Teaching communities: working to effect social change through critical literacies and place-conscious pedagogies

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of place-consciousness in teaching through critical literacies pedagogies and how place-consciousness shapes a teacher’s decision-making in critical literacy practices. This classroom-based ethnographic study was carried out at a school in the Northeastern United States. One language teacher was observed and interviewed in her school over a period of one year. Throughout the study period, data from semi-structured interviews, fieldnotes, observation notes, informal conversations, and artifacts were coded and interpreted. Based on the findings, this paper suggests that critical literacies pedagogies and place-based education are complementary and inseparable. The findings of the study further reveals that a teacher’s conceptualization of space and place and how the teacher responds to the place have significant ramifications for integrating critical literacies pedagogies into curriculum. No theory of critical literacies can be considered complete without a theory of place-based education but how space and place are conceptualized are of great underlying significance.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Theresa Austin and Dr. Maria José Botelho, University of Massachusetts Amherst, College of Education, Language, Literacy & Culture program, for their feedback and support. I would also like to thank Stephanie for her time. I am deeply grateful to the editor of the journal and the two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions that helped me formulate my discussion more concisely as I worked towards the final draft of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Niche.com Inc. is a company which was originally founded in 2002 as College Prowler. It was a startup which produced guides to colleges based on reviews written by students at these schools. It built a national following, receiving entrepreneurship awards and attracting prominent investors. It changed its name to Niche.com Inc. in 2013. The two new additions are Niche K-12, which covers schools (kindergarten through Grade 12), and Niche Local, which focuses on cities, suburbs, and neighborhoods. Between April and September 2020, the total number of visitors to Niche.com was 7.51 M, with an average visit duration of 3:40 (https://www.similarweb.com/website/niche.com/).