Teachers as change agents: social justice theory to practice

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how participation in a multicultural literature course impacted K-12th classroom teachers’ social justice pedagogy and classroom practices one to three years after completion of the course. Design/methodology/approach This study investigated the effectiveness on teacher practices of a graduate literacy course, which was redesigned within a framework of social justice pedagogy by focusing on critical analysis of texts, teacher inquiry and a literacy civic engagement project. The authors interviewed 20 teachers one to three years after they enrolled in this multicultural children and young adults’ literature course. The authors also explored their classrooms and kept a researcher’s reflective journal. Findings The authors describe how participants implemented social justice pedagogy and strategies with their K-12th grade students. Originality/value While many studies look at how teacher education programs integrate social justice education into their programs, few researchers follow their students into the K-12 classrooms to investigate if teachers are connecting higher education course work and theory into practice.

Czym jest wielokulturowa literatura dziecięca i młodzieżowa i jak ją badać? Propozycje metodologiczne z perspektywy literaturoznawczej w kontekście polskim

[What is Multicultural Children’s and Young Adult Literature and How to Study it? Methodological Proposals from a Literary Studies Perspective in the Polish Context] The aim of the article is to present several methodological proposals based on literary studies in reference to Polish multicultural literature for young readers. The author discusses foreign theoretical concepts regarding multicultural works and their components and explains the key terminology. She discusses difficulties that arise when trying to apply these concepts and terms in research on Polish multicultural children’s and young adult literature and presents her own definition of this phenomenon. Finally, the author proposes four methods for researching this type of literary works.

Contemporary Jewish Prose in the USA

The essay presents an overview of Jewish American prose of the second half of the 20th — first two decades of the 21st century within the context of multicultural literature of the USA. The definition of Jewish literature remains a matter of debate. The author of the essay based on the opinions of critics concludes on the criterion for assigning a writer to Jewish literature. It is the artistic embodiment of the personal Jewish experience and identity in the works of literature, the view “from inside,” the perspective of collective memory and the connection to history and culture. Jewish literature today is one of the most developed ethnic segments of multicultural American literature. Writers under study are recognized throughout the world, their works have been translated into many languages, including Russian, they are known to readers and have already become the subject of study by literary scholars. Today, Jewish American literature is represented by two generations of writers. “Senior” generation includes the authors born in the 1920s–30s who began their literary careers in the 60s when there was a generational change in national literature. “Young” generation is represented by the writers who began their literary careers in the 2000s. On the example of the works of the most famous authors of both generations, the author of the essay talks about the factors determining the specific features of Jewish American prose and its characteristic themes, problems, and motives: the search for identity and roots, the representation and rethinking of the Holocaust, ethnic stereotypes, the image of the Jewish family, and the traditions of Jewish humor. The study of the works of modern Jewish writers in the United States allows us to draw conclusions about the display of border consciousness, national and ethnic identity, and collective memory in fiction.