In this article, I share my experiences connecting with community as a high school teacher, a community literacy developer, and a teacher educator. I describe three partnerships that created conditions for transformative change, challenging boundaries of traditional schooling by providing spaces for shared knowledge and meaning making. The experiences that undergird these partnerships present a counter story to de cit discourses and narratives of school failure. They highlight possibilities for investing in our collective future and demonstrate the capacity of individuals to build community and enact learning landscapes to bring about a more socially just world.
Purpose -This paper aims to discuss the seepage of current national discourses into the fabric of university classrooms. The authors describe their experiences navigating politics and accompanying discourses in their undergraduate and graduate courses at a rural Midwestern university in the USA. Their narrative provides a socio-historical context in response to events related to the 2016 presidential election.Design/methodology/approach -The authors situate their cultural and linguistic identities within a critical race theory framework and unpack discourses of privilege that "other" students and families from nondominant communities. They highlight promising practices that challenge the status quo, creating opportunities for critical teaching and reflection.Findings -Teacher educators are called on to engage pre-and in-service teachers in practice-based pedagogies and inquiries around authentic issues that present possibilities for transformative social change.Originality/value -This narrative addresses teaching in contentious times and reflects on transformative practice to engender critical hope.
This qualitative study investigated how teaching an historical unit through a critical lens might empower students to evaluate sources, challenge fake news, and make informed decisions. The reading intervention teacher in this study engaged secondary students in reading, discussing, and critiquing a series of multimodal historical texts.
Grounded in a critical literacies framework, Shelly used “brave spaces” to stimulate discussion on issues of (in)equality, bias, and misinformation to challenge students’ perceptions and often (mis)conceptions of what constitutes propaganda and “fake news.” We describe how Shelly’s 6‐week unit facilitated higher order thinking and students’ beliefs in their capacity to take action and make a difference.
We elaborate the need for students to. be savvy, critical consumers of media, particularly in today’s sociopolitical climate where truth and alternative facts are frequently blurred.
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