The Importance of a Critical Literacy Framework: Though Texts May Be Banned, Students' Questions and Inquiry Are Not
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| Title: | The Importance of a Critical Literacy Framework: Though Texts May Be Banned, Students' Questions and Inquiry Are Not |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Liz M. Corson (ORCID |
| Source: | Reading Teacher. 2025 79(1). |
| Availability: | Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 9 |
| Publication Date: | 2025 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Evaluative |
| Education Level: | Elementary Education Grade 5 Intermediate Grades Middle Schools |
| Descriptors: | Critical Literacy, Inquiry, Elementary School Students, Personality Traits, Grade 5, Maturity (Individuals) |
| DOI: | 10.1002/trtr.70009 |
| ISSN: | 0034-0561 1936-2714 |
| Abstract: | Students' curiosity in the world and sense of belonging in the elementary classroom can develop as teachers learn alongside students in the context of a critical literacy framework. In an end-of-year reflection, one of my fifth-graders, Anne (all names are pseudonyms), a student of color (at times, I used the term "student of color" to protect students' identities, given the racial make-up of my predominantly white classroom), wrote, "Keep reading diverse books! This makes sure everyone feels safe. Also keep relating to the kids and letting them share stories (sometimes just listening is all someone needs)." Anne's feedback captured so much of what I had learned after eight months of teacher research on how my fifth graders experienced a critical literacy framework in a predominantly white suburban public school. Not only did my students have the maturity needed to handle critical literacy, but they were also highly engaged in the work and had a lot to teach and learn. By offering time and support to my students to question, discuss, analyze, and take action, students were given opportunities to bring their worlds into the classroom and practice using critical literacy tools to work towards understanding and applying a critical literacy framework to the world around them, in and out of the classroom. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2025 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1475328 |
| Database: | ERIC |
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| FullText | Links: – Type: pdflink Url: https://content.ebscohost.com/cds/retrieve?content=AQICAHj0k_4E0hTGH8RJwT4gCJyBsGNe_WN95AvKlDbXJGqwxwHIR1eKmhuwsFNosjc5lf5oAAAA4zCB4AYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIHSMIHPAgEAMIHJBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDKBNwx73MzcAVIVHPwIBEICBm_8wFhy_gionM9L8zOXfYyfZek49i6qLQHC3rncjGMiMkV9FFlhU3hOSrid1ScFKVmx7K01Ink1sgJqHE0wkQFeXA-zlNJz_gGEKVx4SWXZsCj_lQxgwJr6PcUf-n1NUxrRXx27-KQ5FVeSxG3FnG7MHW-nh-4j4hxuzfMVZClcmbflfKUbh7lI-vt_f8wEVi6PS3sS1s4FmJ5hq Text: Availability: 1 Value: <anid>AN0186163254;ret01jul.25;2025Jun27.04:01;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0186163254-1">The Importance of a Critical Literacy Framework: Though Texts May Be Banned, Students' Questions and Inquiry Are Not </title> <p>Students' curiosity in the world and sense of belonging in the elementary classroom can develop as teachers learn alongside students in the context of a critical literacy framework. In an end‐of‐year reflection, one of my fifth‐graders, Anne (all names are pseudonyms), a student of color (at times, I used the term "student of color" to protect students' identities, given the racial make‐up of my predominantly white classroom), wrote, "Keep reading diverse books! This makes sure everyone feels safe. Also keep relating to the kids and letting them share stories (sometimes just listening is all someone needs)." Anne's feedback captured so much of what I had learned after eight months of teacher research on how my fifth graders experienced a critical literacy framework in a predominantly white suburban public school. Not only did my students have the maturity needed to handle critical literacy, but they were also highly engaged in the work and had a lot to teach and learn. By offering time and support to my students to question, discuss, analyze, and take action, students were given opportunities to bring their worlds into the classroom and practice using critical literacy tools to work towards understanding and applying a critical literacy framework to the world around them, in and out of the classroom.</p> <p>Keywords: belonging; community building; critical literacy; critical literacy framework; literacy</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Critical literacy skills of questioning and analyzing are processes that require time to develop.</item> <p></p> <item> Critical literacy framework is crucial to building community in the classroom.</item> <p></p> <item> Incorporating a critical literacy framework into the classroom is a messy process, where both students and teachers can learn and grow.</item> </ulist> <p>Summary</p> <p>There are often fears about bringing critical literacy into classrooms. Many teachers worry they do not know enough and will get something wrong. Teachers are bound to make mistakes; there has to be an acceptance of discomfort when doing this work (Figure 1). In addition, self‐reflection can never end in order to understand our own biases and how they impact our students.</p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/RET/01jul25/trtr70009-fig-0001.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMMvl7ESepq84yOvsOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="trtr70009-fig-0001.jpg" title="1 Elements of critical literacy (Vasquez et al. [14])." /> </p> <p></p> <p>Teachers might also worry that families and administrators may not be supportive. An administrator told me that fifth graders are not ready to talk about "mature" topics because they are still so young and into rainbows and unicorns. However, if allowed, each student will bring to the class different interests, experiences, and understandings of the world around them. Here is an identity web (Figure 2) that one of my fifth‐grade students, Ingrid, made at the start of the school year.</p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/RET/01jul25/trtr70009-fig-0002.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMMvl7ESepq84yOvsOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="trtr70009-fig-0002.jpg" title="2 Fifth‐grade student's identity web (Corson [3])." /> </p> <p></p> <p>She included both Black Lives Matter <emph>and</emph> unicorns. Throughout the year, Ingrid, a white student, appreciated the texts we read about Black Lives Matter and contributed a lot to the discussions we had based on these texts. She also loved reading fantasy books with unicorns.</p> <p>In this article, I will share how my fifth‐grade students' curiosity in the world grew in the context of a critical literacy framework, how our classroom worked to foster a sense of belonging, and how important it is for teachers to learn from students.</p> <hd id="AN0186163254-4">Critical Literacy Framework: Literacy Is Situated and Negotiated</hd> <p></p> <ulist> <item> How do you build community in your classroom throughout the year?</item> <p></p> <item> How do your students bring their lives into the classroom, and how do you listen to your students and learn alongside them?</item> <p></p> <item> How do your students question the world around them?</item> <p></p> <item> How do you acknowledge mistakes you make with your students, learn from them, and move forward?</item> </ulist> <p>Pause and PonderOver 40 years ago, Freire and Slover ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref1">4</reflink>]) shared at the Brazilian Congress of Reading that "reading the world always precedes reading the word, and reading the word implies continually reading the world" (p. 10). My year‐long teacher research with my fifth‐grade students showed me how important it is to teach from a critical literacy framework, which offers students the opportunity to bring their experiences from the world to what they read, and to offer time and space to collaboratively question the world.</p> <p>Vasquez et al. ([<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref2">14</reflink>]) also argue that "the world is seen as a socially constructed text that can be read" (p. 307) and "no text is ever neutral and all texts are created from a particular perspective with the intention of conveying particular messages ... to position readers in certain ways" (p. 306). Elementary school students are ready to be engaged with critical literacy and understand that literacy is situated and negotiated. Our choices as elementary school teachers around the texts and topics we give space to in our classrooms matter and these choices will impact our students. It matters how we see our students as readers, writers, and thinkers and all they bring to our classroom from their worlds around them.</p> <p>Though texts may be banned, students' questions and inquiry are not. Students need, appreciate, and deserve this critical literacy framework as they become more engaged with the world and question the world. This critical literacy framework can also foster a sense of belonging within a classroom as students learn from each other and teachers learn from students. Given that literacy is situated and negotiated, literacy also must be a social practice. Vasquez ([<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref3">12</reflink>]) used social critique, social analysis, and social action as tools with her students "to imagine that the social world could be otherwise" (p. 139). Vasquez ([<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref4">12</reflink>]) supported her students as they found and questioned injustices, looked at issues of power and control, and "acted on [their] critique and analysis reflexively in order to position [themselves] differently" (p. 139). Teaching elementary students to do this work together, in a classroom community, gives them the tools, at an early age, to be empowered to question a single story rather than accepting norms that perpetuate inequities.</p> <p>Vasquez ([<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref5">13</reflink>]) encourages teachers to teach students to "question the perspective of others" (p. 22) by asking questions such as "Whose voice is heard? Who is silenced? Whose reality is presented? Whose reality is ignored? Who is advantaged? Who is disadvantaged?" (p. 15). These questions can make explicit the ideologies or beliefs in which the everyday text, or text of any kind, is situated. They were also the basis for many of our classroom discussions around shared texts and topics students and I brought into the classroom, our community building, and our critical perspective taking.</p> <hd id="AN0186163254-5">Time and Space Are Needed for a Critical Literacy Framework</hd> <p>However, school culture does not always value or prioritize a critical literacy framework. Often the goal of education is to cover a certain amount of curriculum in a certain period of time and to teach specific academic skills, often focusing on high‐stakes testing that perpetuates social inequities (Au [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref6">2</reflink>]).</p> <p>It can also be a struggle to find support for a teacher trying to bring a critical literacy framework in this kind of widely pervasive school context of high‐stakes testing, especially within political climates that we currently face, including anti‐immigrant, racist, anti‐LGBTQIA+ sentiments that were shared in the recent presidential inaugural speech. The newly inaugurated President of the United States described his goals to "forge a society that is colorblind and merit based" with "the official policy of the United States government ... only two genders, male and female" (Trump [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref7">11</reflink>]) shortly before signing the anti‐immigrant executive order, "Protecting the American People Against Invasion" (The White House [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref8">10</reflink>]).</p> <p>Today's context makes this work harder. Yet this work to help all students feel a sense of belonging in our classrooms and to be seen and feel safe is now even more important than ever. The text choices might be limited, given the current political climate and legislative bills. But that doesn't mean we are no longer responsible to our students and their families and communities and their welfare in each of our classrooms and schools and districts. We owe it to our students to learn and build on who they are and learn what questions they have as we build our classroom community, and, in this way, also develop a critical literacy framework over time. In my classroom, this time and space were supported by our reading and writing workshops, for example, during our persuasive inquiry research unit, when students worked together to research to find evidence to support a claim and write a piece to impact change around that claim, answering the question: How can we change the world?</p> <p>We have opportunities throughout the day to listen to our students' observations and questions and to build on these in our lessons while we continue to teach the skills and standards through a critical literacy framework. Taking the time needed to practice the questioning of the text and the world around us, to support the discussion, and to offer opportunities to take action can move students from learning how to use a critical literacy lens to internalizing the critical literacy lens (Figure 3). In this way, the critical literacy lens becomes part of how our students and how we, as teachers, see and interact with the world in and out of the classroom.</p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/RET/01jul25/trtr70009-fig-0003.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMMvl7ESepq84yOvsOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="trtr70009-fig-0003.jpg" title="3 Internalizing the critical literacy lens." /> </p> <p></p> <hd id="AN0186163254-7">My Positionality</hd> <p>My positionality, at the time of this teacher research, as a doctoral student learning about critical literacy through Vivian Vasquez's work with preschool students, helped me realize how much my identity as a white, cisgender, heterosexual, English‐as‐a‐first‐language, upper‐middle class woman impacted my view and my questioning or lack of questioning the dominant culture norms of my school. I looked back at the start of my teaching career in New Orleans in schools with predominantly Black and Brown students, where I began teaching with Teach for America, seeing the white saviorism approach I had not realized I'd had at the time. Hurricane Katrina led to my family moving back to the Northeast, where I taught for 15 years in a predominantly white suburban school.</p> <p>A variety of experiences led to my research on critical literacy in my fifth‐grade classroom including my doctoral studies and my learning about Vivian Vasquez's critical literacy work with preschool students. In addition, the election of Trump in 2016 along with racist incidents in my school district led to my working with colleagues and families in our school community to work to respond to the marginalization of children and families that we saw happening repeatedly without enough or any response from the school administration. Questioning the world around us, now, after the second election of Trump in 2024, more than ever, needs to be happening in elementary school.</p> <p>Just as I had been opening my eyes to how much the different parts of my identity, particularly being white, impacted how I saw the world, I also realized that this was also the case for my white, cisgender, English‐as‐a‐first‐language students from upper socioeconomic backgrounds. I need to continue to educate myself through reading and discussing and learning from people whose identities are different from mine, and the same is true for my students, particularly my white students, through the books we read and discuss and the questions we ask about the world around us. This is what led me to bring a critical literacy framework to my classroom and to learn how it was impacting myself and my students.</p> <hd id="AN0186163254-8">Methodology</hd> <p>I spent one school year, 2020–2021, doing teacher research in my classroom to look at how incorporating a critical literacy framework might be impacting my students and myself. This research took place for part of the year during hybrid teaching due to COVID (September through March) when I taught half my class in person 4 days a week with the rest of the class zooming in and then those who had zoomed in came in person while the other half zoomed in. By March, the whole class returned together, following COVID protocol (i.e., masking and social distancing). Perhaps because of these unusual conditions in which I was teaching twelve or thirteen students in each cohort at a time, this might have contributed to the rich conversation and discussion throughout the year, both during our hybrid time and after the class returned to the classroom all together.</p> <p>Most of my students and families opted to be involved in the research (22 of 25 students). The racial make‐up of my class reflected that of the school, 19 white students, 1 Black student, 2 Asian American students, and 3 biracial students. My classroom also reflected the school economic make‐up which was predominantly upper‐middle class. Most of my students' identities were part of a dominant group including Christian, fully able‐bodied, Native English speaking, U.S. born, heterosexual, and cisgender. Some students had a diagnosed learning difference and an individualized education plan or a 504 plan with accommodations, while others had a gifted individualized educational plan, leading to different experiences at school given these different school histories.</p> <p>In addition to keeping a reflective journal, each month, I recorded classroom discussions, interviews with students, and discussions with colleagues who also were incorporating a critical literacy framework in their classrooms. In total over the 8 months, I recorded seven discussions with colleagues, ranging from 30 to 60 min in length, 21 class discussions, varying from one to six each a month, ranging from 6 to 30 min in length, and 92 interviews, varying from three to 28 interviews each month, ranging from 5 to 33 min in length. In addition, I collected student work each month, including poetry writing, persuasive writing, reflective writing, and book club presentations.</p> <hd id="AN0186163254-9">Data Analysis</hd> <p>Collecting these extensive data over the school year allowed me to look for patterns across the data to help me better understand more about my experience as a teacher developing and teaching a curriculum with a critical literacy framework to my fifth‐grade class. I also wanted to learn how my students experienced this critical literacy curriculum and how my students' identities and my own identity impacted these experiences.</p> <p>I used the following lenses to help stay focused on how my students and I were experiencing critical literacy in our classroom:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Teacher and student focus</item> <p></p> <item> Student nature of engagement</item> <p></p> <item> Student positionality</item> </ulist> <p>Using multiple forms of data allowed me to triangulate data, which increased the trustworthiness of the data and helped me find emerging patterns and themes from these data. Yet this brings up a limitation in my research because of the performative nature of the data I was gathering since I was the vehicle for collecting all the data and I was the teacher. My role as teacher would have impacted what my students said and how they responded to questions in our interviews, in their work, in their surveys, and in our class discussions. However, with that said, there is also a trust that develops between teacher and students over the year that could positively impact the data collection and, perhaps, counteract the limitation described.</p> <p>I first looked at student focus to find what students prioritized in our critical literacy classroom. In addition, I coded my reflective journals, looking at teacher focus. I then coded the nature of engagement for students, using a scale to categorize engagement from low to high (1–3).</p> <p>After those two rounds of coding, I noticed three major themes, consistent with Vasquez's ([<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref9">12</reflink>]) findings. One theme was along a dimension of knowledge of social issues that students could move between the roles of naif and dreamer. Another dimension was based on social action, with students moving between the roles of conformist and reformer. Both dimensions are fluid, meaning they can change and reflect where students might be at any given time. Finally, the third dimension that emerged was informed by my practitioner perspective. I have often noticed how students take up collaboration and leadership roles, and this third dimension was based on the roles taken up by students: member and nonmember. By member, I mean a student participating with the class community, sharing, listening, and working with their peers. By nonmember, I mean a student choosing to not participate within a small group or within our larger classroom community. I use these three themes to analyze the data I collected and share in this article.</p> <hd id="AN0186163254-10">Critical Literacy Framework</hd> <p>I worked with a colleague to create an overview of the fifth‐grade reading and writing workshop year using a critical literacy lens. We turned to Sara K. Ahmed's book, <emph>Being the Change</emph> ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref10">1</reflink>]), as we developed essential questions to guide each unit along a developmental trajectory around identity across the year. Ahmed shares lessons and strategies for elementary, middle, and high school teachers to more explicitly bring identity into the classroom. Ahmed reminds us to be relentless in the pursuit of truth, while also de‐centering our own truth, encouraging teachers to do their own identity web alongside students and then to revisit these webs over weeks and months. For example, to address bias and stereotyping, students write down how others see them in ways that they do not embrace and how they see other people, as well as themselves. Through the visual webs and the discussions, identities are shared, beliefs are analyzed, and biases are made explicit.</p> <p>Building on Sara K. Ahmed's framework from <emph>Being the Change</emph>, our questions included:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Who am I? Starting with our identity webs, thinking, writing, and sharing about ourselves, we aimed to also build our classroom community together. In addition, the teacher was getting to know students and listening to their questions to incorporate these into critical literacy work.</item> <p></p> <item> How does my bias affect how I see others and how others see me? As a class, we learned about what bias is and learned through activities how we all have biases. Identifying our biases helped us look at our positioning as we responded to texts and did research.</item> <p></p> <item> How do our circles of responsibility grow? We reflected on our communities, inquiring into how we build and grow a community. We studied activists and social movements and imagined how the world can be different.</item> <p></p> <item> How do we support one another? We learned about being an upstander instead of a bystander and worked on a community inquiry project.</item> </ulist> <hd id="AN0186163254-11">Students Becoming More Engaged With the World</hd> <p>Given this critical literacy framework, I will share how my students became more engaged with the world, moving from naif to dreamer, conformist to reformer, and nonparticipating to participating student member of our classroom (Figure 4). All of this took time to practice using a critical literacy lens, so students and I together could begin or continue to internalize this critical literacy lens (Figure 3).</p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/RET/01jul25/trtr70009-fig-0004.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMMvl7ESepq84yOvsOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="trtr70009-fig-0004.jpg" title="4 Students becoming more engaged with the world (Corson [3])." /> </p> <p></p> <p>Carter, a student of color, reflected on how the topics he wanted to research changed over the year:</p> <p>I guess we started talking about BLM in February ... I started learning that there's more things that are important than sports .... And I just think I've grown to think about things that are different than sports and myself and see the whole big world. (Carter, part 2, May 25)</p> <p>Carter continued to enjoy sports throughout the year and organized <emph>Among Us</emph> online games for the class. He also was an active participant in our class discussions about what was happening in the world. Carter moved from Naif to Dreamer over the course of our school year. He became more and more involved in our class discussions, becoming excited to learn about the world around us and make connections between himself and what he was learning. Carter shared his poem (Figure 5) with our school during our Black Lives Matter school‐wide celebration on Zoom.</p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/RET/01jul25/trtr70009-fig-0005.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMMvl7ESepq84yOvsOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="trtr70009-fig-0005.jpg" title="5 Fifth‐grade poem written for Black Lives Matter school‐wide celebration (Corson [3])." /> </p> <p></p> <p>Carter, along with his family, was proud of the work he was doing, and Carter was excited to share with his peers and the entire school his understanding of the importance of developing empathy to address inequities in the world as well as celebrate each other and community.</p> <p>Another student, Anne, a biracial student, reflected that her informational research into wrongful convictions allowed her to go deeper into a topic she had already learned about with her family:</p> <p>Well I think that ... when a lot of stuff started happening, my parents kind of wanted me to ... watch that movie with them ... <emph>Just Mercy</emph>, and they were like I think you're ready, it's going to be ... intense where you can ... leave the room if you need to. And ... it's okay we, [are] here with you. So then we watched that and that was really empowering because that was ... definitely ... hard for me but it was definitely ... I think it was good. I think that it's good to ... be exposed to some bad things when even when you're a child, it can be ... hard, but I think that it's important so we can be ... educated when we get older. (Anne, Jan. 28)</p> <p>Students were deciding which topics to research. Their research choices were often influenced by their peers and families. Whereas classroom research enabled Carter to build foundational knowledge on a topic of social justice that was new to him, it enabled Anne to deepen her understanding of a topic she was introduced to at home. Anne was a dreamer and taking action both in the classroom and with the encouragement of her family. Both Anne and Carter were members of the classroom community, participating, sharing, listening, and working with their peers.</p> <hd id="AN0186163254-14">Fostering a Sense of Belonging</hd> <p>Courageous dialogue can happen within the classroom that interrupts racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, classism, and social inequities (Mirra [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref11">8</reflink>]) and also builds community. Ingrid, a white student, addresses the importance of belonging in one of our class discussions.</p> <p>Okay, so I'm responding to a couple of things. I don't want to be mean, but I definitely strongly disagree that she just feels like she's a girl .... Gender is an identity. It's what you feel like. If you feel like you're a girl, you're a girl and people should call you a girl. And also, I think she should definitely tell someone ... because there's a pretty high suicide rate among transgender people who feel like they are not affirmed and not seen.(<emph>Melissa</emph> (Gino, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref12">5</reflink>]) discussion before reading, April 22, Ingrid).</p> <p>As teachers, it is important that we partner with our students, their families, our colleagues, and our administration to include books in our classrooms that bring windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors (Sims Bishop [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref13">9</reflink>]) that foster a sense of belonging and also help us as teachers and our students to question the status quo, such as expectations based on identity. Ingrid, like Carter and Anne, is a dreamer, taking action, and a member of the class, as she speaks up during our discussions to inform and educate the class on the suicide rate among transgender people who are not feeling affirmed. The critical literacy framework offered all students in my fifth‐grade class time and space to share and learn and teach one another as the classroom community was built.</p> <p>Each school district and community is unique and faces different challenges to this work. It is important that we do this work in community with our families and, as much as we can, with colleagues and administrators. In my experience, space was always allowed for students to ask questions and do inquiry work to answer these questions, even if the answers were not always what the students and I wanted to hear.</p> <hd id="AN0186163254-15">Questioning How It Can Be Otherwise</hd> <p>Students also need time and space to ask questions based on the world they see around them. Vasquez ([<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref14">13</reflink>]) encourages teachers to teach students to "question the perspective of others" (p. 22). Through our read‐alouds, group inquiry research, and text analysis, students question and discuss issues of text choice and social inequities. For example, Hannah, a white student, appreciates <emph>Melissa</emph> (Gino [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref15">5</reflink>]) but questions whether it should be read to future 5th graders:</p> <p>Instead, I would recommend a book where being transgender, being LGBTQ+ was normal. It was just there. This book is a good first step towards raising awareness for LGBTQ, but that is what the whole book is about. I would recommend a book where LGBTQ+ was normal. (5/10/21, Teacher reflection)</p> <p>Through Hannah's questioning, she was both dreaming and taking action, speaking up and making suggestions to the class and to me, her teacher, about future books to be read aloud, particularly books normalizing LGBTQ+ characters.</p> <p>In another example, Tilly, a white student, researched with an inquiry group women's pay inequities and wanted to know why there was unequal pay, pointing out "there's not really a reason behind it" (Women's pay, May 3, Tilly). Through Tilly's questioning, she was also dreaming through wondering, imagining a time when the pay gap did not exist since there was no reason for it to exist. Both Tilly and Hannah became active members of the class, participating through their questioning and sharing.</p> <p>My students also answered each other's questions. We listened to a speech given by Dr. King, in 1956, when he spoke at the 47th annual NAACP convention about "the moral obligation to press on." Eli, a white student, responded to a question posed by his classmate Ron, also a white student. "[Ron] was wondering why people did it [try to stop the civil rights movement]. I think it is because they wanted power .... People with a drive to get power can do terrible things." (Eli, discussion, Jan. 15, Dr. King speech [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref16">7</reflink>]) My students discussed and questioned the world together. Eli was taking action by answering Ron's question, as well as being an active member of the class and supporting a peer by listening and responding.</p> <hd id="AN0186163254-16">Learning From Our Students</hd> <p>By the spring, students were frequently sharing current events. After the murder of six Asian women in metro Atlanta on March 16, 2021, two students of color in our class talked about that news as scary for them and their families. I responded by celebrating Asian American culture in our classroom. We read books by Asian American authors and learned about Asian American history. When I asked Asian American and biracial students in my class if they would like to share about their Asian American family experiences, four of the five students chose to share, and I thought they had enjoyed sharing while the class listened attentively, asking questions and clapping appreciatively.</p> <p>However, about a month later, at the end of the year, when I asked for feedback from the class, two biracial students wrote they did not appreciate being asked to do this share. One student advised that I should not have all the Asian American and biracial kids share again next year and talk about their differences from white students. The other student wrote, "Please make sure you don't single kids out! This puts everyone in a position where they put up a wall and feel uncomfortable around you and their peers." (June reflections, students)</p> <p>I had no idea of the impact of this activity on these students. I had been trying to celebrate Asian American diversity, but instead, I unknowingly caused these students to feel othered. I was humbled by my students' feedback, appreciative of what they had shared, and reminded of how my whiteness is always impacting my choices as a teacher.</p> <p>Inviting students' identities explicitly into the classroom is hard and messy work; despite my thinking that the sharing would be joyful, I put my Asian American and biracial students in an uncomfortable position and caused harm. In retrospect, I should have asked all my students to share. This could have been a community building activity at the start of the year, to interview families and share something fun that's special to each family. Making this a voluntary activity would also allow students to choose to share or not. Just as Anne had advised, "Sometimes just listening is all someone needs," the space and trust in the classroom for students to simply share their worries and concerns might have been enough.</p> <hd id="AN0186163254-17">Conclusions</hd> <p>During a discussion about Amanda Gorman's 2020 presidential inauguration poem ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref17">6</reflink>]), Ingrid, a white student, answered a question I posed to the class about one of the lines in the poem, "What do you think it means by the phrase 'quiet isn't always peace'?" Ingrid responded:</p> <p>A lot of times you think that if you have your voice heard and you interrupt, that is just creating chaos and disrupting the peace, but really there has to be some chaos to get to the peace. Martin Luther King, Jr didn't just ... walk up to the President and say, "Hey, can you end segregation?" He wasn't like, "Sure, fine." They had to work for it. (Ingrid, Discussion Jan 21 cohort B Amanda Gorman)</p> <p>Ingrid was reminding us of the active, messy, and disruptive work that is needed to achieve peace. She was also demonstrating that a critical literacy framework can help to develop a historical lens to understand racism and other forms of injustice today. In an interview with Ingrid, she explained, "And so what I like about your class is that you focus on ... the whole history of racial inequality. And also you don't talk about it like it's the past, because it isn't."</p> <p>Bringing a critical literacy framework into the classroom can give Ingrid and all students the opportunity to question the world. It allows a teacher to meet students where they are and invites them to develop a deeper understanding around issues that interest them and to ask critical questions about their world. This critical literacy framework also gives space, time, and support to students to move from accepting the world as it is to dreaming how it could be otherwise. It also allowed students to take action through educating each other and educating me. Finally, the critical literacy framework encourages students to take on more active membership roles in the classroom as students care deeply about the topics they are studying.</p> <p>Fifth graders were ready to be engaged with a critical literacy framework, and this teacher research with my predominantly white fifth‐grade students in a suburban public school showed me how important it is to give my students this opportunity to question the world, become more engaged with their learning, prioritize a sense of belonging for everyone, and imagine how the world could be otherwise.</p> <p>This work also set me on a course that has brought me to become a teacher educator where elementary preservice teachers are learning that teaching is political and that the choices each of us makes as a teacher impact the lives of our students. I emphasize to my preservice teachers how important it is to do this work in community with our colleagues, our students' families, our administrators, and our students' communities. And though it is not easy, it is so important for the development and life of each child we teach and their sense of belonging in our classrooms.</p> <p>This year‐long investigation showed that my fifth graders, who may still love rainbows and unicorns, can not only handle a critical literacy curriculum but can also appreciate it, because they feel challenged and respected.</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Consider where your students fall between accepting and dreaming, between maintaining the status quo and taking action, and between active participation and not active participation (Figure 4).</item> <p></p> <item> How might your students move toward becoming dreamer, taking action, and becoming more active members of the class community (Figure 4)?</item> </ulist> <p>Take Action!</p> <hd id="AN0186163254-18">Acknowledgments</hd> <p>I am forever grateful to my students who shared so much with each other and with me during our school year together when I did teacher research in my classroom and learned so much, thanks to them.</p> <p>Thank you to my Temple advisor, Dr. Michael W. Smith, for always encouraging me to think about how the world can be otherwise.</p> <hd id="AN0186163254-19">Ethics Statement</hd> <p>This research has been reviewed and approved by an Institutional Review Board at Temple University, Dr. Smith, Principal Investigator, 1301 Cecil B. Moore Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19122.</p> <hd id="AN0186163254-20">Conflicts of Interest</hd> <p>The author declares no conflicts of interest.</p> <hd id="AN0186163254-21">Data Availability Statement</hd> <p>Transcriptions of interviews with students and class discussions in Dedoose; student work in Dedoose; paper copies of student work in binders with author.</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> What texts do you use in your class? What book club books? Poetry? Speeches?</item> <p></p> <item> Do they reflect a multitude of perspectives and identities? Have they been published in the last ten years?</item> <p></p> <item> Book Club Text Suggestions (Upper Elementary Grades):</item> <p></p> <item> Front Desk by Kelly Yang</item> <p></p> <item> Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga</item> <p></p> <item> New Kid by Jerry Craft</item> <p></p> <item> Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling</item> <p></p> <item> When You Trap A Tiger by Tae Keller</item> <p></p> <item> What professional texts are you reading to help build community in your classroom?</item> <p></p> <item> Recommended texts</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Cultivating Genius</emph> by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Unearthing Joy</emph> by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Being the Change</emph> by Sara K. Ahmed</item> <p></p> <item> What inquiry work do your students do?</item> <p></p> <item> Do they share their findings with the class community? School community? Outside the school community?</item> <p></p> <item> Audience suggestions:</item> <p></p> </ulist> <p>• Peers</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Sharing in class</item> <p></p> <item> Sharing with other classrooms</item> <p></p> <item> Sharing with the school over the announcements or at an assembly</item> <p></p> <item> Families</item> <p></p> <item> Weekly share</item> <p></p> </ulist> <p>• Discuss</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Writing/Poster/Multimodal presentation at home or in school</item> <p></p> <item> School community</item> <p></p> <item> Local newspaper</item> <p></p> <item> Local meetings</item> <p></p> <item> Town council</item> <p></p> <item> Public Library</item> </ulist> <p>More to Explore</p> <ref id="AN0186163254-22"> <title> Footnotes </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref10" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Funding: The author received no specific funding for this work.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <ref id="AN0186163254-23"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibtext> Ahmed, S. K. 2018. Being the Change. Heinemann.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref6" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Au, W. 2022. Unequal by Design: High‐Stakes Testing and the Standardization of Inequality. Routledge.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> Corson, L. M. 2022. "Disrupting, Questioning, and Taking Action: Teacher Research on the Experience of Critical Literacy in One Fifth‐Grade Classroom" (Doctoral dissertation, Temple University).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib4" idref="ref1" type="bt">4</bibl> <bibtext> Freire, P., and L. Slover. 1983. " The Importance of the Act of Reading." Journal of Education 165, no. 1 : 5 – 11. https://doi.org/10.1177/002205748316500103.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib5" idref="ref12" type="bt">5</bibl> <bibtext> Gino, A. 2015. Melissa (Previously Published as GEORGE). Scholastic Inc.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib6" idref="ref17" type="bt">6</bibl> <bibtext> Gorman, A. 2021. "The Hill We Climb: the Amanda Gorman Poem that Stole the Inauguration Show." The Guardian.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib7" idref="ref16" type="bt">7</bibl> <bibtext> King, M. L. 1956. "The Montgomery Story." Address Delivered at the Forty‐Seventh Annual NAACP Convention. Stanford University, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king‐papers/documents/montgomery‐story‐address‐delivered‐forty‐seventh‐annual‐naacp‐convention.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib8" idref="ref11" type="bt">8</bibl> <bibtext> Mirra, N. 2018. Educating for Empathy: Literacy Learning and Civic Engagement. Teachers College Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib9" idref="ref13" type="bt">9</bibl> <bibtext> Sims Bishop, R. 1990. " Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors." Perspectives 1, no. 3 : ix – xi.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> The White House. 2025. "Protecting the American People Against Invasion: An Executive Order." https://<ulink href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential&amp;#8208;actions/2025/01/protecting&amp;#8208;the&amp;#8208;american&amp;#8208;people&amp;#8208;against&amp;#8208;invasion/">www.whitehouse.gov/presidential&amp;#8208;actions/2025/01/protecting&amp;#8208;the&amp;#8208;american&amp;#8208;people&amp;#8208;against&amp;#8208;invasion/</ulink>. WH.GOV.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Trump, D. J. 2025. "United States Presidential Inaugural Address."</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Vasquez, V. M. 2004. Negotiating Critical Literacies With Young Children. L. Erlbaum Associates.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Vasquez, V. M. 2010. Getting Beyond "I Like the Book"; Creating Space for Critical Literacy in K‐6 Classrooms. 2nd ed. International Reading Association.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Vasquez, V. M., H. Janks, and B. Comber. 2019. " Critical Literacy as a Way of Being and Doing." Language Arts 96, no. 5 : 300 – 311.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Liz M. Corson</p> <p>Reported by Author</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref2"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref3"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref5"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref7"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref8"></nolink> |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: The Importance of a Critical Literacy Framework: Though Texts May Be Banned, Students' Questions and Inquiry Are Not – Name: Language Label: Language Group: Lang Data: English – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Liz+M%2E+Corson%22">Liz M. Corson</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1601-4876">0009-0008-1601-4876</externalLink>) – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Reading+Teacher%22"><i>Reading Teacher</i></searchLink>. 2025 79(1). – Name: Avail Label: Availability Group: Avail Data: Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us – Name: PeerReviewed Label: Peer Reviewed Group: SrcInfo Data: Y – Name: Pages Label: Page Count Group: Src Data: 9 – Name: DatePubCY Label: Publication Date Group: Date Data: 2025 – Name: TypeDocument Label: Document Type Group: TypDoc Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Evaluative – Name: Audience Label: Education Level Group: Audnce Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Elementary+Education%22">Elementary Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Grade+5%22">Grade 5</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Intermediate+Grades%22">Intermediate Grades</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Middle+Schools%22">Middle Schools</searchLink> – Name: Subject Label: Descriptors Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Critical+Literacy%22">Critical Literacy</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Inquiry%22">Inquiry</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Elementary+School+Students%22">Elementary School Students</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Personality+Traits%22">Personality Traits</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Grade+5%22">Grade 5</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Maturity+%28Individuals%29%22">Maturity (Individuals)</searchLink> – Name: DOI Label: DOI Group: ID Data: 10.1002/trtr.70009 – Name: ISSN Label: ISSN Group: ISSN Data: 0034-0561<br />1936-2714 – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: Students' curiosity in the world and sense of belonging in the elementary classroom can develop as teachers learn alongside students in the context of a critical literacy framework. In an end-of-year reflection, one of my fifth-graders, Anne (all names are pseudonyms), a student of color (at times, I used the term "student of color" to protect students' identities, given the racial make-up of my predominantly white classroom), wrote, "Keep reading diverse books! This makes sure everyone feels safe. Also keep relating to the kids and letting them share stories (sometimes just listening is all someone needs)." Anne's feedback captured so much of what I had learned after eight months of teacher research on how my fifth graders experienced a critical literacy framework in a predominantly white suburban public school. Not only did my students have the maturity needed to handle critical literacy, but they were also highly engaged in the work and had a lot to teach and learn. By offering time and support to my students to question, discuss, analyze, and take action, students were given opportunities to bring their worlds into the classroom and practice using critical literacy tools to work towards understanding and applying a critical literacy framework to the world around them, in and out of the classroom. – Name: AbstractInfo Label: Abstractor Group: Ab Data: As Provided – Name: DateEntry Label: Entry Date Group: Date Data: 2025 – Name: AN Label: Accession Number Group: ID Data: EJ1475328 |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1002/trtr.70009 Languages: – Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 9 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Critical Literacy Type: general – SubjectFull: Inquiry Type: general – SubjectFull: Elementary School Students Type: general – SubjectFull: Personality Traits Type: general – SubjectFull: Grade 5 Type: general – SubjectFull: Maturity (Individuals) Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: The Importance of a Critical Literacy Framework: Though Texts May Be Banned, Students' Questions and Inquiry Are Not Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Liz M. Corson IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 07 Type: published Y: 2025 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 0034-0561 – Type: issn-electronic Value: 1936-2714 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 79 – Type: issue Value: 1 Titles: – TitleFull: Reading Teacher Type: main |
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