Students often have limited opportunities in school to grapple with the ramifications of the increasing influence technology companies exert over their lives. Digital citizenship curricula could be the exception, but they typically emphasize personal safety and respectful behavior online, ignoring more participatory or justice-oriented notions of…

Technological and informational literacies, as described in the critical literacies advancement model are essential skills in today's technology-dependent society. In this paper, we illustrate how educators, by using social media (especially memes), can help students develop these and other literacies and thinking skills. These skills can lead to…

I present a theoretical basis for the use of critical literacy as an important instructional and ideological approach in the field of special education. Virtually no reading comprehension intervention studies predominantly involving students with learning or other high incidence disabilities use principles or elements of critical literacy. I…

This paper focuses on the importance of multilingual literacy in the 21st century and, specifically, how adult learners across the globe can develop multilingual literacy skills necessary for successful communication and global citizenship. The paper includes a theoretical (research background, definitions, critical framework) and a practical…

This paper outlines the design and purpose of an open educational resource (OER) project focused on developing digital literacies and open educational practice (OEP) within a Canadian Faculty of Education. Called The Open Page, the project features a Tool Parade of videos and podcasts created with and by Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) students).…

In the spirit of questioning, crossing, and blurring disciplinary borders with(in) mathematics education, this paper proposes a theoretical framework that merges conceptions of critical literacy and statistical literacy for high school mathematics curriculum. I begin by discussing the political nature of education and then situate this work within…

Three teacher-researchers engage in self-study of a college writing program delivered on an urban high school campus. Through examination of their practices, from their particular standpoints bridging secondary and post-secondary education, the teachers find that the writing program repairs opportunity gaps related to the accountability regime,…

Drawing on analysis of student work, we will discuss the ways in which literacy supported youth's civic engagement in the context of sustainable democracy projects that engaged students from an alternative high school in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago in the investigation of social issues relevant to their communities. Our presentation…

The purpose of this study is to explore how Korean university students develop their readership in integrated reading classes that address both conventional and critical reading instructions. The two researchers taught university students in Busan and Seoul, alternatively, to read texts in English critically. Fifty-nine students (thirty-two from…

This qualitative study explored diverse college students' perspectives on the portrayal of college life in recent popular films. Results from this study suggest that White college students dismiss stereotypes as comedic satire whereas their non-White peers readily identify the influence of negative media representations upon their academic and…

The Australian Curriculum has extensive references to literacy. It appears as not only a core strand within English, but also as a General Capability for the Curriculum as a whole. Such considerable focus leads to the question of what literacy actually means within such a context, and this paper aims to better understand the conceptualising of…

Public education's distinctive and primary challenge is to ensure all children, across all communities, have access to the skills and knowledge required for their full participation in democratically regulated social, cultural, and vocational life. This is an aspiration increasingly difficult to realize under present-day conditions of austerity in…

The qualitative study reported in this paper focuses on the ethical dimensions of curriculum and its interpretation and implementation by secondary school teachers. It explores what teachers do to respond to a curriculum that increasingly adopts a values-laden perspective (e.g., social justice education, critical literacy) that establishes…

This keynote address will discuss the findings and implications stemming from a study of what literacy means for a group of 12 teachers and teacher educators. It will also discuss the factors that have caused the ongoing evolution of these ideas about literacy. Relying on the idea of a "permeable literacy continuum," which uses five…

We believe that it is not enough to just take in information when we listen, read, and watch. We must also critically analyze that information. One part of this critical analysis involves looking for stereotypes, the focus of this paper. The paper has two main parts. In the first part, we briefly review some current thinking on the nature of the…