Critical Digital Literacies and School Reform: Urban Teachers' Civic Action, Heteroglossia, and Emerging Dialogue Structures

• In Event: Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: Writing and Literacies SIG Roundtable 1. Critical Media Literacy and Democracy: Toward a Renewed Education System

Abstract

Historically, the structure of education reform discourse has inhibited teachers’ active participation in policy discussions. This paper contextualizes education reform discourse in relation to educational crisis narratives to examine the shifting landscape of education reform discourse. Using Mikhail Bakhtin’s concepts of heteroglossia and addressivity, the authors examine contributions to online debate composed by urban teachers in response to top-down reform narratives. The online, public discussion of education reform by urban teachers marks a shift in the structure of reform discourse that highlights political tensions, historical considerations, and the politics of representation—both for teachers and those who talk about teachers. This session explores a political and moral question: how can literacy researchers work with teachers without taking up paternalistic/maternalistic roles?

Authors

• Trevor Thomas Stewart, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

• George Lovell Boggs, Florida State University