“Who was scared?”: Entering Into Reflections Towards Change as Critical Social Educators

• In Event: Responding to Literature: Strategies to Raise Critical Consciousness

Abstract

This presentation discusses how an elementary teacher facilitated critical conversations about race and racial injustice with her first-grade students. Drawing from critical social education, our collaborative teacher-researcher team closely examined the whole-class read-aloud events with two picturebooks focused on race and racial injustice. We point to the need for reflection toward change among critical social educators to enhance critical literature discussion among young children. By reflection toward change we speak to the practice of critically reconsidering teaching beliefs and practices that impel a critical revision in practice. In the classroom vignettes, we highlight how we encountered successes and missteps in our efforts to engage young children in critical literature discussion and how that process is deeply ingrained in the work of decentering whiteness.

Authors

• Mary Adu-Gyamfi, University of Missouri - Columbia

• Angie Zapata, University of Missouri

• Sarah Reid, University of Missouri - Columbia