The need for twenty-first century learning skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and the use of technology are paramount to success in today's classroom. The purpose of this study was to explore what happened when children engaged in collaborative and critical discussions of themes related to social skills and social…

Students have access to a vast amount of information about American politics through new media outlets (e.g., the Internet). We survey the perils and promise of this new landscape through a case study of a political science class at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York (CUNY), that examined congressional races in the 2010…

In this article, we propose a framework for literacy education, called artifactual critical literacy, which unites a material cultural studies approach together with critical literacy education. Critical literacy is a field that addresses imbalances of power and, in particular, pays attention to the voices of those who are less frequently heard.…

Drawing from a larger ethnographic study, this article engages post-structural theories of language and critical feminist theories of social class to examine two fourth-grade, White, working-poor girls' narratives about their urban neighbourhood in the United States. The author argues that young girls should be perceived as social theorists…

This study examines how critical mathematical literacy teachers conceptualize their practices and how those practices were demonstrated in the classroom. Practices were considered from an ontology of mathematics education, specific to critical mathematical literacy, in which classroom interactions question what it means to do mathematics as an…

The need for twenty-first century learning skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and the use of technology are paramount to success in today's classroom. The purpose of this study was to explore what happened when children engaged in collaborative and critical discussions of themes related to social skills and social…

We conducted a content analysis of 34 statements of interest submitted by applicants applying for admission to an education leadership preparation program. The purpose of the analysis was to understand their orientations toward social justice. Using Kumashiro's (2000) and Apple's (2001) discussions of antioppressive education, we identified three…

Natural gas production in Wyoming is a lucrative and influential industry. All the perks--jobs, education spending, the budget surplus--are huge incentives for communities and the fossil fuel-friendly state legislature to play along, to stay silent. And many are willing. There has been natural gas production in the state for almost a century, but…

In an attempt to address minority issues with Israeli Arab English-as-a-foreign-language ninth-grade students, I as a teacher researcher introduced picture books on the issue and invited students to respond in different modes, one of which was artistic. In one of the lessons, students created collages to represent their identities. In this…

It is clear from several government reports and research papers published recently that the curriculum for English in primary and secondary schools is about to change yet again. After years of bureaucratic stranglehold that has left even Ofsted report writers criticising the teaching of English, it seems as if the conditions are right for further…

Children nowadays perceive fairy tales from a number of sources; however, the strongest prior impressions toward this genre held by most youngsters are still built on the popular mass media-based adaptations such as the animated films or books of fairytale retellings by the Walt Disney Company. In order to make a change to such an undesirable…

This study, conducted at an urban public school, explored the engagements of five, fourth grade, African American students who struggled with reading in school as they participated in critical literacy practices and social action projects with the assumption that critical analysis of written texts and concrete social actions were necessary for…

One focus of "Invitational Theory and Practice" is creating positive environments that summon each individual to "develop intellectually, socially, physically, emotionally, and morally" (Purkey & Novak, 2008). Children's literature is a rich resource for teachers and parents to focus on emotional and moral development. This…

Like it or not, knowing how to make use of online tools without being overloaded with too much information is an essential ingredient to personal success in the twenty-first century. But how can we use digital media so that they make us empowered participants rather than passive receivers, grounded, well-rounded people rather than multitasking…

Classroom teachers have been encouraged to incorporate more multimedia production in the classroom as a means of helping students develop critical media literacy skills. However, they have not always been well trained in how to evaluate the work students create; many teachers struggle to know which criteria to use in assessing student work. This…