This study purports to document, analyze, and interpret the learning that occurred across two university literacy courses in which faculty implemented a constructivist, critical literacy pedagogy. Findings explore what it means to share power in the classroom and the relationships between critical teaching and developing a literacy theory of…

Teachers' knowledge base and cultural stances affect classroom practice and the school climate. In respect to immigrant populations, teachers' perceptions delimit what students come to believe they can accomplish. Teachers who espouse the goals of cultural pluralism validate the backgrounds of learners as well as legitimize bilingual bicultural…

This study draws on ethnographic data from a year-long multimodal media production (MMP) course and the experience of an African American female adolescent who used the production of multimodal Hip Hop texts to express her creativity and growing socially conscious view of the world. The study demonstrates how students made meaning multimodally and…

Inviting teachers back to the role of reflective advocates for thoughtful reading instruction, this book presents theory and pedagogical possibilities to reclaim and build upon the knowledge base that was growing when government mandates, scripted commercial programs, and high stakes tests took over as the dominant agenda for reading instruction…

This article outlines five critical issues for teacher educators and literacy specialists in New York State. Intended to raise issues and share recent policy decisions, the article provides background and conversations about current policy. Readers are encouraged to make decisions about how to participate in the current conversations across the…

In the experimental venture reported in this article, moral and ethical frameworks are applied to an Academic English 12 class. Using this work as an extension of the existing research on moral literacy and moral leadership, high school seniors apply the frameworks to literary characters in canonical texts. Such an approach is an amalgamation of…

A comprehensive update of the classic study that delivers both a passionate plea and strategies for teachers, parents, and community organizers to give working-class children the same type of empowering education and powerful literacy skills that the children of upper- and middle-class people receive. The classic, indispensable guide for teachers,…

It was Friday, right before Memorial Day weekend. The Social Science Division was quiet. The author was standing in his office when he realized he had finished his 10th year of teaching a week before. He pondered the milestone for a minute. Like most faculty, he has floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in his office. His favorite shelf sits at the top of…

Criteria for the design and selection of literacy and thinking tools that allow educators to justify what they do are described within a wider framework of learning theory and research into best practice. Based on a meta-analysis of best practice, results from a three year project designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a secondary school…

In working with new teachers and teacher candidates in teacher education with the many demands placed upon them, it makes sense to combine a number of learning goals. The following article examines the idea that literacy, technology, and subject curriculum goals are a powerful combination. Indeed, critical literacy with a stress on inferring, is a…

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…

The present study explored the ways in which the production of digital media, specifically podcasts (i.e., downloadable digital audio files), rooted in the key tenets of critical literacy, can support education for democracy, in addition to the overall benefits and barriers of podcasting in an elementary classroom. The project can be considered a…

In a test-driven society such as ours, the reasons not to take on the time-consuming and controversial topic of critical literacy are many; however, this article hopes to convince educators at all levels that the benefits of engaging students in questioning, reflecting, and taking action are well worth the effort. The article begins with a…

"Critical Visual Literacy: Multimodal Communication Across the Curriculum" makes the case for expanding the pedagogical space and communication possibilities in undergraduate communication-intensive and linked (learning community) courses by allowing students to create multimodal texts that deal with civic and cultural and/or discipline…

To understand the problem of illiteracy, a detailed review of the definitions of literacy and illiteracy is in order. A full definition of these terms in the current print and electronic context of adult American society in school and out of school, and for adult learners of English as both a first and a second language is presented here. Strong,…