Critical Literacy and Urban Youth

Critical Literacy and Urban Youth
Author: Ernest Morrell
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2015-07-22
Genre: Education
ISBN: 113559984X

Critical Literacy and Urban Youth offers an interrogation of critical theory developed from the author’s work with young people in classrooms, neighborhoods, and institutions of power. Through cases, an articulated process, and a theory of literacy education and social change, Morrell extends the conversation among literacy educators about what constitutes critical literacy while also examining implications for practice in secondary and postsecondary American educational contexts. This book is distinguished by its weaving together of theory and practice. Morrell begins by arguing for a broader definition of the "critical" in critical literacy – one that encapsulates the entire Western philosophical tradition as well as several important "Othered" traditions ranging from postcolonialism to the African-American tradition. Next, he looks at four cases of critical literacy pedagogy with urban youth: teaching popular culture in a high school English classroom; conducting community-based critical research; engaging in cyber-activism; and doing critical media literacy education. Lastly, he returns to theory, first considering two areas of critical literacy pedagogy that are still relatively unexplored: the importance of critical reading and writing in constituting and reconstituting the self, and critical writing that is not just about coming to a critical understanding of the world but that plays an explicit and self-referential role in changing the world. Morrell concludes by outlining a grounded theory of critical literacy pedagogy and considering its implications for literacy research, teacher education, classroom practice, and advocacy work for social change.

Becoming Critical Researchers

Becoming Critical Researchers
Author: Ernest Morrell
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2004
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780820461991

Becoming Critical Researchers analyzes the findings of a two-year ethnographic study of the apprenticeship of urban youth as critical researchers of popular culture. Drawing on new literacy studies, critical pedagogy, and sociocultural learning theory, this book documents the changes in student participation within a critical research-focused community of practice. These changes include the acquisition and development of academic and critical literacies and the resulting translations of these literacies into increased academic performance, greater access to college, and commitment to social action. This book inserts critical and postmodern theory into the conception and evaluation of classroom practice and its findings suggest that programs centering on the lived experiences of teens can indeed achieve the goals of critical education, while also promoting academic achievement in urban schools.

What They Don't Learn in School

What They Don't Learn in School
Author: Jabari Mahiri
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2004
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780820450360

Contributors to this book have illuminated the practices of literacy and learning in the lives of urban youth. Their descriptions and assessments of these practices are anchored in perspectives of «New Literacy Studies». The ten studies explore a number of urban scenes in order to engage, understand, and present multiple youth identities, attitudes, activities, representations, and stories connected to a range of situated, adaptive, and voluntary uses of literacy. The authors use a variety of conceptual and methodological approaches to explicate the various skills, the distinct methods of production or composition, the subjective and collective meanings, the mutable and variegated texts, and the dynamic contexts that urban youth utilize for expression, affirmation, and pleasure. There is a response to each chapter by a major scholar in its area of focus. Together, these studies and responses contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the pedagogies, politics, and possibilities of literacy and learning in and out of school.

Youth, Critical Literacies, and Civic Engagement

Youth, Critical Literacies, and Civic Engagement
Author: Theresa Rogers
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2014-11-27
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1317702646

Through stories of youth using their many voices in and out of school to explore and express their ideas about the world, this book brings to the forefront the reality of lived literacy experiences of adolescents in today’s culture in which literacy practices reflect important cultural messages about the interplay of local and global civic engagement. The focus is on three areas of youth civic engagement and cultural critique: homelessness, violence, and performing adolescence. The authors explore how youth appropriate the arts, media, and literacy as resources and how this enables them to express their identities and engage in social and cultural engagement and critique. The book describes how the youth in the various projects represented entered the public sphere; the claims they made; the ways readers might think about pedagogical engagements, practice, and goals as forms of civic engagement; and implications for critical and arts and media-based literacy pedagogies in schools that forward democratic citizenship in a time when we are losing sight of issues of equity and social justice in our communities and nations.

Becoming Activist

Becoming Activist
Author: Elizabeth Bishop
Publisher: Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Critical thinking
ISBN: 9781433126864

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 and offers insight into conducting literacy work to promote positive youth and community development.

Teaching Youth Media

Teaching Youth Media
Author: Steven Goodman
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2003-01-23
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0807742880

This book explores the power of using media education to help urban teenagers develop their critical thinking and literacy skills. Drawing on his twenty years of experience working with inner-city youth at the acclaimed Educational Video Center (EVC) in New York City, Steven Goodman looks closely at both the problems and possibilities of this model of media education. Responding to our national concern about adolescents, literacy, media, and violence, Teaching Youth Media: Describes the changes schools and after-school programs need to make in order to create a media education that empowers students to change their world; Explores the intersection of literacy and culture as youth learn to analyze information from a variety of sources, including television, newspapers, books, films, school, church, and lives outside of school; Features case studies of students and teachers engaged in making video documentaries at EVC and in an alternative high school; Illuminates the practical day-to-day challenges faced by professional developers and teachers working to change the way education is practiced in their classes and schools.

Challenges Associated with Cross-cultural and At-risk Student Engagement

Challenges Associated with Cross-cultural and At-risk Student Engagement
Author: Richard K. Gordon
Publisher: Information Science Reference
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Critical pedagogy
ISBN: 9781522518945

Creating a meaningful and interactive learning environment is a complex task for any educator. However, once this is accomplished, students have the chance to receive enhanced opportunities for knowledge development and retention. Challenges Associated with Cross-Cultural and At-Risk Student Engagement provides a comprehensive examination on emerging strategies for optimizing instructional environments in modern school systems and emphasizes the role that intercultural education plays in this endeavor. Highlighting research perspectives across numerous topics, such as curriculum design, student-teacher interaction, and critical pedagogies, this book is an ideal reference source for professionals, academics, educators, school administrators, and practitioners interested in academic success in high stakes assessment environments.

The Art of Critical Pedagogy

The Art of Critical Pedagogy
Author: Jeffrey Michael Reyes Duncan-Andrade
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2008
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780820474151

This book furthers the discussion concerning critical pedagogy and its practical applications for urban contexts. It addresses two looming, yet under-explored questions that have emerged with the ascendancy of critical pedagogy in the educational discourse: (1) What does critical pedagogy look like in work with urban youth? and (2) How can a systematic investigation of critical work enacted in urban contexts simultaneously draw upon and push the core tenets of critical pedagogy? Addressing the tensions inherent in enacting critical pedagogy - between working to disrupt and to successfully navigate oppressive institutionalized structures, and between the practice of critical pedagogy and the current standards-driven climate - The Art of Critical Pedagogy seeks to generate authentic internal and external dialogues among educators in search of texts that offer guidance for teaching for a more socially just world.

Critical Media Pedagogy

Critical Media Pedagogy
Author: Ernest Morrell
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2015-04-25
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0807771872

This practical book examines how teaching media in high school English and social studies classrooms can address major challenges in our educational system. The authors argue that, in addition to providing underserved youth with access to 21st century learning technologies, critical media education will help improve academic literacy achievement in city schools. Critical Media Pedagogy presents first-hand accounts of teachers who are successfully incorporating critical media education into standards-based lessons and units. The book begins with an analysis of how media have been conceptualized and studied; it identifies the various ways that youth are practicing media, as well as how these practices are constantly increasing in sophistication. Finally, it offers concrete examples of how to develop a rigorous, standards-based content area curriculum that embraces new media practices and features media production.

Language, Culture, and Teaching

Language, Culture, and Teaching
Author: Sonia Nieto
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2009-09-10
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1135277087

Distinguished multiculturalist Sonia Nieto speaks directly to current and future teachers in this thoughtful integration of a selection of her key writings with creative pedagogical features. Offering information, insights, and motivation to teach students of diverse cultural, racial, and linguistic backgrounds, this text is intended for upper-undergraduate and graduate-level students and professional development courses. Examples are included throughout to illustrate real-life dilemmas about diversity that teachers face in their own classrooms; ideas about how language, culture, and teaching are linked; and ways to engage with these ideas through reflection and collaborative inquiry. Each chapter includes critical questions; classroom activities; and community activities suggesting projects beyond the classroom context. Over half of the chapters are new to this edition, bringing it up-to-date in terms of recent educational policy issues and demographic changes in our society.