Multilanguge, Multitruth? Critical Literacies Meets Post-Truth in Language Education

• In Event: 35.035 - Bilingual and Language Teacher Education in a Post-Truth Era: Critical Perspectives From Brazil and the United States

Abstract

Objectives
This paper explores how “criticality” is defined and operationalized in research on English language teaching. Findings indicate that broad range of approaches fall under the umbrella of “critical.” However, left broadly defined, there exists a paradoxical degree of overlap between critical literacies and the post-truth narratives they are espoused to combat. The author argues that such broadly defined notions of criticality may do more to embolden than to combat post-truth and suggests alternatives for teacher education in multilingual contexts.

Theoretical Framework
This paper is grounded in critical literacies scholarship—a field that advocates questioning established knowledge and institutions through reading, writing, and textual interpretation (Bartolomé, 2004; Janks, 2014; Morrell, 2008). Drawing from a broad range of critical traditions, critical literacies have historically sought to disrupt social inequities through literacy (Freire & Macedo, 1987).

Modes of Inquiry
This paper draws on qualitative metasynthesis, an inductive approach to synthesizing research through summarizing findings from empirical studies, while also viewing the reviewed literature as a structure, or cultural artifact, by which to offer interpretations about the field (Sandelowski & Barroso, 2006).

Data Sources
Data were drawn from 68 empirical studies of critical literacies in English language teaching contexts, representing 18 countries and a variety of age groups (PreK-Adult learners). To gather this body of work, variations of the phrases critical literacy and critical literacies were entered into the academic search engines alongside multiple secondary search terms for the names and abbreviations associated with English language teaching in multiple contexts. All articles were reviewed and organized through the methods of qualitative metasynthesis and analyzed based on (a) pedagogical emphasis; (b) definition of “critical”; and (c) relationship between English and additional languages in the studies.

Conclusions
The reviewed studies offered a range of generative approaches, including specific pedagogical recommendations, units, activities, and orientations to promote critical approaches. The approaches were generally characterized by:
1. Monolingual methodological orientations that observed critical literacies only in English, rather than the full range participants’ language repertoires.
2. Vague notions of criticality that make it difficult to articulate the differences between the skepticism of dominant institutions within critical literacies as opposed to similar skepticism within post-truth discourses.
3. Little emphasis on critical consciousness around teaching critical literacies through English despite the language’s connection with global dominance and imperialism.

Scholarly Significance
While these initial approaches to infusing critical literacies within English language teaching represent important first steps in combatting post-truth, more must be done to emphatically differentiate “critical” approaches to literacy from the post-truth narratives they are espoused to combat. The author offers a second approach that re-emphasizes the linkages between critical literacies and narratives of power, dominance, and liberation. These findings are an invitation opportunity to broaden the field to encompass a broader range of critical practices and critical consciousness in language teacher education.

Author

• Chris K. Bacon, Boston College