This article pays tribute to Allan Luke's work as a pedagogical gift. His ability to bring sociological theories of power, identity and the body to bear on conceptualizing critical literacy is a gift. His research with indigenous populations, and his writing on inclusive curriculum, genres of power and double consciousness resonate in South Africa…

The effects of social annotation on critical literacy remain controversial, and little research has explained why some students can benefit from social annotation in critical literacy, and some cannot. This chapter investigates the effects of social annotation on critical literacy and the interactive patterns of social annotations. The…

Many elementary and middle school students are confronted by media messages constantly. They receive messages not only from family and friends, but from television and social media outlets. The media messages about current events are often politically biased, polarized in nature, and potentially inaccurate, especially on social media platforms.…

Background/Context: Since the 2016 presidential election, hate-based speech, crime, and violence have been on the rise in the United States, (re)creating a need for adults to engage children in dialogue related to white supremacy as it exists today, instead of framing it as a problem that ended with the civil rights movement. Following an incident…

A recent report by the Southern Poverty Law Center revealed that many history teachers avoid or minimize conversations about race for fear they will trigger "racialized conflict." This silence should raise alarms, as we know that race and racism permeate the lived experiences of teachers and students and inevitably surface in historical…

Elementary pre- and in-service educators increasingly rely on online instructional resources to supplement their curriculum. As social studies instruction has received progressively less attention in elementary classrooms, prospective teachers have fewer opportunities to observe powerful and purposeful elementary social studies pedagogy. To…

This article offers an autoethnographic reconsideration of a primary school teacher's practice and children's interpretation of picturebooks in multicultural primary schools in England. It considers the balance teachers strike between respecting children's rights to freedom of thought and expression, and wielding their own power as directors of…

The decline of academic achievement during summer is well documented and can result in a one-month loss of skills acquired during the school year. Summer slide can further contribute to a widening gap between low and high achieving readers. This instrumental case study explored a summer class for adolescent readers labeled as struggling.…

The present study aimed at enhancing EFL learners' critical reading of fictional text skills using critical literacy. The study used a quasi-experimental method. The study participants were a group of 30 students from grade 3 (an American Education system). The researcher employed the critical reading of fictional texts pre-post-test and reading…

This paper proposes a pedagogical approach for teaching and learning critical thinking through multimodal analysis--that is, "multimodal analysis for critical thinking". The approach builds on the conviction that students require competencies that move beyond traditional notions of literacy to meet the changing demands posed by media and…

We know it is important to help students to critically engage with texts like books and movies. We want them to become skilled at questioning what's in front of them, and understand how texts are constructed, and whose interests are served. We also need to develop their critical literacy as they interact with games. So, how can we help them do…

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…

Language and literacy practices in teacher education are decisive in the education of future language teachers. In this article, I share my beliefs as a teacher educator about language and literacy practices constructed with teachers in Bogota. Thus, my intention is to weave my professional narrative through the connections I can make from theory…

Media literacy skills are focal for many educators across the globe in an age of ubiquitous access to the Internet and the rapid circulation of digital texts. A critical media literacies perspective is often a key element in teaching adolescents to read a range of texts. A queer critical media literacies pedagogy supports a social justice agenda…

While many studies have addressed the impact of media literacy interventions on knowledge of specific topic areas, fewer have explored improvements in media literacy skills as outcome measures. This study analyzed the impact of a media literacy intervention on participants' critical thinking skills and understanding of media literacy principles by…