator may be more difficult; but by embracing this creed, teachers may inspire their students to do the same.

Between paternalism and colonialism: Czechs and Slovaks from the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century

The study focuses on the postcolonial analysis of the development of mutual Czech-Slovak relations from the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century. The core of the analysis are specific literary representations of these mutual relationships based on the textual corpus of Czech and Slovak literature. In the broader public discourse of Central European literature, Czech-Slovak relations are only rarely analysed using postcolonial criticism. In the field of literary science, this is an unexplored area of Czech-Slovak relations. The contribution therefore seeks to complement postcolonial research on the material of Czech and Slovak non-fiction texts, as well as neglected novels. It focuses on the postcolonial analysis of literary representations of mutual Czech-Slovak relations, which developed between paternalism and colonialism in the observed period. The critical reading of these literary representations is based on the description of power relations identifiable through more or less conspicuous features of superiority and subordination, which are relevant to interpret through postcolonial theories. The author of the paper is aware of the specifics and differences of power relations between small cultures in the Central European area compared to the analysis of relations between a large empire and a politically subordinate colonial culture. For this reason, he expands the repertoire of terminology from postcolonial criticism (Homi H. Bhabha and Edward W. Said) and uses not only the basic terms colonialism and Orientalism, but also other terms to define the diverse scale of the power relationship of the Czechs to Slovak culture, e.g. paternalism (to introduce the Czech figure of the elder brother), pre-colonialism (to introduce the Czech figure of the savior) and anticolonialism (to introduce the Czech figure of the Slovaks as victims). Using postcolonial terminology, the study approaches specific literary figures that have become part of Czech thinking about Slovak culture. The situation of Slovak culture in the observed period can be interpreted through Kiossev’s metaphor of self-colonization, which reflects the positive reception of the cultural and educational mission of the Czechs in Slovakia. The used corpus of texts from Czech and Slovak literature and its analysis served as a starting point for understanding cultural stereotypes and literary representations of nascent national identities. Czech colonialism developed in the political, cultural and linguistic framework, first as a recognition of Slovakia by Czech slovakophiles, after 1918 it was already part of the discussion in the public space. All these period attitudes of the Czechs towards Slovakia were prescribed in literary texts of a fictional and non-fictional nature and as part of the Czech cultural memory they filled the Czech cultural myth about Slovakia.

Exploring Critical Reading Practices Among Malaysian and Vietnamese Engineering Students: Insights and Implications

ABSTRACT In the dynamic academic landscape of the 21st century, the imperative to equip engineering students with robust critical reading skills, in tandem with their technical expertise, has come to the forefront. Recognizing the intrinsic value of critical thinking and reading in cultivating an ethos of lifelong learning among future engineers, this study endeavors to shed light on efficacious methodologies for augmenting critical reading competencies, grounded in the lived experiences of students. Utilizing a phenomenographic methodology, this research aims to explore the mechanisms through which engineering students from Malaysia and Vietnam develop their critical reading skills. The study engaged eight engineering students from both Malaysia and Vietnam, selected based on their demonstrated proficiency in critical reading, as evidenced by scores from a critical reading assessment aligned with the PISA Reading Framework. Through in-depth, phenomenographic semi-structured interviews, the research sought to uncover the strategies and practices these students employ to bolster their critical reading abilities. The findings illuminate a diverse array of approaches to enhancing critical reading skills, including the adoption of specific reading strategies, engagement in extensive and collaborative reading practices, and the maintenance of a positive reading disposition. Notably, the study also identifies that variations in the application and effectiveness of these strategies are influenced by factors such as students’ academic progression, cultural contexts, and educational backgrounds. These insights contribute to a nuanced understanding of the multifaceted nature of critical reading skill development among engineering students, offering valuable perspectives for educators, curriculum designers, and policymakers aiming to foster critical analytical skills in STEM education.

Pre-service teachers evaluating online texts about learning styles: there is room for improvement in justifying the credibility

Teachers’ abilities to critically evaluate the credibility of online information are fundamental when they educate critical online readers. This study examined pre-service teachers’ abilities to evaluate and justify the credibility of online texts on learning styles. Pre-service teachers (N = 169) read and evaluated two more and two less credible online texts on learning styles in a web-based environment. Most pre-service teachers were able to differentiate the more credible texts from the less credible ones but struggled with justifying the credibility. Pre-service teachers’ inaccurate prior beliefs about learning styles impeded questioning the less credible texts. Implications for teacher education are discussed.

O PAPEL DA LEITURA NO DESEMPENHO ACADÊMICO: DESAFIOS E IMPACTOS NO CONTEXTO UNIVERSITÁRIO

This article aims to analyze the impacts of reading on academic performance, highlighting how this skill influences academic performance and the integral formation of students. The bibliographic research carried out based on repositories such as SciELO.org investigates how critical reading contributes to the development of essential skills, including analysis, argumentation and communication necessary, both in the academic environment and in the future professional career. The results showed that, although academic reading is important, many students face difficulties due to technical terminology and the lack of previously developed reading skills. To address these challenges, the study suggests the implementation of supportive pedagogical policies and practices, such as reading workshops, peer tutoring, and support for textual production, as well as an inclusive approach that values the diversity of student profiles. The promotion of reading from basic education is recommended as a means of better preparing students for higher education and the job market.

““The last bastion of democracy”: teachers’ perceptions of the democratic potential of English curriculum”

Purpose Faced with increasing systemic constraints and pressures, secondary school English teachers often implement transactional approaches to pedagogy and curriculum aimed at improving student results on external exams, which are then used to rank schools. Despite the pressure to teach this way, teachers acknowledge the power of literature, literacy and language in the English curriculum as vehicles for educating students to be critical readers of texts for a democratic society. As such, the purpose of this paper is to share perspectives of secondary English teachers in relation to the democratic potential of their subject. Design/methodology/approach Using a qualitative case study method, this paper shares data from six Australian secondary school English teachers who work in culturally diverse schools. Teachers were interviewed about their perspectives regarding how the Australian English curriculum enabled and/or constrained the teaching of critical and creative thinking in support of a democratic society. Findings Using Marri’s model of multicultural democratic education, interview data were deductively analyzed to identify elements of the model, including critical pedagogies, disciplinary content and community building. Teachers were concerned that building critical literacy skills was minimized by the system and students’ personal dispositions. Originality/value The English teachers in this study held a strong belief that the subject of English could emancipate students, although they felt it might be “the last bastion” for a democratic education.

Advancing a Practical Inquiry Model with Multi-Perspective Role-Playing to Foster Critical Thinking Behavior in e-book Reading

In the digital age, where media proliferation challenges traditional reading habits, this study investigated the impact of digital platforms on critical thinking (CT) and reading practices. Some conventional e-books may not sufficiently encourage reflective thinking or foster CT skills due to their linear nature and lack of engaging elements. Employing the Practical Inquiry Model (PIM) within the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, this study highlights the integration of multimedia elements and the use of students' selfies to boost engagement and social presence in a digital learning environment. This study introduced selfie role-playing reading, along with group discussions from various perspectives as an innovative pedagogy to enhance cognitive presence within the CoI, ultimately enhancing learners’ CT performance. Using a quasi-experimental design, 63 participants were grouped into single-perspective or multiple-perspective categories by narrative perspective exposure, and then engaged in online story discussions with worksheets. Reading performance was measured through a detailed examination of their CT patterns via behavioral sequential analysis. Results revealed that students in the multi-perspective groups demonstrated superior CT and reflective thinking levels, underscoring the potential of innovative e-book designs in enhancing CT. This study not only validates the importance of diverse narratives and role-playing in CT development, but also pioneers a method for analyzing such skills through behavioral sequence analysis. It signifies a leap in applying the PIM to multimedia e-book reading, offering insights for future educational strategies and CT assessment in the digital era.

Book Review: Critical Readings of the Bible

Book Review: Critical Readings of the Bible

Exploring the Gap of English Learning Motivation in Chinese Ethnic Minority High School Students Through Critical Reading

Exploring the Gap of English Learning Motivation in Chinese Ethnic Minority High School Students Through Critical Reading

All You Need is Recalcitrance; A Stengerian Fable for Psychology

Recalcitrance is a form of resistance particularly relevant to human sciences. This essay explores how Isabelle Stengers outlined this topic from a critical reading of certain experiments in the history of psychology. Since living beings cannot remain indifferent to the proofs and interrogations they are submitted, scientists must remain attentive to avoid the frequent feature of pliability by which the studied subject adapts its behavior to satisfy the experimenter’s expectations. Further developments have proposed this concept as a demarcation criterion for good and bad experiments for psychology. The second half of the essay offers an auto-ethnographic account of my own clinician practice. From a series of empirical vignettes, a speculative fabulation is woven to explore whether Stenger’s thesis on recalcitrance could and/or should be implemented in psychotherapy.

The Role of Selective Underlining Strategy in Developing Critical Reading Skills Among University Students

Studi ini menyelidiki keefektifan selective underlining strategy dalam meningkatkan keterampilan membaca kritis di kalangan mahasiswa. Menggunakan metode penelitian tindakan kelas, bertujuan untuk minangkatkan pemahaman membaca mahasiswa dalam hal menemukan gagasan utama dan rincian pendukung melalui selective underlining strategy dalam pengajaran membaca. Penelitian ini dilaksanakan di Universitas Mulia pada mahasiswa semester dua Progran Studi Informatika melalui penelitian tindakan kelas (PTK). Peneliti mengambil 37 Mahasiswa sebagai subjek penelitian. Peneliti mengajarkan pemahaman membaca menggunakan selective underlining strategy. Temuan penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penggunaan selective underlining strategy dapat meningkatkan kemampuan membaca siswa, dari siklus I ke siklus II. Pada siklus I, pencapaian ide pokok dan rincian pendukung siswa dalam pemahaman membaca adalah 57,8%, namun setelah dievaluasi pada siklus II pemahaman membaca siswa menjadi 79,0%. Sebaliknya, gagasan utama siswa dalam pemahaman membaca dikembangkan dari siklus I ke siklus II, dimana pada siklus I pencapaian gagasan utama siswa dalam pemahaman membaca adalah 58,1%, namun setelah dievaluasi pada siklus II pencapaian gagasan utama siswa menjadi 79,7%. Pada siklus I prestasi siswa dalam menemukan rincian pendukung sebesar 57,6%, namun setelah dilakukan evaluasi pada siklus II menjadi 78,4%. Sedangkan pencapaian target standar KKM 70. Penelitian ini berkontribusi terhadap berkembangnya literatur mengenai strategi membaca efektif di perguruan tinggi dan menawarkan implikasi praktis bagi para pendidik yang berupaya meningkatkan keterampilan membaca kritis mahasiswanya. Dari temuan ini, peneliti menyimpulkan bahwa dengan menggunakan teknik Selective Underlining Strategy dapat meningkatkan prestasi pemahaman membaca mahasiswa dan membuat mahasiswa aktif dalam proses pembelajaran. ____________________________________________________________________________________ The effectiveness of the selective underlining technique in improving university students' critical reading abilities was examined in this study. Using the Selective Underlining Strategy in reading instruction, the goal of the classroom action research approach was to clarify how students' reading comprehension improved in terms of identifying the main concept and supporting details. Applying classroom action research (CAR), the study was conducted with informatics students at Mulia University during the second semester. 37 pupils were selected by the researcher to be the study's subjects. The Selective Underlining Strategy was used by the researcher to teach reading comprehension. According to the research findings, students' reading comprehension from cycle I to cycle II could be enhanced by employing the Selective Underlining Strategy. Following assessment in cycle II, the students' reading comprehension increased to 79.0% from their cycle I achievement of key ideas and supporting details of 57.8%. On the other hand, the students' major concept for reading comprehension improved from cycle I to cycle II. Specifically, after cycle II evaluation, the students' main idea for reading comprehension increased from 58.1% in cycle I to 79.7%. Students' success rate in locating supporting details was 57.6% in cycle I, but after evaluation in cycle II, it increased to 78.4%. While KKM 70 is the standard objective achievement. This study adds to the expanding corpus of research on successful reading practices in higher education and provides educators looking to improve their students' critical reading abilities with useful takeaways. Based on these results, the researcher concluded that employing the Selective Underlining Strategy technique could improve students' reading comprehension performance and engage them in the process of learning

Web archives after platformization: reading social media collections along the archival grain

ABSTRACT This article draws on ethnographic and historical research at two Australian libraries to explore how the platformization of the web has altered the content, character, and potential future utility of web archives. I argue that, in attempting to collect social media, these libraries face a double bind: while web crawling undertaken at the National Library of Australia allows for immediate but often incomplete or inconsistent access, the API-based approach taken by the State Library of New South Wales constrains both the data collected and how it can be made accessible due to a shifting set of rules that are established and enforced by platforms. By examining the constraints of current strategies to collect, preserve, and make available social media content, I illustrate how changes to platform design and policies significantly influence what is included in web archives and how they are made available. As the ruptures and inconsistencies of collections of social media in web archives are often opaque to both creators of web archives and those using them, I argue that web archives can be read ‘along the archival grain’ for evidence of the platformization of the web. This approach, which draws on anthropologist Ann Stoler’s critical readings on the form and placement of colonial archives (rather than just their contents), allows an assessment of how the gaps, silences, densities, and distributions of web archives are shaped by the shifting power dynamics between different actors involved in the production, circulation, distribution, and use of information on the web.

Systematic Review of Case Manager Nurse in Heart Transplant and Heart Failure Consultation

ObjectiveTo analyze the functions and activities of the case manager nurse in the specialized practice of transplantation and heart failure. MethodThis systematic review is reported according to the PRISMA guidelines. Selected articles were subjected to a detailed critical reading and the evidence levels and recommendation grades of the Joanna Briggs Institute were verified. The field of documentation search was limited to the last 5 years. ResultsHealth education provided by nursing is key in patients with heart failure and heart transplants. It must be evidence-based and focuses primarily on promoting self-care and adherence to therapy, although it includes other aspects such as recognition of signs and symptoms by the patient. Both activities are essential to prevent decompensations of heart failure, thus reducing hospital readmissions and mortality rates. ConclusionNursing has an essential role in multidisciplinary programs for the care of heart failure and heart transplant patients. Case manager nurse role stands out for being cost effective, as well as for improving treatment compliance and reducing hospital stay and mortality rates. Nursing functions in this practice ensure continuity and coordination of care between the different health levels, increasing the patients’ quality of life.

HUMOUR AND LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF AFRICAN FOLKTALES

African folktales manifest intricate and peculiar linguistic features, making their performance remarkable and invigorating. This paper explores the dual impact of humour and linguistic features on the written and performative nature of African folktales, arguing that the linguistic features of African folktales are imbued with humour which enlivens their oral performances. The data utilised in this study were harvested from folktales across Africa, including some collected during oral performances in Ipe-Akoko in Ondo State, Nigeria. Ten folktales were purposely selected from written sources while two were collected during performance. The performances of the folktales fostered a comprehensive understanding of the impact that the linguistic features laced with humour have on the audience. The data were subjected to critical reading using content analysis. The theoretical framework of this study was anchored in Henri Bergson’s theoretical work; Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of Comic (1923). The results showed that many African folktales manifest sterling linguistic devices laced with humour that embellish the narrative structure of the written folktales while enhancing the performative experience of the audience during the performance in Ipe-Akoko. The study concluded that folktales function as a means of galvanising and lubricating African languages and other verbal components whenever they seem to be inadequate.

Everyday reality of children in rural Catalonia (Spain): experiences and emotions

ABSTRACT The pandemic has been the catalyst for many families with young children to leave the urban environment and settle in rural areas, attracted by discourses that are in tune with the imported and classic ‘ideal of rural childhood’: natural environment, freedom, autonomy, mutual help, peace and quiet. However, we do not know to what extent this ideal construction of childhood in rural areas corresponds nowadays to the everyday reality of children. In this article we analyse the daily experiences and emotions of children in rural areas of Catalonia (Spain). By applying a qualitative methodology that allows children to express themselves, we provide a critical reading of the current rural areas based on children’s lived experiences. The use of the relief map as a methodological tool makes possible to graphically capture children’s emotions related to places. The research fills a gap on the current rural childhood experiences in non-Anglo-Saxon contexts, places the concept of the rural ideal in the Catalan environment and provides insight into the diversity of rural childhoods based on children’s experiences and emotions.