Critical Praxis and Curriculum Guides – serie

Critical Literacy in English Literature argues for the inclusive practice of studying, implementing, and interpreting alternative texts and other materials using innovative pedagogies such as critical pedagogy and critical literacy when teaching high school English literature. Approaching the teaching of English literature from a critical perspective opens the door to expand the traditional canon through the incorporation of alternative and subjugated texts, ideas, and knowledge. This approach will prompt students to draw multiple meanings and interpretations based on their own personal histories and experiences. The book is not another pre-packaged, standardized literacy program for teachers to passively integrate into their curriculum. Instead, the authors provide pedagogical suggestions, activities, and ideas that teachers can take and adapt to their own unique classroom dynamics. The authors also provide sample lesson plans in which a critical literacy lens is applied to novels commonly taught in the high school English classroom while also introducing the reader to non-mainstream and alternative texts.

Since patterns of immigration began taking hold, one of the primary goals of any immigrant to, or citizen of, North America has been to be accepted and to adapt to a new culture and learn to live a productive and healthy life. There are many different means by which people endeavor to accomplish this. One of these is through education, a platform that has been, and should continue to be, a principal path to achieving this goal. The field of education has also become one of the primary forums for provoking and questioning societal norms and is a powerful means towards achieving the vision of a multicultural society capable of living, working, and playing in harmony.Anti-Islamophobic Curriculums presents a specific curriculum to help teachers and young learners gain more awareness of cultures much different from theirs. Anti-Islamophobic Curriculums also endeavours to decrease sociophobic reaction toward cultures that are unfamiliar and to acquaint learners with a curriculum beyond what has traditionally been their predominant English/French/Indigenous experience. While the conclusions this book draws are applicable to any culture, the curriculum presented here emphasizes the Islamic culture and, through the educational process, aims to mitigate the sociophobic reaction its members often encounter.

Since patterns of immigration began taking hold, one of the primary goals of any immigrant to, or citizen of, North America has been to be accepted and to adapt to a new culture and learn to live a productive and healthy life. There are many different means by which people endeavor to accomplish this. One of these is through education, a platform that has been, and should continue to be, a principal path to achieving this goal. The field of education has also become one of the primary forums for provoking and questioning societal norms and is a powerful means towards achieving the vision of a multicultural society capable of living, working, and playing in harmony.Anti-Islamophobic Curriculums presents a specific curriculum to help teachers and young learners gain more awareness of cultures much different from theirs. Anti-Islamophobic Curriculums also endeavours to decrease sociophobic reaction toward cultures that are unfamiliar and to acquaint learners with a curriculum beyond what has traditionally been their predominant English/French/Indigenous experience. While the conclusions this book draws are applicable to any culture, the curriculum presented here emphasizes the Islamic culture and, through the educational process, aims to mitigate the sociophobic reaction its members often encounter.

For the first time in educational publishing, Teaching Truly offers K–16 teachers course-specific guidelines for indigenizing mainstream education. The goal is to facilitate greater educational integrity and relevance in the classroom now, without waiting for more «reforms» to policy, standards or curricula in general. Incorporating reality-based teaching common in traditional Indigenous learning cultures, each chapter first exposes educational hegemony, including that existing within the new «common core standards», and then offers alternative, time-tested perspectives and exercises to counter and/or counter-balance such hegemony. Addressing eight common subject areas, the material can be adapted for different grade levels and can be applied to other mainstream courses.

For the first time in educational publishing, Teaching Truly offers K–16 teachers course-specific guidelines for indigenizing mainstream education. The goal is to facilitate greater educational integrity and relevance in the classroom now, without waiting for more «reforms» to policy, standards or curricula in general. Incorporating reality-based teaching common in traditional Indigenous learning cultures, each chapter first exposes educational hegemony, including that existing within the new «common core standards», and then offers alternative, time-tested perspectives and exercises to counter and/or counter-balance such hegemony. Addressing eight common subject areas, the material can be adapted for different grade levels and can be applied to other mainstream courses.

Encountering Texts represents the theory and praxis uncovered through an ongoing interdisciplinary arts-based critical pedagogy that engages students in critical self-reflection (disciplined, sustained thinking, requiring engagement) on difference. The Multicultural Theatre Project (MTP) is a dialogical encounter with literature through the dramatic arts. This book provides a blueprint for the multiple ways in which this enacted theory/method can be utilized as a high impact practice toward transformative learning. The significance of minority literature as fertile testing ground for raising and seeking to answer questions about difference is undisputed. To address this dynamic, this research utilizes Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutical method of understanding to engage students in the interpretive process using theatre as methodology. Gadamer’s concept, described as a fusion of horizons, provides a methodological approach by which students can bring their own «effective history» to the hermeneutical task. He argues that hidden prejudices keep the interpreter from hearing the text. Thus an awareness of these prejudices leads to an openness that allows the text to speak. The MTP facilitates this kind of subjectivity by engaging the interpreter holistically. This integrative work provides a promising pragmatic interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning that creates bridges to liberatory knowledge, both cognitively and affectively.

Encountering Texts represents the theory and praxis uncovered through an ongoing interdisciplinary arts-based critical pedagogy that engages students in critical self-reflection (disciplined, sustained thinking, requiring engagement) on difference. The Multicultural Theatre Project (MTP) is a dialogical encounter with literature through the dramatic arts. This book provides a blueprint for the multiple ways in which this enacted theory/method can be utilized as a high impact practice toward transformative learning. The significance of minority literature as fertile testing ground for raising and seeking to answer questions about difference is undisputed. To address this dynamic, this research utilizes Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutical method of understanding to engage students in the interpretive process using theatre as methodology. Gadamer’s concept, described as a fusion of horizons, provides a methodological approach by which students can bring their own «effective history» to the hermeneutical task. He argues that hidden prejudices keep the interpreter from hearing the text. Thus an awareness of these prejudices leads to an openness that allows the text to speak. The MTP facilitates this kind of subjectivity by engaging the interpreter holistically. This integrative work provides a promising pragmatic interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning that creates bridges to liberatory knowledge, both cognitively and affectively.

Curriculum*-in-the-Making theorizes about the living curriculum as an event that is in the making, for the enacted curriculum is something finished, which, only as an object, can be compared to another object. A living curriculum, understood as an event*-in-the-making, leads to a very different appreciation of just what is happening in a classroom. Events* are understood to be in the making so we cannot know the precise nature of what we witness until after completion has been achieved. This book uses lesson fragments to develop a post-constructivist perspective on curriculum that is grounded in a phenomenological approach concerned with understanding the never-ending movement of life. This leads to radically different forms of understanding of curriculum issues such as the subject, ethics, the role of passibility and passivity, the nature of the response, and the learning paradox.

Curriculum*-in-the-Making theorizes about the living curriculum as an event that is in the making, for the enacted curriculum is something finished, which, only as an object, can be compared to another object. A living curriculum, understood as an event*-in-the-making, leads to a very different appreciation of just what is happening in a classroom. Events* are understood to be in the making so we cannot know the precise nature of what we witness until after completion has been achieved. This book uses lesson fragments to develop a post-constructivist perspective on curriculum that is grounded in a phenomenological approach concerned with understanding the never-ending movement of life. This leads to radically different forms of understanding of curriculum issues such as the subject, ethics, the role of passibility and passivity, the nature of the response, and the learning paradox.

Becoming Activist is a revolutionary study of youth human rights activism and literacy learning. The book follows five urban youth organizers from the Drop Knowledge Project in New York City. Intentionally polyvocal, the voices of the five youth are featured prominently to highlight the shifting articulation of their activist identities in relation to social and economic justice. Becoming Activist explores critical literacy pedagogy beyond the confines of formal education. While it has been historically theorized within English classrooms, much existing research points to the limitations of conducting critical literacy in schools. In search of a space where critical literacy can be more fully realized, this book positions urban youth organizing as an alternative context for powerful community-based learning. A valuable read for educators, researchers, and young organizers, Becoming Activist offers insight into conducting literacy work to promote positive youth and community development. Ultimately, the idea of «becoming» is key to understanding and supporting youth activists as they grow to exercise their political power for positive social change.

Becoming Activist is a revolutionary study of youth human rights activism and literacy learning. The book follows five urban youth organizers from the Drop Knowledge Project in New York City. Intentionally polyvocal, the voices of the five youth are featured prominently to highlight the shifting articulation of their activist identities in relation to social and economic justice. Becoming Activist explores critical literacy pedagogy beyond the confines of formal education. While it has been historically theorized within English classrooms, much existing research points to the limitations of conducting critical literacy in schools. In search of a space where critical literacy can be more fully realized, this book positions urban youth organizing as an alternative context for powerful community-based learning. A valuable read for educators, researchers, and young organizers, Becoming Activist offers insight into conducting literacy work to promote positive youth and community development. Ultimately, the idea of «becoming» is key to understanding and supporting youth activists as they grow to exercise their political power for positive social change.

Casework in K–6 Writing Instruction is a collection of teaching cases that feature real teachers, real students, and real examples of K–6 writing instruction. Using student/teacher dialogue and reader-friendly narration, each case author describes a teacher’s use of print and/or media-based tools to teach students how to write for literacy and disciplinary purposes. Rather than focusing on one particular method, this book features multiple methods, such as writing workshop, 6+1 Traits, and balanced literacy, presented through authentic classroom examples. The book includes a view of writing instruction across grade levels, disciplines, and contexts. Current and future classroom teachers will be interested in the practical application and various viewpoints presented throughout the book. Casework in K–6 Writing Instruction could be used in teacher study groups, professional learning communities, undergraduate courses, Masters courses, and professional development seminars at the local, national, and international levels.