Developing Critical Sociohistorical Literacies in English Education

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  In Roundtable Session: Fresh Takes on Equitable ELA Instruction

Abstract

Based on the notion that one’s sociopolitical development is rooted in understanding how the moments and narratives of our collective past construct our realities, this paper offers an innovative, theoretical approach to literature instruction in secondary classrooms. Based on a year-long qualitative study of pedagogy and curriculum in a social justice-oriented urban high school, the author analyzes classroom observations, student and teacher interviews, and student writing to examine how a critical sociohistorical literacy approach to teaching classroom literature presents a site for interrogating and disrupting structures of inequity as well as a pathway for students to cultivate innovative, literary perspectives in pursuit of social change. This paper highlights practical approaches for educators to support youth critical consciousness, activism, and future-building.

Author

• Lauren Leigh Kelly, Rutgers University Graduate School of Education