Teaching Through the Test: Building Life-Changing Academic Achievement and Critical Capacity

• In Event: Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Analysis of Teaching and Pedagogy

Abstract

Teaching through the test is a reflexive practice where teachers lead students to academic achievement while developing student capacity for transformative resistance. The dialectic between the goals of social justice education and testing and accountability reforms creates a powerful space for teachers interested in social change. Academic achievement can grant students and teachers access to wider platforms for transformative resistance, while developing students’ critical consciousness casts academic achievement as a powerful weapon in the struggle for liberation. This paper discusses and analyzes the work of secondary English/Language Arts teachers, offering examples of literacy units that increase academic achievement and critical consciousness. Sample unit topics include farm workers injustice, gangs, the juvenile justice system, local law enforcement, and immigration reform.

Author

• Victor Diaz, Arizona State University