Teaching Critical Literacy for Social Justice

Abstract

This article explores learning experiences utilized in an adolescent literacy course to facilitate preservice teachers' development of knowledge and dispositions to teach critical literacy for social justice. The analysis is conducted through self-study methods and the theoretical construct of third space. Findings indicate that engaging preservice teachers in self-selected inquiry topics about social inequities can enhance their knowledge for and dispositions toward teaching for social justice. The article concludes with implications for teacher educators, which include interrogating one's pedagogical practices in relation to teaching for social justice, maintaining dialogues with preservice teachers about teachers' agency and responsibility to teach for social change, and examining with preservice teachers examples of K-12 educators who teach for social justice.