Achievement vs. Social Justice

This chapter discusses the use of an instructional model called platooning as a strategy to raise student achievement at a diverse, urban public elementary school. Pressure in schools, particularly on teachers, to demonstrate student growth on quantitative measures led teachers at this school to reorganize their instruction into a platooning model. This approach carried unanticipated consequences resulting in social justice issues for the students. The chapter covers the tensions that led to the adoption of the model and the theoretical constructs of social justice that were violated. Although these teachers would not describe what happened from a social justice framework, the level of concern for students, and the teachers’ determination to make empowered decisions on their behalf, demonstrates the fundamental concepts of the social justice agenda in public education.

Exploring Humanitarian Law

Valuing diverse perspectives is a key feature of critical pedagogy and global citizenship. Exploring tools, methods, and partnerships that foster dialogue, critical thinking, and respect for diversity in relation to teaching and learning is the topic of this research. The purpose of this theoretical piece was to explore the curriculum resource, Exploring Humanitarian Law (EHL) to determine if this approach (a) promotes youth engagement in critically analyzing humanitarian issues and (b) fosters global citizenship. The benefits and challenges of an interprofessional collaboration to implementing EHL were also considered. This exploration was based on Paulo Freire’s reflective inquiry and critical responses to learners’ needs. The data was generated through a focus group session with members of an interprofessional team involved in EHL. Four key themes emerged from the discussion: (a) student engagement, (b) fostering global citizenship, (c) teaching tools, and (d) interprofessional teamwork and sustainability.

Prospective Teachers’ “Turn toward the Critical” in Unofficial Spaces

This chapter discusses prospective teachers initiating and participating in a community-based after-school program for “at-risk” adolescents. Within this unofficial space, the author used this study to explore the potential for beginning teachers’ orientations to critical literacy to promote a commitment to teaching critically. This chapter also explored the ways that prospective teachers negotiate teacher identity. In contrast to an immediate socialization into “teacher as expert,” the work of prospective teachers in community-based sites facilitates a discussion of the appropriate role of teacher as well as the relationship between teacher/student and teaching/learning.

Instructional Dynamic and Flexible Strategy

Globalization, Anthropology, and Existentialism (GAE) is a philosophical paradigm of PreK–12 education that adds value to a new educational ideal: professionalism, planetary thinking, and cultural pluralism. Critical pedagogy constitutes a part of this philosophy, which describes the interdependencies between teaching, learning, and environmental assessment. By comparing the Freirean approach to the affordance of new educational technologies in everyday classrooms, the authors propose an instructional dynamic and a flexible strategy. Such a strategy proves the changing roles of teacher and learner during the learning process. This chapter aims to describe the instructional dynamic and flexible strategy as integral to teaching and learning and to evaluation methods that engage learners in classroom cognitive activity. The objective of the chapter is to investigate the transition from algorithmic to empirical methods, encouraged by the increasing role of self-regulation techniques. This presents insights into the perceived significance of the new learning strategy.

Locating Shakespearean Familial Curriculum in Secondary Contexts

This chapter is based on a formal study1 of one community’s familial curriculum (Huber, Murphy, & Clandinin, 2011) in the context of Shakespeare. The families that participated in this narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) discussed how Shakespeare’s work influenced their family life. The findings from this study are used to discuss what is considered by some to be a dichotomy of curriculum in school and home. The author also uses this study to explore notions of nationalized or common curriculum.

A Critical Queer Literacy Approach to Teaching Children’s Literature about Same-Sex Parenting

Too often, critical literacy and critical pedagogy are complicit in maintaining silence around issues of sexuality. Similarly, queer pedagogues often focus on generalized descriptions of homophobia, heterosexism, or heteronormativity without addressing white, gender, and middle-class normativities. This chapter blends two approaches—critical literacy and queer pedagogy—to focus on what Kevin Kumashiro (2002) refers to as “participation in” normative practices when teaching children’s literature about same-sex parenting. Queer studies terminology like heteronormativity and homonormativity are used to describe children’s literature taught in elementary schools. Particularly children’s literature on same-sex parenting is reviewed from a critical perspective. The cases discussed illustrate how teaching children’s literature about same-sex parents in elementary school classrooms can disrupt heteronormative goals while resisting homonormative ones. In the end, the author issues a call for additional examples of critical queer literacy that can be instantiated in practice and support critical engagement for students, teachers, and communities.

Exploring the Use of Technology, Multimodal Texts, and Digital Tools in K-12 Classrooms

This chapter explores how teachers and students use technology in K–12 classrooms, the extent to which these practices align to previous research, and the ways in which digital tools are being used to support literacy instruction. Qualitative data from an exploratory, descriptive study were collected and analyzed. Observational data from classroom visits and teachers’ reports show that teachers and students use many digital tools including computers, iPads, and videos, and demonstrate practices that characterize 21st century skills such as collaborative learning, technology literacy, and information literacy. Through the use of digital tools, students are provided with different ways to access the curriculum and have the opportunity to interact with a wide range of texts. However, it appears that in-class experiences are fostering only basic technology skills and limited critical literacy practices, and few students are empowered to take leadership and transformative roles in the technology integration process.

Critical Instruction, Student Achievement, and the Nurturing of Global Citizens

The chapter applies critical theory to analyze the impact of globalization on education at the classroom level. Based on the hypothesis that education policy decisions made at the global level result in outcomes at the classroom level, it is clear globalization directly impacts students in the classroom. Therefore, within the context of curriculum and instruction, this chapter critically explores 21st century instructional practices as a response to the following research question: What are effective methods for engaging all learners in today’s classrooms? The chapter incorporates qualitative research results and historical background about globalization, which thus situates current 21st century instructional practices within a framework for critical deconstruction. Finally, the qualitative research utilized in this chapter stems from classroom observations of teachers delivering 21st century instruction, and this research serves the purpose of clearly illustrating the characteristics of 21st century instruction in the classroom.

Critical Pedagogy and Children's Musical Flow

This study investigates the authors’ application of critical pedagogy constructs during Japanese children’s violin learning. Designing and implementing the Instructional Organizer (IO) for critical practice and adapting Custodero’s (1998, 2005) flow studies in children’s musical activities forms the conceptual framework of the study. A Japanese violin teacher, one of the researchers of this study, applied the IO in a Japanese public school’s afterschool program to construct community violin classes. In contrast, the same teacher taught group violin classes in a traditional manner at another public school. Lesson videos and field notes enabled the authors to narratively describe children’s flow experiences. Findings suggest that multiple flow experiences were identified in the community classes. In contrast, the flow was often stifled in the traditional group classes. The IO template was very useful in aiding the teacher in creating rich pedagogical spaces where community group students were able to exhibit hallmarks of “flow.”

“Dear Sophia, I’m Going to Another World”

This chapter shares anecdotes from two early childhood classrooms where issues of diversity helped shape and drive literacy instruction. The stories of change and challenge in these two classroom settings highlight the potential for literacy learning when it is grounded in critical, culturally relevant pedagogy, and when it takes seriously the knowledge and experiences students bring to the classroom community. The chapter has four main purposes: (a) to emphasize the need to reframe/redefine what it means to be literate, (b) to explore the ways that innovative critical literacy practices can be used in early childhood settings as effective methods for engaging young children and supporting their literacy development, (c) to share some of the tensions that emerge when incorporating critical literacy practices in diverse early childhood settings, and (d) to propose ways to better prepare and support teachers to do this work.