Becoming a youth activist in the internet age: a case study on social media activism and identity development

This paper draws on a case study of one youth activist, and explores connections between social media activism, identity development, and critical education. Justin Rodriguez, a 17-year-old high school student in Newark, New Jersey, leveraged social media and texting as organizing tools and garnered support for a school walkout to protest education budget cuts. Drawing on the Listening Guide interview method and Justin’s narrative of his experiences, the study explores the question: Does social media activism have implications for how we understand the development of youth activist identities? The findings suggest Justin’s development as a youth activist was mediated, not produced, by social media activism; and Justin developed as a youth activist through various forms of interaction that included social media and face-to-face relationships. The paper also explores the supports provided by adult mentors that were important in Justin’s development as an activist, including education for critical consciousness and opportunities for Justin to participate in civic venues.     

Becoming a literacy teacher: approximations in critical literacy teaching

The new literacy studies (NLS) is a tradition of research that includes ethnographic work on literacy that has many applications for classroom teachers. The NLS include explorations of local literacies and critical literacy as well as the notion of literacy itself. When teachers draw on the NLS, students are able to draw on their practices in critical and transformative ways. However, NLS perspectives have not been used to examine how teachers are prepared in pre‐service programs and the ways critical literacy practices develop. This paper examines how two pre‐service teachers learn to take up definitions of local literacies in their work with students from racially, linguistically, and culturally diverse backgrounds in practicum settings. They use approximations in literacy teaching to design practices with students, demonstrating the process of becoming a teacher of literacy. I conclude with recommendations for teacher educators who are interested in supporting such approximations.     

Critical literacy: Beyond reason

In this paper, I argue that critical literacy is essentially a rationalist activity that does not sufficiently address the non-rational investments that readers bring with them to texts and tasks. I begin by looking at playful advertising texts that work with humour and the transgressive in order to consider the role of pleasure rather than reason. Then I examine the force of powerful identifications in relation to reason to show that educational interventions cannot ignore them. Finally, I tentatively suggest that we may need to find ways to combine socio-cultural and psycho-analytic theory in order to imagine new directions for pedagogy in the critical literacy classroom.     

Cracking Silent Codes: Critical race theory and education organizing

Critical race theory (CRT) has moved beyond legal scholarship to critique the ways in which “colorblind” laws and policies perpetuate existing racial inequalities in education policy. While criticisms of CRT have focused on the pessimism and lack of remedies presented, CRT scholars have begun to address issues of praxis. Specifically, communities of color must challenge the dominant narratives of mainstream institutions with alternative visions of pedagogy and school reform, and community organizing plays an important role in helping communities of color to articulate these alternative counter-narratives. Yet, many in education organizing disagree with CRT's critique of colorblindness. Drawing on five case study organizations working towards school reform in the South Bronx neighborhoods of New York City, this article traces the difficulty of implementing anti-racist practices in education organizing groups. It also analyzes specific practices that may help such groups to transform race-consciousness into positive political action.     

Becoming family literacy advocates in early childhood programs

New emphasis on emergent literacy and whole language approaches allows early childhood professionals more flexibility in responding to and supporting a family's definition of literacy. This article offers three keys to becoming sensitive family-literacy advocates in early childhood programs. Recognizing that family literacy is highly individualized and providing nonjudgmental and confidential support are crucial. The strengths and abilities of children and families, regardless of their current literacy level or educational priorities, are emphasized.     

Becoming Teachers for Social Justice: Raising Critical Consciousness

This article shares processes and practices which foster students’ critical consciousness. Critical consciousness, the core of social justice teaching, is a heightened awareness of the world and the power structures that shape it. Teachers can become forces for equity and change by: challenging students to reflect critically on their beliefs and the sources of these beliefs; using text to guide students to look outwards and discover the perspectives and challenges of others; selecting texts purposefully to heighten student awareness of issues of power and equity; teaching students to read texts critically, listening carefully for the points of view of others often ignored or silenced; creating space for dialogue beyond text; and finally, making the world their classroom, blurring the boundary between schools and communities as students research the world and take steps toward change in ways that recognize and re-value our common humanity. Becoming teachers for social justice entails moving students through intentional processes and practices to foster critical consciousness in the hope of effecting change.     

走向批判:教育行动研究的新方向

批判理论被大量地植入教育行动研究，导致“批判的行动研究”成为行动研究的“新方向”。但不同的行动研究者在如何理解“教育制度”的问题上出现了种种意见分歧。     

Critical reflections on Hirsch and cultural literacy

This paper was prepared for presentation at the annual conference of the American Educational Studies Association, Park Plaza Hotel, Toronto, November 1988.     

学生成为批判性研究者：赋权和教师的教学传奇

学生成为批判性研究者是美国教育界＂赋权＂运动的重要组成部分。＂赋权＂的核心在于让学生通过批判性研究而获得一种被称为全新的＂获知手段和创造知识的方法＂的＂权力认识能力＂。学生成为批判性研究者对传统学校教育和形式化认知方式进行了全方位颠覆;最重要的是学生本身在研究中获得巨大的收益,即＂有效地促进了学生的认知发展＂;学生批判研究的领域与策略包括学生自传研究、经验研究、文化研究及对自己学业表现的研究。其中,教师是被赋权的对象,也是赋权的有力促进者。     

Creativity as capital in the literacy classroom: youth as multimodal designers

Many school literacy practices ignore adolescents' new digitally mediated subjectivity as it has been shaped by the new media age. Youth possess often unappreciated repertories of practice which allow them to use their imagination and creativity to combine print, visual and digital modes in combinations that can be applied to new educational, civic, media and workplace contexts. This paper reports on research in two middle years classrooms in New York City's Chinatown, where students' design skills were recognised and validated when they were encouraged to critically re‐represent curricular knowledge through multimodal design. The curriculum, rather than privileging print‐only representations, recognised the linguistic, social, economic and cultural capital that different students brought to school. The findings suggest schools should harness youths' creativity – that often manifests itself through their capital resources – as they integrate and adapt to the new digital affordances acquired through their out‐of‐school literacy practices.     

Critical media literacy is not an option

This article explores the theoretical underpinnings of critical media literacy and analyzes four different approaches to teaching it. Combining cultural studies with critical pedagogy, we argue that critical media literacy aims to expand the notion of literacy to include different forms of media culture, information and communication technologies and new media, as well as deepen the potential of literacy education to critically analyze relationships between media and audiences, information and power. A multiperspectival approach addressing issues of gender, race, class and power is used to explore the interconnections of media literacy, cultural studies and critical pedagogy. In the interest of a vibrant participatory democracy, educators need to move the discourse beyond the stage of debating whether or not critical media literacy should be taught, and instead focus energy and resources on exploring the best ways for implementing it.

Critical multimodal literacy practices in student-created comics

In the wake of grim events such as Russian invasion on Ukraine, Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, the death of George Floyd in America and mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, all occurring amid the pandemic of COVID-19, it became increasingly more important to recognise literacy work that promotes a critically informed and just society. Thus, through the lens of critical literacy and intersectionality, this study sought to examine how pre-service teachers drew on critical multimodal literacy practices to create open educational resources (OER) or openly licensed comics that motivate local, global and/or transnational literacy education. Data collection took place at a four-year public university in Upstate New York. They included student-created comics, student reflections, researcher's fieldnotes and course syllabus. Findings from the study reveal that the pre-service teachers incorporated either a local, global or transnational connection to enact a social change. Further analysis shows that the OER or student-created comics inherently involve actions which are aligned with the three principles of social justice: redistributive justice, recognitive justice and representational justice.     

The comparative ethnography of educational projects: youth and adult literacy programmes in Brazil

This article elaborates the concept of educational projects, a term that signifies consistent constellations of institutions, financial resources, social actors, ideologies, theories of knowledge and attendant pedagogies that shape local cultural practices of schooling. The article demonstrates the utility of the concept of educational projects for comparative and international educational studies by examining competing educational projects in Brazilian literacy programmes for youth and adults. In conclusion, the article argues that the concept of educational projects provides a theoretically rich comparative tool for the field of comparative and international education.