Language and Literacy (Journal)
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Investigating Preservice Teachers’ Understandings of Critical Media Literacy
No full textThis paper examines preservice teachers’ understandings of critical media literacy as they designed critical media literacy lessons in an initial teacher education language and literacy course for K-6 teachers. The teachers reflected on their initial understandings about social justice, designed several pre-tasks, designed and taught critical media literacy lessons, and then reflected on teaching critical media literacy to elementary school students. The results of this two-year study indicate that while the preservice teachers seemed willing to address social justice issues and they used digital literacies in interesting and engaging ways, some of them faced challenges articulating and focusing their own understandings in media literacy lessons
Creating Characters with Diversity in Mind: Two Canadian Authors Discuss Social Constructs of Disability in Literature for Children
No full textChildren’s authors have not traditionally developed characters with disabilities to include a multiplicity of traits, crafting instead static, uni-dimensional portrayals. While books with depictions of characters with identified exceptionalities have appeared onbookstore shelves and awards’ lists, these characters have generally been relegated to subsidiary positions, assisting other main characters in their growth and development without demonstrating parallel learning. Two Canadian authors discuss their conceptualization of characters with special needs, exploring personal narratives which have informed their work and concluding that children require book collections which explore multi-levelled characters, encouraging readers to discover real life heroes within and among themselves
One good book away from becoming a reader: First Nations literature in a northern classroom
No full textI arrived in the isolated, northern community of Big River, Northwest Territories on August 17, 1987. I wanted my students to discover the rich world that waited for them in books. It is a curious paradox that one loses oneself in a text, only to find oneself. I wanted my students to find ideas and images for themselves, to extend and challenge their thinking and feeling, and I also hoped that books might provide some comfort on the journey that was negotiating their identities in school
Ethical Readings of Student Texts: Attending to Process and the Production of Identity in Classroom-Based Literacy Research
No full textThis paper highlights multimodal literacy activities that invited the social re/positioning of learners as creators of meaning and experience rather than passive readers of text. Elaborating two cases, the paper describes the ways in which newcomer students’ identities were negotiated and enacted during the project, and how their identities were read and constructed by teachers in the classroom. The paper recommends an analytic approach to literacy studies research that accounts for the ways in which literate identities are materialized in classrooms, and the value in documenting both the product and process of students’ literacy work
Deconstructing and Reconstructing Cinderella: Theoretical Defense of Critical Literacy for Young Children
No full textEarly childhood education pedagogy needs to consider the potential role of critical literacy in preparing children to meet the ever changing and unprecedented pace of change in the literate world Media, technological, interactive, and corporate-constructed texts are fast becoming part of children’s everyday experience within industrialized nations. Like many other classic literary fictional characters (e.g., Pippi Longstocking, Paddington Bear, Winnie the Pooh, and Babar), Cinderella is no longer confined to the pages of a book. Cinderella’s image and persona appear in a multitude of texts, including, video, posters, clothing, toys, websites, and assorted paraphernalia, that children are repeatedly exposed to. Critical literacy can provide new and varied ‘lenses’ to understand experiences, explore multiple viewpoints, and uncover the influence of socio-political and power relationships in shaping perceptions and actions (Bainbridge, Malicky, & Payne, 2004)
LLRC and L&L: Just Married!
No full textThe membership of the Language and Literacy Researchers of Canada voted to enter into a partnership with Language and Literacy: A Canadian Educational e Journal. The partnership reflected a mutual desire to strengthen and promote scholarship in the Canadian language and literacy community. As we begin this new chapter in our organizational life, it is interesting to reflect back to its beginning.
An Analysis of Human Images and Advertisements in Four Popular Children’s Magazines
No full textMagazines are among the most widely read literacy materials for students, and visual imagery in magazines is a significant element in communication. This pilot study analyzes the human images and advertisements in four popular children’s magazines. Images were assessed for age, gender, action portrayed, and advertising status. Advertisements were also analyzed for type of product. Findings indicate significant gender and age differences, and more human images engaged in sports than any other activity. Advertisements incorporated significantly more male images and products mostoften promoted included computer games, candy and gum, and TV, movies, and videos. Implications for schools, teachers, and librarians are considered
Who Am I? Who Are You? – Negotiating a Researcher Identity
No full textThis article examines the process of negotiating a researcher identity with teachers and students during an ethnographic case study that explored literacy engagement in a grade two classroom. I consider the tensions presented and the negotiations undertaken during the study and conclude that the rhythm of negotiation is of critical importance to establishing trust in qualitative research
Getting Out of the Way: Books, Children and Controversy
No full textThis paper recounts a controversial incident in a classroom that ultimately involved the student, her teacher, her parents, the school’s administrators, government curriculum, and a university professor. Using discourse theory, the author traces the beliefs that underlie the positions taken by the stakeholders, and discusses the vulnerable spaces that teachers inhabit when they practice critical literacy in elementary classrooms using difficult texts and subjects