A B S T R A C TThis article is a critical, integrative literature review of scholarship in literacy studies from 2004 to 2012 that draws on critical discourse analysis ( CDA ). We discuss key issues, trends, and criticisms in the field. Our methodology was carried out in three stages. First, we searched educational databases to locate literacy-focused CDA scholarship. Second, we completed an analytic review template for each article and encoded this data into a digital spreadsheet to assess macrotrends in the field. Third, we developed schemata to interpret the complexity of issues related to research design. Our examination of 76 literacy-focused empirical studies and theoretical papers in scholarly journals reveals trends in the questions that researchers find interesting enough to pursue, the theories they find useful, and the kinds of interactions that capture their attention. Our findings demonstrate that CDA scholarship has been conducted in many areas of literacy studies, including policy, academic writing, the preparation of literacy teachers, professional development, textbook content, curricular design, assessment, and bilingual education. We explore four foundational areas in the field that are especially ripe for debate and critique: context, reflexivity, social action, and deconstructive-reconstructive stance toward inquiry. In the discussion, we compare the findings of this literature review with an earlier review published in 2005, reflecting on three decades of CDA in literacy studies. We identify directions for future scholarship.

This article reviews critical discourse analysis scholarship in education research from 2004 to 2012. Our methodology was carried out in three stages. First, we searched educational databases. Second, we completed an analytic review template for each article and encoded these data into a digital spreadsheet to assess macro-trends in the field. Third, we developed schemata to interpret the complexity of research design. Our examination of 257 articles reveals trends in research questions, the theories researchers find useful, and the kinds of interactions that capture their attention. We explore areas in the field especially ripe for debate and critique: reflexivity, deconstructive–reconstructive stance toward inquiry, and social action. We compare the findings with an earlier review published in 2005, reflecting on three decades of critical discourse analysis in education research.

No abstract

In schools where curricular constraints and testing pressures narrow the ways in which students can take up identities as writers, longterm enrichment programs offer opportunities for the meaningful design of compositions. This paper, which presents the work of four elementary student participants in a writing workshop, shows how qualitative inquiry -- in particular critical multimodal analysis -- can enable a teacher researcher to see, interpret, and explain what might be going on in the writings and drawings of students, and how these illuminations help establish and expand the identities of students as writers. I focus especially on the work of one student over three years, and share the methodological procedures I drew upon in order to generate claims about his writing identity.