"We Are the Future": Embracing the Potential for Critical Literacy and Social Action

• In Event: 79.050 - MTCC Roundtable Session 36
  In Roundtable Session: 79.050-13 - Literacy Research in Adolescence

Abstract

This study explored how engaging in critical literacy through Project-Based Inquiry (PBI) Global fostered critical social action with high school students. Drawing on critical literacy theory and employing a collective case study approach, we targeted six students who participated in the PBI Global process on global water over a two-month period. Data sources included semi-structured interviews, posts and uploads in a shared writing space, and multimodal products of learning. Three themes emerged from the analysis of semi-structured interviews: (a) critical thinking through collaboration, (b) critical reading and writing through multimodality, and (c) critical social action. The full discussion will center on how Freire's theory of dialogical consciousness-raising accounts for variation in construction of multimodal products and intellectual and social growth.

Authors

• Hiller A. Spires, North Carolina State University

• Marie Himes, North Carolina State University

• Crystal Chen Lee, North Carolina State University