Search

Purpose: This article explores the literary work of a teacher and activist, Yi O-Deok, as a lens to approach historically and culturally embedded notions of humanization in education in Korea. Anchored in the ethos of "Asia as Method," this study offers a unique perspective that exemplifies the importance of the local sociocultural context in Asia in enriching our understanding of universal concepts. Design/Approach/Methods: This study adopts a methodological approach centered around the examination of Yi O-Deok's work and his influence on critical literacy education. Key source materials include Yi's extensive five-volume diary and the various literary pieces he edited from the 1950s to the 1980s. Findings: Yi O-Deok's philosophy on humanizing education, deeply influenced by local contexts, provides a distinct, non-Western perspective. It offers a critical counterpoint to Western-centric educational paradigms and enriches the broader understanding of humanization in education. Originality/Value: The uniqueness of this study resides in its focus on children's writings, affirming faith in the unfiltered expressions of their pure spirits encapsulated in the raw "languages of the soil," which have persevered through the sociopolitical upheavals of Korea's modern history. This in turn strengthens the call for a nuanced, non-Western interpretation of the concept of "humanization" in education.

This paper aims to investigate how and to what extent 'critical' global citizenship is reflected in middle school English textbooks in Korea. Framed within Freire's concept of critical literacy, the study is concerned with analyzing the written texts in two English textbooks, with a focus on the issue of representations. Using critical content analysis, the research centers on unpacking how race, racism, or racialization, especially in the United States, is represented, and to what extent these representations may be associated with global citizenship education in English language learning. The major findings indicate a notable absence of sufficient sociohistorical and cultural contexts of race in the United States as presented in the concerned English textbooks. Based on the analysis, this paper calls for an expansion of the dimensions of critical global citizenship in English language learning settings, aiming to provide students with broader opportunities to question colonial discourse and challenge issues related to power and systemic oppression.

Education on sustainability is a crucial goal that requires a transformative shift in teacher education to drive meaningful changes oriented to action. A cross-sectional study with an exploratory design investigated preservice science teachers' perceptions regarding teaching sustainable citizenship, specifically focusing on the climate crisis and earthquakes-tsunamis. The study was conducted in two Chilean universities with similar teacher preparation programs. The team designed a podcast series, which was used and evaluated by the 13 participants through action research. Three group discussions explored their perceptions of the resources, as well as the aims and challenges of teaching sustainable citizenship and the podcasts. We used Grounded Theory steps, including triangulation by the researchers to ensure reliability, to qualitatively analyse the data. The results reveal a constraint on teaching in areas where the participants lacked the necessary preparation and background knowledge as students and preservice teachers. The main challenges were related to interdisciplinarity, the social dimension of socio-scientific issues and context-responsive teaching methods. The perceived aims were the development of students' critical thinking, informed positioning, and encouraging active citizen participation. Preservice teachers found the podcast series to be a valuable new epistemic and pedagogical resource that can support their efforts to teach sustainable citizenship and implement pedagogical strategies. The autonomous usage of the device triggered reflection processes, particularly regarding the human rights perspective, which unveiled the socio-political dimensions inherent in science education. It promoted personal re-positioning as active citizens and educators and empowered them to seek out and pursue the changes needed to reshape future classrooms. We discuss these findings in the context of teacher preparation and the use of educational technology in teacher education.

This research aimed to assess the impact of blended learning on the English reading comprehension abilities of second-year Thai vocational students. It also examined how these students perceived their satisfaction regarding their blended learning experience using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework. Thirty students enrolled in a Thai vocational college in the southern part of Thailand during the second semester of the Academic Year 2022-2023 participated in the study. These students attended a six-week blended learning (BL) program in which they took a one-group pretest and posttest experimental design. The BL program comprised nine lesson plans, English reading comprehension tests, and online satisfaction items. Data analysis involved paired sample t-tests, mean, and standard deviations. The findings revealed that the posttest scores for English reading comprehension were significantly higher than the pretest scores at a significance level of 0.05. Furthermore, students reported a high mean score of 4.73 (very satisfied) with their blended learning experience after their improved English reading comprehension tests. Implications were discussed, and recommendations were also offered.

This literature review examines the significance of Critical Media Literacy (CML) in higher education. The rapid digitalization and globalization have intensified media dissemination, raising critical issues about information authenticity and its societal impacts. CML empowers individuals to critically analyze media, discern between reliable and unreliable sources, recognize biases, and understand the broader socio-political implications of media messages. The study leverages Stuart Hall's Encoding and Decoding Theory to dissect how media messages are constructed, disseminated, and interpreted, emphasizing the need for critical engagement in the post-truth era. The review highlights the detrimental effects of fake news and disinformation on democracy and trust in institutions, stressing the importance of integrating CML into higher education curricula to foster informed and engaged citizens. The paper also discusses the methodological limitations in current research and the necessity for comprehensive teacher training and systemic changes in educational institutions. Ultimately, this study underscores the transformative potential of CML in developing critical thinking, promoting democratic engagement, combating media manipulation and misinformation, and advocating for its inclusion in education policies and practices to prepare students for the complexities of the digital media landscape. [Note: The page range (14-34) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range is 14-35.]

EFL reading in non-English environments often expose students to texts from different cultures. However, reading comprehension alone is inadequate to prepare the students to be critical readers, due to different sociocultural and sociopolitical factors that affect interpretations of EFL students who should be prepared with critical perspectives to read more meaningfully and to be able to demonstrate a desire to challenge and transform perceived socio-political inequities and oppressive structures. This study aimed to investigate the extent of enhanced reading ability and to develop critical consciousness by using critical dialogue-oriented reading instruction. The participants were 30 students majoring in English at a university located in Northeastern part of Thailand. The data were collected by using a self-evaluation questionnaire, reading comprehension pretest and posttest, field notes, students' reflective journals, and interview transcripts. The findings show an increase of the participants' reading comprehension abilities, moving beyond the lexical comprehension level, and being able to perform critical literacy through reading to writing practice. Also, their developed critical consciousness was manifested through their awareness of social relations and power, their reflections on ongoing circumstances and living systems, and their action against injustice. The findings suggest aspects of critical literacies that challenge normative practices of reading instructions implemented in hegemonic spheres.

The purpose of this qualitative participatory research study was to explore what happens when English language arts (ELA) preservice teachers collaborate to develop multimodal, intersectional, and critical feminist empowerment literacy curricula. This study centered on the following research question: How do ELA preservice teachers make sense of how pop-cultural, multimodal texts such as VSCO stickers frame girlhood and womanhood? Multiple data were collected: audio and video recording transcripts of monthly Saturday workshops, artifacts, such as curriculum writing and workshop photographs, researcher journals, analytic memos, and a shared Google Drive of written student thinking. The constant comparative method was used to analyze and triangulate the data. Analyses of data revealed that preservice teachers were able to critically analyze consumerism relating to VSCO stickers and girlhood and were able to notice how stickers typecast and reify individualism while also navigating authenticity during self-selection and categorizing stickers. Additionally, data analysis demonstrated how critical literacies played a role in the preservice teachers' understanding of how several groups, communities, and individual voices were not recognized in the marketing and consumption of VSCO sticker packaging as well as providing additional gender biases in society.

Various current trends in education highlight the importance of pedagogies that address societal and environmental questions while preparing and inspiring students to take action. Meanwhile, how we view the future influences how we act, and how we act influences the future. Research on young people's images of the future has shown how technology plays a central role in how we imagine the future and the changes that shape it. This suggests a need to address the role of perceptions of future sociotechnical change and agency in students' thinking, as it may instruct the development of action-oriented critical scientific literacy. Thus, in this study, we examine how images of the future reflect students' perceptions of sociotechnical change. Employing abductive qualitative content analysis on 58 upper secondary school students' essays describing "a typical day" in the future, we focused on how students' depictions of future sociotechnical change vary along three dimensions: from static futures to radical transformation, from nonproblematic change to issues deeply relevant to societal deliberation, and various framings of who, if anyone, has agency. We found that students' images of the future contained wide variation in the discussed range of sociotechnical change, while technology was discussed typically in nonproblematic and sometimes in more critical, problematised ways. Indications of agency were mostly vague, but students occasionally attributed agency over sociotechnical change to the general public, specialised experts and themselves. We conclude by discussing the potential implications of the results in regard to recent definitions of scientific literacy as well as future-oriented pedagogies in science education.

Latinx youth are often engaged in critical action to transform social injustices, yet we know little about the wellbeing of Latinx youth activists. This study draws on critical ethnographic research to understand the multidimensions of wellbeing that Latinx youth experienced when they engaged in critical action toward anti-immigrant politics during the Trump Era. Data collected through open-ended interviews with Latinx youth who participated in social protests revealed that (a) concepts of wellbeing need to be extensively explored for a more nuanced understanding of its characteristics, and (b) when youth engage in critical action, they experience physical and socioemotional wellbeing in distinct ways. This research contributes to the critical consciousness and wellbeing scholarship by (1) adding to the dearth of research on Latinx youth physical wellbeing and critical action, (2) theorizing nuances of physical, mental, and socioemotional wellbeing as simultaneously present during critical action, and (3) centering the voices and experiences of Latinx youth, specifically Latina youth, who have historically been omitted from the literature.

Two studies investigated students' critique generation, an elaborated form of content evaluation wherein students identify information selectively, inaccurately, or incompletely presented in text(s) and consider where such selective presentation may stem from. Critique generation, as an important critical reading outcome, was examined here, within the context of students' reasoning about two op-eds, presenting conflicting points of view on a controversial social issue -- whether or not Amazon should replace local libraries. Study 1 catalogued the types of critiques that students generated. Study 2 linked critique generation with both students' conceptions of what the task of critique entails and with students' reports of strategy use, although not with a host of, expected to be relevant, individual difference factors (e.g., need for cognition, media literacy). Both studies found critique generation to be significantly associated with performance on an argumentative writing task. Contributions of these two studies include documenting critique types that may distinctively emerge when students are asked to reason about a controversial social, rather than scientific, issue and identifying learner-reported strategies that constitute promising paths for fostering critique generation in future work.

This paper reports on the design of a multimodal metalanguage developed by teacher education researchers to support pre-service teachers' understandings of critical literacy and critical health literacies in a changing communication landscape. The design of metalanguage constitutes the first stage of an ongoing transdisciplinary project, Multiliteracies Across Teaching Areas (MATA), which aims to design and implement cohesive disciplinary multiliteracies pedagogies across teaching areas of an initial teacher education (ITE) programme. The focus on metalanguage design is motivated by concerns shared by critical literacy scholars and scholars in health literacy to balance deconstruction of texts with actionable response through the 'deep moral grammar of narrative' Kindenberg and Freebody ("Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 44"(2), 90-99, 2021). Such concerns also align with recent World Health Organisation calls for the use of solution-oriented literacies to empower communities. These sociocultural understandings of critical literacy and Kindenberg and Freebody's ("Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 44"(2), 90-99, 2021) call to balance 'the analytical' and the narrative' in critical literacy practice provide the starting point for designing metalanguage for transdisciplinary research in Health and Physical Education (HPE) and English. We firstly review relevant models of the critical informing both subject areas to establish synergous understandings and then analyse expectations of critical practice in descriptions and elaborations of the HPE and English curricula. We provide an overview of the semiotic resources available for transdisciplinary conversations within the English curriculum with clarifying 'bridging' terminology informed by social semiotic descriptions. Through close analysis of four representative texts selected for critical literacy practice by English and HPE teacher educators in the MATA project, we demonstrate how such metalanguage was shared to build understandings of both critical analysis and actionable response. Along with analytical features to build and analyse issues according to disciplinary criteria, we show how stories are used to build rapport with their diverse audiences and to motivate their peers to take positive health action.

Book banning and censorship in the U.S. prompts necessary conversations on how critical literacy, dialogue, and inquiry are used in various school and library settings. We share guiding questions alongside three examples of textual analyses centering on gender fluidity with three young adult novels. We believe that English language arts teachers will benefit from seeing examples of how we responded to these texts with critical analysis questions that require students to analyze gender representation and identity within the stories. By developing an empathic analysis, students can engage in this critical work within classrooms and libraries, where reading diverse texts is encouraged.

We present an audience reception study of participant reactions to gender-based violence in Issa López' 2008 film, "Casi Divas," chosen for its nuanced depiction of women grappling with several violences. Over three focus groups with 15 adult participants, we used Galtung's conflict theory to explore what participants identified as violence, and how victims should respond to violence in various forms. We find that participants have a narrow definition of violence, seeing it as an individualized act and therefore neglecting to consider its cultural or structural foundations. The participants' responses to violence largely reflected neoliberal values of personal empowerment and choice, resilience, and "leaning in." We recommend critical visual literacy as a tool in the educational context to identify and address violence, to fight inequity, and to establish emancipatory discourses.

This paper illustrates the use of curriculum mapping as a process that can support productive boundary encounters between lecturers in an initial teacher education (ITE) programme as part of curriculum review. Using mathematics as the context, lecturers in a 1-year primary graduate ITE programme developed a curriculum map to identify the mathematical thinking opportunities available to their pre-service teachers in their courses and across the programme. The coordinated approach to curriculum analysis/mapping expanded lecturers' definition of mathematical skills and reasoning and their awareness of opportunities their students had to engage with mathematical ideas. The mapping process included collaborative discussions, document analysis and iterative development of a curriculum map. In an overcrowded curriculum, which responds to government policies and university initiatives such as embedding critical literacy, mathematical foundations and cross-disciplinary study, the mapping process has potential to meet multiple demands and agendas. In our study, the mapping process and the map offered purposeful and productive grounds for learning and development. They were central to facilitating dialogic boundary encounters between programme lecturers resulting in the re-conceptualisation of course and programme curriculum boundaries. We expect study findings will be of interest to programme leaders, lecturers and researchers facing the challenge of identifying and supporting the development of competencies and multi-literacies that span courses and programmes.

Scholars have long recognized that reading in digital spaces requires unique skills, strategies, and competencies in comparison to those needed for reading printed text. In recent years, the ubiquity of social media and algorithmically targeted content has radically changed the nature of online reading and meaning making. Technological changes have occurred simultaneously with radically altered sociocultural and sociopolitical contexts. To account for an altered technological and sociocultural landscape, new approaches to teaching digital reading and critical media literacy are needed. Addressing these concerns, this case study detailed a digital reading curriculum designed to be responsive to both the contemporary digital media environment and to students' out-of-school digital literacy practices and contexts. The curriculum was collaboratively designed by five middle-school language arts teachers who participated in a semester-long professional learning group focused on digital reading. Drawing upon sociocultural, asset-based, and culturally relevant philosophies of education, these five teachers designed a unique digital reading curriculum. This study examined the nature of this curriculum. The findings detailed four aspects of the teachers' unit: (1) digital reading instruction situated within students' literate lives; (2) critical instruction regarding systemic features of the internet such as algorithms and clickbait; (3) lessons in which students interrogate socially situated meaning making; and (4) lessons focused on the role of emotions while reading online. The findings have implications for future digital reading and media literacy curricula intended to be responsive to students' funds of knowledge, ever-changing literacy technologies, and new, emergent ways of reading and practicing literacy on the internet.

This article considers how to approach the task of developing a curriculum for social justice at a time of planetary and systemic crisis, on the basis that both 'human capital development' and passing on 'the best that has been thought and said' from the past are inadequate responses. If our aim is to create the conditions for human survival and greater social justice, we need to radically commit to values of care, solidarity, equality and democracy, and the development of a broad set of critical literacies. Rather than simply hoping and waiting for better policies and systems, can we usefully find purpose and joy and start to prefigure a more socially just world in the here and now?

The "critical" element present in many critical information literacy (CIL) studies shows a commitment to the practical challenge of the power structures that shape current information regimes. In this article, we argue that it is necessary to analyse how such power structures, organised under a capitalist social order with neoliberal contours, benefit from disinformation, scientific denialism and class, race and gender oppression. In addition to discussing how philosophical notions of language and postmodern relativism appear in the present time, our main theoretical objective is to highlight some thoughts of Hegel, Marx and Bloch on the notions of dialectics, praxis and concrete utopia, aiming to contribute to strengthen the critical element that names and distinguishes CIL as a field of inquiry in library and information studies.

This project report describes a community-engaged, extra-institutional, out-of-school Wikipedia editing project focused on the digital literacies of Black girls. The project was located in a systemically under-resourced neighbourhood of Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Given the under representation of Black women editing Wikipedia, and continued concerns about gaps in Wikipedia's content, this project made a critical intervention towards information justice. We report on the project's process in brainstorming, community engagement, set up, digital and analogue interactions, and reflection. Our approach was heavily informed by Black feminist pedagogy and critical information literacy.

The aim of this study is to contribute to a pragmatic understanding of critical information literacy (CIL) by positioning it as a context-specific interpersonal practice. Using phenomenography to explore how information work is experienced by social workers in social and health care settings, this paper provides an example of critical information practice that can be used to operationalise and activate CIL as a theory and inform approaches to critical pedagogy. CIL as a concept is generally theorised, practiced, and taught in academic contexts, and relatively few examples of how theory can be defined and put into practice outside a classroom setting are available. This study builds on our understanding of CIL by exploring professional information practice and suggests a model for teaching to engage learners in connecting information to action in social systems.

In this article, the authors explore whether academic libraries are truly capable of implementing a critical information literacy (CIL) praxis and if there are inherent threats to critical librarianship when incorporating CIL into the curriculum. The survey instrument in this study gathered data from 92 academic library instructors based within the United States. The study identified that 41% of question respondents had received negative comments or criticisms about including CIL in their library curriculum through various formats: online modules, one-shot instruction, course-embedded units, and credit-bearing courses. In addition, 29% of question respondents felt that pushback from academic teaching staff, other librarians/administration, and students threatened the integrity of CIL. This research helps to illustrate the fragility of CIL and how librarians have faced pushback when critical content is incorporated into the information literacy (IL) curriculum.

In this paper, the author explores the prospect of, and the rationale for, the "critical workplace information literacy" (CWIL) construct, by situating it at the junction of critical information literacy (CIL) and workplace information literacy (WIL), the two hitherto discrete frameworks and subdomains of information literacy (IL). This preliminary attempt at the conceptualisation of a new construct was guided by the question of what role CIL can play in empowering workers to attain decent work. The author frames the conceptualisation around the 'decent work' (DW) concept, as a normative goal of the critical workplace information literacy construct, and discusses the rationale for it in the framework of the discussion on the decent work deficits in the contemporary work and information environment. Freire's critical hermeneutics and dialectics of voice and empowerment are drawn upon. The paper argues positively for the role of CIL in attaining decent work and for the need for a new construct that would help fill the knowledge and discursive gap in IL and its subdomains and overcome the current silos in the IL community. The author concludes that developing a concept requires a broad deliberative process informed by both theoretical and empirical research, and gives suggestions for future research.

A shift in primacy from online participatory cultures to algorithmic cultures invites new questions about literacies in digital contexts. This article contributes to the conceptualisation of literacies in algorithmic cultures through sociomaterial and affect theories. It develops a sociomaterial perspective that proposes felt, observable moments of user-algorithmic co-productions of culture as a needed unit of analysis for researching contemporary, critical digital literacies. It then employs this unit as a starting point for analysing the interplay of feeling, critical reflection and algorithm agency across one young adult's self-described literacy practice of 'working algorithms' across social media platforms. Analysis illustrates how critical literacies in algorithmic cultures are driven by processes of human-machine feeling-thinking that cannot be reduced to rational critiques of ideologies, platform capitalism or other forms of power alone. It describes how Malaya became more attuned over time to the affects of working with platform algorithms to craft her community, her sense of self and her sense of well-being. This sensitivity to feeling moved and feeling the capacity to move machines through the use of her literacies highlights how the facilitation of affect is a crucial point of analysis in understanding contemporary digital literacies.

Collaborative worldbuilding is an ideal digital writing project for promoting critical thinking about contemporary issues, developing and applying disciplinary expertise writing transfer, and building digital literacies. In the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic where the student experience was characterised by isolation, collaborative worldbuilding also offered a powerful means of building solidarity and community. This paper presents a case study of using collaborative worldbuilding for gaming to achieve key digital writing learning outcomes. The case study shows how this innovative pedagogical approach can be mapped to two key frameworks for information and digital literacies: the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens and the Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education of the Association of College and Research Libraries. The case study also illustrates how a MediaWiki installation can be used for worldbuilding and as a means of critically introducing students to Wikipedia itself. Qualitative feedback from the students shows that the class achieved its key learning outcomes. More importantly, student engagement during the class and their feedback ascertains that collaborative worldbuilding is a powerful means of building connections and empathy between students in the context of isolation, amid a global pandemic.

With the rise of the digital age and social media in the 21st century, our language learners as readers are constantly exposed to a surge of textual information daily. Inevitably, there has been a pressing need for language teachers, particularly in the EFL context, to consider higher-level comprehension and reading skills that help prepare their students for such an influx of information. This classroom-based study aimed to investigate students' perception of: (1) critical reading abilities; and (2) critical literacy practice implemented in a reading lesson. The participants were 32 first-year students who studied an English foundation course at a public university in Thailand. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire and focus group interviews. Using descriptive statistics and descriptive narrative, findings revealed positive overall performance and active engagement in the lesson, while language difficulty and concerns over the abilities to read between the lines were reported. The focus group interviews reported significant engagement in the lesson. Critical reading skills and classroom discussion were found to be valuable. Critical literacy practice appeared to contribute to the participants' positive take on learning about multiple perspectives in classroom discussion.

This study focused upon a sequence of three inquiry assignments with pre-service teachers (PSTs) in English language arts in an advanced composition and theory methods course. Place conscious and critical literacy scholars argue for a deeper understanding of rural lifeways and note the deficit or lesser than assumptions associated with rural communities and the need to develop a critical rural literacy to address the specific needs of rural educators as well as address the long-standing stereotypes. This study's purpose was to determine if these inquiry tools can be used to teach PSTs a critical literacy that can be applied in rural contexts. This qualitative study used a critical action research methodology within a bounded system, or a case study of an individual course in one semester. Data collected from the methods course included assignment artifacts, reflections, and interview transcripts. The participants included five white female PSTs in ELA. Data analysis determined four predominant themes emerging from the assignment artifacts: self-knowledge, multiple expert sources, local sources, and critical problem-based inquiries. These themes represent PST's understanding of effective inquiry tools that can lead to a critical rural literacy.

Democratic discussion in the classroom has been viewed as a way to increase consensus, however the spread of false and misleading information through social media and influencers can make classroom discussions problematic. This electronic text analysis study highlights the social media site of Quora and posts related to the Gulf War. Posts related to the Gulf War is critically analyzed and their potential impacts are examined. This study also analyzes the posts and potential impacts of a conservative influencer named James Lindsay. It also analyzes specific polarizing posts that Lindsay has made on Instagram and highlight the potential impacts on classroom discussions of some of these posts. A purpose of the study is to analyze negative potential impacts of social media on student's views and on classroom discussions. The study also highlights two potential solutions to overcoming these negative potential impacts. One solution is to use Stanford History Education Group's Civic Online Reasoning, and another solution is to explicitly teach Democratic humility. With democratic humility, individuals learn not to make hyperbolic claims about their beliefs. Students could also be taught when learning about democratic humility, the importance of suspending judgement until they have gathered sufficient information on the topic.

Social media has provided challenges and opportunities for education for democracy. There have always been structural elements of communication that are hidden and perpetuate inequalities. Social media has accelerated and empowered these hidden structures through algorithms. In this argumentative essay, we examine how critical media literacy can uncover hidden power structures and support education for democracy. Critical media literacy can help students identify exclusionary, inaccurate, missing, and polarizing elements of social media while examining and discussing issues and events. Seen through this lens, social media provides opportunities for education for democracy. Critical media literacy and education for democracy provide opportunities for increasing civic engagement and renewal.

When it comes to fake news, no medium circulates and reaches more youth than social media. Social media can provide an opportunity for students to create and post with an authentic audience; however, social media can also perpetuate the danger of fake news. Youth across the globe emotionally engage with content several hours a day and can become vulnerable to the clickbait style of news. Therefore, although research has studied how critical literacy instruction supports informed reading, literacy instruction must also address students' emotional regulation needs. This research-to-practice article describes the dangers of fake news on youth interactions and provides practical emotional regulation tips for teachers. Emotional regulation strategies in this paper specifically concentrate on implementing affect labeling and mindful breathing in classrooms in order to support informed literacy.

The global expansion in the Internet access and the rise of digital media are compatible with students' characteristics as generations-Z who mainly engage in nature through mobile applications. Because of the characteristics of today's students and the growth of digital media and information, there is a need for critical media literacy (CML) instructions and the use of digital-based and student-centered learning approaches such as online discussion forums (ODFs). Through an exploratory study, we aim to understand better students' perceptions of ODF for their CML learning within EFL classes, factors affecting students' active participation in ODF, and teachers' roles in ODF while facilitating students' CML learning in an EFL context and enhancing students' engagement and performance in ODF. 250 EFL students from Indonesian secondary schools took part in this study. The participating students were studying English with CML embedded into the lessons. The research showed significant conclusions about factors that need to consider while having ODF in CML learning within the EFL context and the roles of teachers in ODF. We have also provided some practical and feasible suggestions from which practitioners in the area might benefit.

The purpose of this paper was to provide a theoretical outline of why critical media literacy (CML) should be included in Korean English education teaching practices and teacher training curricula. CML is a pedagogy designed to sensitize students to ideological meanings embedded in media that socialize people into specific values, beliefs, and behaviors. This paper begins with a review of theoretical foundations of CML including the symbolic nature of human consciousness signification and the processes of socialization, which are theoretically encapsulated within the dialectic among post-structural theories of discourse and representation. A review of literature on CML and its application to English as a foreign language (EFL) is then presented. Applications of CML include situated inquiry, discussion, creation of group multimodal projects suggests, how it fosters the development of critical thinking skills, the acquisition and use of new vocabulary idioms, and transforming student perceptions of themselves and their society.

Background/purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore three null hypotheses regarding the association between Greek preschool teachers' professional features with their knowledge and views of the official standards of early writing teaching which emphasize on real communicative purposes. Materials/methods: 494 teachers participated in an internet-based survey and their answers of a 21-item digital questionnaire were analyzed through descriptive (calculation of frequencies) and inferential statistics (chi-squared tests). Results: Two of the three null hypotheses cannot be supported and two statistically significant associations were emerged: (a) teachers' high academic qualification is associated with a comprehensive knowledge and use of the official standards and (b) teachers with low qualifications and with a teaching experience of more than 10 years seem to reproduce a "phonics" approach. Conclusion: It is argued that the introduction of curricula per se cannot alter teachers' implementation of the phonics method which is contrary to the official curriculum standards and it is suggested that redesigning writing practices to make them more compatible with these standards should be a long-term and reciprocal project among teachers and policy makers.

This article explores the benefits and problems of teaching with challenged books in the English language arts classroom. Challenged books initiate important discussions and provide opportunities for students to explore diverse perspectives. Methods for helping teachers and schools prepare for potential challenges are also discussed. The authors present three young adult novels and offer strategies for teaching these novels through a critical lens.

This study delves into the realm of critical multimodal literacy through the lens of fairy tale reconstruction. Employing an innovative pedagogical approach, the research examines how students engage with and transform traditional narratives using a critical perspective and digital tools. This action research showcases how students collaboratively reconstructed fairy tales by reshaping characters, plotlines, and themes, with a particular emphasis on gender roles and empowerment. The integration of digital platforms facilitated the transformation, allowing for creative exploration of characters, settings, and emotions. Findings reveal that students exhibited nuanced critical insights as they questioned and reshaped traditional gender representations, power dynamics, and narrative structures. This research contributes to educational practices by highlighting the potential of critical multimodal literacy activities in fostering transformative learning experiences. By integrating critical analysis with digital storytelling, this study opens avenues for advancing pedagogical strategies that promote critical engagement, multimodal expression, and societal reflection.

Although children's literature has been challenged and banned for decades, some U.S. states have recently enacted legislation limiting how teachers can address such topics as race, sex, and gender in classrooms, which may influence teachers' selection of literature. To understand this phenomenon, this exploratory concurrent mixed-methods study involved a written children's literature course artifact and survey responses analyzed through critical literacy and self-censorship frameworks. Findings indicate that preservice teachers reported avoiding conversations about gender and gender identity more often than those about sexual orientation or race. Further, despite legislative changes, participants mostly reported self-censoring due to lack of pedagogical knowledge, lack of policy knowledge, and fear of institutional sanctions, which are long-standing reasons for self-censorship rather than new ones. Comparatively, they self-reported little desire to promote the dominant political ideology. This research indicates that topic-restrictive legislation can influence classroom practice even when teachers do not share the ideology behind such legislation.

Training pre-service teachers has become more important with the significant changes in the utilization of educational technologies in the 21st century. That said, educators are now expected to be digitally literate, capable of accepting and using new technologies by employing skills in the use of web tools. Accordingly, this quantitatively driven research investigates pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' levels of web-pedagogical content knowledge (WPACK) together with critical digital literacy (CDL) in order to address technology acceptance in teaching and learning practices. In doing so, 94 pre-service EFL teachers are recruited from the department of English Language Teaching at a state university in Türkiye during 2020-21 academic year. The results have showed that pre-service EFL teachers' levels of CDL are moderately high where their levels of WPACK are even higher, albeit with no significance regarding gender, age and personal computer ownership. To note, pedagogical implications and further recommendations are listed to better understand their technology adoption.

This article aims to suggest a model of critical literacy in English as a Foreign Language (hereafter EFL) contexts. The paper will introduce previous critical literacy models in first or second language teaching and learning and those in EFL contexts. Then, several empirical studies based on the models are introduced suggesting important issues to consider in implementing critical literacy in EFL contexts. A model of critical literacy in EFL contexts is, consequently, suggested with the three key elements for successful critical literacy implementation in EFL contexts, language for criticality development, affects and criticality development and citizenship and criticality development. The model pursues balancing conventional literacy education, critical literacy education and citizenship education. The researchers suggest balancing conventional skill-based literacy, affective pedagogy, and citizenship education with the development of critical literacies. Teacher-initiated practice and guidance, incorporation of community-sensitive topics and materials, and students' active participation are key elements practitioners should consider in their adaptation of critical literacy instruction in EFL contexts.

This study investigates the social construction and continual (re)production of the cultural "Other" through educational materials, focusing on Korean middle school English textbooks. Twelve middle school English textbooks from four publishers were collected and analyzed, with a focus on how they (mis)represent cultures and practices of minority groups. Utilizing critical content analysis to examine both visual and written texts in the textbooks, this research uncovers recurring patterns of exoticizing and commodifying Hawai'ian culture, homogenizing African culture, and romanticizing Indigenous peoples. The findings contribute significantly to our understanding of how cultural representations in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks shape perceptions and influence societal dynamics. They also illuminate how these representations reflect and perpetuate Eurocentric colonialist discourse. Moreover, the results underscore the importance of equipping educators, especially English teachers, with critical literacy. This empowers them to identify hidden power relations that reinforce stereotypes, and actively engage in the construction of a more inclusive and equitable society.

The present study explores the educational potential of multiliteracies-based pedagogy to enhancing pre-service teachers' creativity-convergence competency in an EFL literature classroom. To examine the pedagogical effect, both quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed, including the pre- and post- creativity-convergence competency tests, participants' course evaluation questionnaire, and students' reflective journals. The results from the quantitative analysis indicated that multiliteracies pedagogy employed in the EFL literature classroom enhanced participants' creativity-convergence competency significantly (p<0.05) in its all components, including creativity, problem-solving ability, convergent thinking ability, and self-efficacy. The findings in the analysis of participants' views on the positive potentials of the multiliteracies pedagogical approach in fostering learners' creativity-convergence competency were identified as follows: (1) use of multimodal resources in the communication process promoted their creativity-convergence competency, (2) transformative practices served as the facilitator to foster creativity-convergence competency, and (3) critical literacy practices helped them develop problem-solving ability and self-efficacy. The paper ends with some pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research.

Many language learners struggle with unequal access and lack of opportunities for active participation in meaningful reflections both inside and outside of the classroom. In this study, 15 international college students engaged in critical media literacy discussions about a myriad of social justice topics through the lens of intercultural understanding and acceptance. Participants were English language learners who analysed content and recorded video reflections on an online video discussion platform, Flipgrid, as they answered five critical media literacy questions. These critical questions fostered discussions of intercultural interpretation and students expressed their perceptions of social justice issues. This project drew on the theory of intercultural communicative competence (Byram, 1997) integrating social justice into the language curriculum in two ways: by exposing students to important issues, and by helping them claim their voice in the discussion. The results of students' video reflections and face-to-face discussions show the trajectory and growth of their progress in intercultural awareness. The findings offer guidelines for language educators to incorporate issues of social justice by using engaging platforms and media literacy practices.

This paper details a critical ethnography I conducted in my own classroom--an undergraduate children's literature course for pre-service elementary educators--in which I analyze white students' emotional responses to multicultural children's literature through the lens of a cultural politics of emotion (Ahmed, 2015; Zembylas, 2008). In my paper I use critical whiteness studies and critical emotion studies to analyze the effects of these emotional responses, complicating the assumption that emotions are a bridge to empath and exploring how white emotional performativity often serves to deflect from authentic critical discourse, reinforcing white supremacy in educational spaces. I look reflexively at my own pedagogy as a white educator, noticing the ways in which my failure to critically interrogate white emotions contributed to a classroom culture that valued majority voices over the voices of students of color. I conclude with the impacts of this study on my own commitments as a teacher-researcher.

In the Indian academia, at the undergraduate and graduate levels, the focus on teaching "writing" is relatively new; traditional focus has been on teaching the English language or Communication Skills. The novelty of academic writing has called for rigorous efforts in its operation in the Indian context. In addition, the virtual learning environment required by the pandemic posed the serious challenge of adopting the academic writing pedagogy to the new format of the virtual classroom. This article showcases successful strategies adopted for graduate and undergraduate foundation writing courses at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, which ensured maximum engagement and minimum distraction, and knowledge transference. The graduate and undergraduate courses differed in their goals of writing, including expected learning outcomes and practicality, as well as in terms of the disciplinary backgrounds of the students. The graduate course was concerned with the applicability and transferability of the knowledge and skills acquired in the course to varied discipline-specific and professional writings of the advanced students; the undergraduate course was conducted on the basis of general writing with intensive discussion components. In this article, we first focus on the pedagogical practices adopted in the graduate course to ensure knowledge and skill transfer to discipline-specific scholarly writing and professional writing as a whole. Thereafter, we discuss the undergraduate writing curriculum aimed at laying the foundation for practical academic communication and development of critical thinking.

Disrupting the canon of Eurocentric literature often used as a whole-class novel study in the secondary English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum is needed in order to push back against white hegemony in and out of ELA spaces. This disruption needs to occur at the teacher preparation level through discussion, examination, and curriculum development, including contested and nostalgia-laden texts such as Harper Lee's (1960) "To Kill a Mockingbird" (TKAM). In this paper, we draw on Sealey-Ruiz's (2019) concept of the archaeology of the self, Vygotskian perspectives on literacy instruction (Lee & Smagorinsky, 2000), and the gradual release of responsibility in teaching and learning to interrogate the metaphor of the "grasp" that the canon has on the ELA community. We examine the epistemological shifts and evolutions between a preservice ELA teacher and an ELA teacher educator in a two-year study that focused on developing Culturally Sustaining Literacy Pedagogy (Paris, 2012; Paris & Alim, 2017) aiming to disrupt the teaching of TKAM. We found that releasing ourselves from the canonical grasp of TKAM, placing it not as a centered novel, but as a literary artifact, was imperative in disrupting our own whiteness and developing culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining critical literacy instruction surrounding themes of present-day racism and (in)justice.

The Inquiry and Research strand of the 2017 ELAR TEKS for sixth through twelfth grade includes vertically aligned standards for teaching students critical media skills by questioning the reliability and credibility of sources, evaluating bias, and recognizing logical fallacies. This article describes how increased media saturation has led to citizenry being misled. Loaded language and fallacies are explained. Teachers are encouraged to support students' critical media literacy by teaching these skills and letting students practice recognizing the patterns of logical fallacies. Two strategies for teaching logical fallacies are provided, including a classroom Fallacy Board and a Slippery Slopes game, modified to specifically align with the TEKS and engage students in practice with patterns of faulty reasoning.

The COVID-19 pandemic has flooded the public sphere with large amounts of information, engendering what some specialists have dubbed the infodemic. Among the mechanisms used to mitigate the effects of the infodemic, critical media literacy has proven a valuable approach. This study aimed to analyze the critical media skills (CMS) of young people and adults in relation to the variables of infodemic awareness (IPA), infodemic and wellbeing (ISW), emotional reaction (ERI), and media trust (MTC). A cross-sectional online study with 404 participants (Mage=32.8) was conducted in two virtual communities in Mexico during the first semester of 2021. Descriptive analysis revealed highly critical media skills in participants. Adults showed high levels of IPA, while young people presented high levels of ISW, ERI, and MTC. Observations by the age group indicated an association between CMS and ISW, and CMS and MCT, while the association between CMS and IPA was null. The COVID-19 outbreak has intensified the consumption of digital media and access to untrustworthy information. Critical media literacy may protect individuals from the risks of infodemic by enhancing critical roles and attitudes toward media discourse. This study supports the recommendation to promote media literacy initiatives that inoculate critical media skills as mechanisms to counteract the misinformation in health crises.

Digital pedagogy demands a critical approach to address challenges from technological inequalities, global crises like COVID-19, and the ethical and social implications of digital society. Higher Education (HE) must develop practices prioritizing critical literacy and consciousness. Critical Digital Pedagogy (CDP) emerges as a crucial framework for navigating these challenges and opportunities This literature review analyzes 40 studies to explore how CDP reshapes HE practices, emancipating students and teachers as critical, reflexive agents concerning the digital environment's ethical, social, cultural, and political dimensions. It addresses three key research questions: (1) How does CDP, applied to teaching praxis, promote projects and methodologies that emancipate students as critical and reflective agents? (2) What educational principles within CDP enable the development of critical digital literacy among HE students? (3) How does CDP influence the construction of critical awareness within the HE community? The review highlights the importance of critical digital literacy in enhancing analytical skills, fostering critical data comprehension, and promoting digital inclusion. It advocates for transformative changes in educational practices and the adoption of innovative, technology-based methodologies that foster critical consciousness. Finally, the article proposes six CDP-based actions for HE, addressing themes like emotional support, digital ethics, and digital activism.

In order to distinguish between language-related ideologies, Ruiz (1984) proposed three language orientations, namely 'language-as-problem', 'language-as-right' and 'language-as-resource'. Although this typology has been applied to various countries and regions around the globe, relevant research in China, a multi-ethnolinguistic country, remains limited. Through a review of China's minority language policies and relevant literature, this paper explores the application of Ruiz's theory to the context of China and proposes two possible directions which can complement this theory. Firstly, the study found that there are different layers, complexities, and even contradictions under a broad/unified language orientation, and that minority languages can be simultaneously positioned as a 'right', a 'resource' and a 'problem'. Secondly, by investigating a particular ethnic minority language (the Nuosu Yi language), the study found that the written (literacy) and spoken (oracy) skills of the language can be positioned differently in language-in-education policies and practices. We therefore propose that a critical 'biliteracy continua' lens (Hornberger 2004) can provide further analytical nuance to the language orientations put forward by Ruiz (1984).