Reading and Teaching for Social Justice: Two Teachers’ Entwined Reader Responses and Pedagogical Plans for Children’s Literature

• In Event: Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: Learning and Teaching About Race, Social Justice, and Global Citizenship Through the Use of Literature

Abstract

This research investigates the meaning-making journey of two teachers from graduate program to K-6 classrooms as they read children’s literature with social justice themes and planned to use those texts in their teaching. Using reader response theory, critical literacy, and sociocultural theories of literacy, I describe and analyze the teachers’ responses and pedagogical plans. Findings reveal that while the teachers continued articulating a commitment to teaching for social justice, both their responses to children’s literature and plans for incorporating it into their teaching shifted in light of real classroom contexts and pressures. Ultimately, I argue that an intimate relationship exists between reader response and pedagogical ideals that could offer insight into the possibilities and challenges of teaching toward social justice.

Author

• Grace Enriquez, Lesley University