This article provides a critical literacy approach to reading picture books that represent individuals with disabilities. It details close reading with a critical literacy stance as a scaffolded method for teachers to support students’ increased access to conversations about disability. A sample lesson plan and three prompting guides are provided to support teachers in text selection, planning and facilitation of lessons that analyze disability representation. Consistently engaging in close reading with a critical literacy stance will help students internalize the transferrable process that enables them to challenge and critique the stereotypes of disability they encounter in other texts, media, and everyday interactions.
This collaborative self-study looks at how eight white literacy teacher educators worked together to re-center critical literacy and teaching for equity in methods courses. We used self-study methodology to interrogate not only our pedagogy, but also our own internalization of white supremacy culture and complicity in perpetuating the status quo. Our group met virtually on a monthly basis, discussed common readings, shared resources, and wrote journal reflections. Findings show that our collaboration helped us explore and evolve how we framed the work of critical literacy, delve into the discomfort of initiating and facilitating difficult conversations with students and colleagues, and develop concrete actions for re-centering and enacting critical literacy practices. Building upon the collaborative self-study work that guided our practice, we argue that our collaboration -across contexts and across time, attending to both our self-work and our pedagogy -provides a new way forward. As teacher educators, we found self-study to be a sustainable way to outgrow ourselves, and this research serves as a call to action for other teacher educators to take up this work, as well. Dismantling the status quo is a lifelong endeavor, our work is ongoing, and we find it is strengthened when approached both individually and collectively.
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