Teachers Learning About and Enacting Critical Literacy for the Public Good

• In Event: Transnational Critical Literacies for the Public Good

Abstract

Objectives
Teachers’ pedagogies for literacy are increasingly being shaped by non-critical influences that have considerable sway globally in education e.g., neoliberal policies and edu-business. However, we challenge the extent to which such resources enable teachers to offer holistic and deep engagement with learning to be literate in the interests of democracy and the public good. As teacher educators, we present a synthesis of ways in which we work with teachers (both pre-service and in-service) as well as other organisational stake-holders, to shape understandings of literacy teaching for social and environmental justice through the lens of critical literacies.
Theoretical Framework
Critical literacy practices support readers/viewers to have agency over texts as they critically consider inclusion, exclusion and representation. Armed with a critical analysis they can affirm, resist and/or rewrite unjust texts. Engagement with critical literacy involves asking critical questions about hierarchies of power from the perspectives of historically marginalized communities, highlighting and challenging seams and inconsistencies in dominant narratives (Freire, 2010). Critical literacy is a way of being and doing that “can be pleasurable and transformational as well as pedagogical and transgressive” (Vasquez, Janks, & Comber, 2019). Adopting a view of agency as “personal capacity to act, combined with the contingencies of the environment within which such action occurs” (Priestley et al., 2012, p. 11), we analyse how we work with teachers to produce robust understandings of critical literacies for 21st century conditions.
Methods, Data Sources, & Initial Findings
This paper draws on analysis of aspects of our collective practice focusing on the theory-practice nexus from which we each work in our respective practice in three countries – the US, New Zealand, and Australia. We document artefacts from our teaching and professional engagement around critical literacies with our primary stakeholders (pre-service and in-service teachers, as well as out-of-school programs), identifying points of convergence and divergence between our practices. Reflexively, we explore the affordances as well as the gaps and silences in our work with stakeholders around critical literacies, and illuminate new ways of maintaining relevance with our professional partners.
Significance
We subscribe to a view that education should be a public good supporting democracy and social justice (Dewey, 1916/1997; Morrell, 2008; Provenzo, 2005). The development of critical literacy practices support the education of an informed citzenry (Abbiss, 2016; James & McVay, 2009) essential for today’s “post-truth” conditions. Importantly, the ability to critically engage and push back against misinformation and colonizing education practices is a key skill for youth and people working with youth, both in schools and in wraparound educational spaces (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008; Mirra, 2018). The challenges to create literate citizens has increased as students engage with information that is often decontextualized, commercial, false, and misleading. In order for teachers to prepare students for the literacy demands of the 21st century they need critical frameworks and practices that engage with the ever evolving information, media, popular culture, and technology. Teacher educators are a key element of disrupting institutional norms and practices that limit teacher engagement in activism and advocacy.

Authors

• Jennifer Alford, Queensland University of Technology

• Betina Hsieh, California State University - Long Beach

• Kelli McGraw, Queensland University of Technology

• Susan Sandretto, University of Otago

• Susan Anne Cridland-Hughes, Clemson University

• Jeff Share, University of California - Los Angeles