This article reports some main findings of a year-long participatory action research study of critical literacy (CL) practices with middle school recent immigrant English language learners (ELLs) in Ontario, Canada. The CL program followed an integrated instructional model informed by Cummins' (2001) "Academic Expertise Framework" and…

As literacy researchers, we are challenged to consider whether our instructional practices are sufficient to help students engage in literacy practices in our current and future society, such as reading from critical literacy perspectives. Teacher identities can be discursively constructed in different ways, given the contexts in which they work.…

The low educational achievement of our poorest youth is fundamentally a political problem. Against a background of interconnected gaps in educational achievement, health and wealth, and political participation, this paper calls for a liberatory educational praxis that disrupts these reinforcing inequalities. This is a critical literacy grounded in…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the philosophical teaching perspectives of lecturers in teacher preparatory colleges in the Niger Delta of Nigeria as it relates to their choice of the language for classroom instruction. Specifically, the study explored the lecturers' perceptions regarding the role of Nigerian Creole in teacher…

Using a framework of critical literacy, and acknowledging the characteristics of Radical Change, the authors explore 75 North American youth fiction novels which depict characters with disabilities. Books were identified from a variety of sources (i.e., awards lists, book reviews, other research, and word-of-mouth), to represent a random sample…

For Asante our "battle is intense, the struggle we wage for status power is serious and we cannot communicate as equals when our economic position is that of servants" (2008, p. 49), words that resonated with the author throughout her research with Sudanese Australian young women about their educational experiences, as captured in…

This study is a report on the learning processes and outcomes of a reading course with a critical literacy orientation. Twenty-seven BA freshman English literature students (four males and 23 females) at the age range between 18 and 21 participated in a "Reading Comprehension 1" course at Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran. Throughout…

Library instruction methods most frequently focus on teaching students searching skills to navigate the maze of library databases to locate appropriate research materials. The current theory of critical information literacy instruction calls on librarians to spend more of their time in the classroom focused on understanding the social, political,…

This study draws from a number of researchers who push for critical literacy and a critical stance to question power, inequality, and the status quo; to understand scholars' own participation in power structures; and to reframe and retheorize scholars' beliefs and understandings. In this article, the author uses the critical stance framework to…

This article presents qualitative research on young adolescents' abilities in communicating and evaluating health messages in advertising especially how they understand and create gendered identities. A group of grade 6-8 students learned about media techniques and movie making. In groups divided by gender, they created iMovie advertisements for…

This study investigated the effects that critical literacy instruction had on comprehension in a seventh grade reading class. Numerous studies have examined critical literacy instruction in the classroom, as well as effective methods of comprehension instruction; however, few studies have combined these two lines of inquiry. Therefore, the purpose…

Past studies have shown positive correlations between the arts and academic achievement when the arts were integrated into the literature curriculum. Other studies have shown positive associations between the arts and other areas of the curriculum, such as mathematics and science. Considering the Theory of Change, which employs understandings in…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine ways that a multicultural perspective using critical literacy practices engaged practicing teachers to rethink and re-vision oppressive hegemonic structures and attitudes regarding immigrant students and their families and helped them to develop as critical educators. In the context of a…

The aim of this study is to describe and analyse the writing discourse in one classroom and how students learn through studying a topic, i.e. the teaching and learning of written argument. The study takes its stance from a sociocultural perspective and is influenced by discourse analyses, new literacy studies and critical literacy (Fairclough…

By discussing commonly held myths, this paper attempts to clarify a number of important issues in the area of critical literacy education. These include the distinction between critical thinking and critical literacy, the audience critical literacy is meant for, the philosophical underpinnings of critical literacy, and the relationship between…