Abstract
This chapter describes the author’s journey as a teacher-researcher when applying critical literacy theory with Arab ninth-grade English as a foreign language (EFL) students to address minority issues that they grapple with while immersed in daily Israeli life. Using a book set of accessible picture books on minority issues alongside critical literacy engagements, the author attempted to raise students’ awareness to issues of privilege and power and ignite in them the desire for taking action to challenge injustice. The focus of this chapter is the classroom sessions addressing the third book in the set and students’ responses, especially a letter of critique two students crafted to the American president. Analyzing the letter against the four-dimension framework of critical literacy reveals students’ emerging consciousness of problematic political issues and willingness to take action.
Definitions of literacy and becoming literate are changing. Literacy is more than encoding, decoding, and/or making personal connection with written texts – it is about understanding, questioning, and participating in critical social work (Van Sluys, 2004 , p. 400).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Al-Hazza, T. C., & Bucher, K. T. (2008). Building Arab Americans’ cultural identity and acceptance with children’s literature. The Reading Teacher, 62(3), 210–219.
Atwell, N. (2014). In the middle: A lifetime of learning about writing, reading, and adolescents. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Barakeh, M. (2011). Educational committee discusses discriminatory budgets. Retrieved from http://www.panet.co.il/online/articles/1/2/S-384578,1,2.html
Cadiero-Kaplan, K. (2002). Literacy ideologies: Critically engaging the language arts curriculum. Language Arts, 79(5), 372–381.
Campano, G. (2007). Immigrant students and literacy: Reading, writing, and remembering. New York: Teachers College Press.
Comber, B. (2001). Critical literacies and local action: Teacher knowledge and a “new” research agenda. In B. Comber & A. Simpson (Eds.), Negotiating critical literacies in classrooms(pp. 271–282). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Correia, R. (2006). Encouraging critical reading in the EFL classroom. English Teaching Forum, 1, 16–27.
Coursen-Neff, Z. (2004). Discrimination against Palestinian Arab children in the Israeli educational system. International Law and Politics, 36(7), 749–816.
Flowerdew, L. (2005). Integrating traditional and critical approaches to syllabus design: The ‘what’, the ‘how’ and the ‘why?’. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 4(2), 135–147.
Fredricks, L. (2007). A rationale for critical pedagogy in EFL: The case of Tajikistan. The Reading Matrix, 7(2), 22–28.
Freeman, D., & Freeman, Y. (2000). Meeting the needs of English language learners. Talking Points, 12(1), 2–7.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum (Translated from Portuguese).
Freire, P. (1983). The importance of the act of reading. Journal of Education, 165, 5–11.
Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.
Gee, J. P. (2008). Social linguistics and literacies. London: Routledge.
Goodman, K. (1996). On reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Harwood, D. (2011). Deconstructing and reconstructing Cinderella: Theoretical defense of critical literacy for young children. Language and Literacy, 10(2), 1–13.
Hayik, R. (2009). This is my land (Unpublished picture book).
Hayik, R. (2011). Critical visual analysis of multicultural sketches. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 10(1), 95–118.
Hayik, R. (2015). What does this story say about females: Challenging gender-biased texts in the English language classroom. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.
Huang, S. Y. (2011). Reading “further and beyond the text:” Student perspectives of critical literacy in EFL reading and writing. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(2), 145–154.
Janks, H. (2010). Language, power and pedagogies. In N. Hornberger & S. L. McKay (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language education (pp. 40–61). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters Press.
Janks, H., Dixon, K., Ferreira, A., Granville, S., & Newfield, D. (2013). Doing critical literacy: Texts and activities for students and teachers. New York: Routledge.
Ko, M. Y. (2013). A case study of an EFL teacher’s critical literacy teaching in a reading class in Taiwan. Language Teaching Research, 17(1), 91–108.
Ko, M. Y., & Wang, T. F. (2009). Introducing critical literacy to EFL teaching: Three Taiwanese college teachers’ conceptualization. Asian EFL Journal, 11(1), 174–191.
Kuo, J. (2006). Collaborative action research on critical literacy: Investigating an English conversation class in Taiwan. Unpublished dissertation. Indiana University.
Landt, S. (2008). Multicultural literature and young adults: A kaleidoscope of opportunity. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 48(8), 890–897.
Lankshear, C., & McLaren, P. L. (1993). Preface. In C. Lankshear & P. L. McLaren (Eds.), Critical literacy: Politics, praxis, and the postmodern (pp. ix–xx). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Lather, P. A. (1991). Feminist research in education: Within/against. Geelong, VIC: Deakin University Publishing.
Lewison, M., Flint, A. S., & Van Sluys, K. (2002). Taking on critical literacy: The journey of newcomers and novices. Language Arts, 79(5), 382–392.
Lewison, M., Leland, C., & Harste, J. C. (2008). Creating critical classrooms: K-8 reading and writing with an edge. New York: Taylor and Francis Group.
Lin, A. M. Y. (1999). Doing-English-lessons in the reproduction or transformation of social worlds? TESOL Quarterly, 33(3), 393–412.
Luke, A., & Freebody, P. (2000). Further notes on the four resources model. In V. Vasquez & K. Egawa (Eds.), Critical literacy: Putting a critical edge on your curriculum (pp. 47–54). Urbana, IL: NCTE Reading Initiative.
McLaughlin, M., & DeVoogd, G. (2004). Critical literacy as comprehension: Expanding reader response. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 48(1), 52–62.
Nieto, S. (2000). Affirming diversity (3rd ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman.
Nye, N. S. (1994). Sitti’s secret. New York: Four Winds Press.
O’Brien, J., & Comber, B. (2000). Negotiating critical literacies with young children. In C. Barratt-Pugh & M. Rohl (Eds.), Literacy learning in the early years (pp. 152–171). Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
Parks, R., & Haskins, J. (1997). I am Rosa Parks. New York: Penguin Putnam Books.
Pennycook, A. (1994). The cultural politics of English as an international language. London: Longman.
Rosenblatt, L. M. (1982). The literary transaction: Evocation and response. Theory Into Practice, 21, 261–277.
Rouhana, N., & Ghanem, A. (1998). The crisis of minorities in ethnic states: The case of Palestinian citizens in Israel. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 30, 321–346.
Shannon, P. (1995). Text, lies, and videotape: Stories about life, literacy, and learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Shin, H., & Crookes, G. (2005). Exploring the possibilities for EFL critical pedagogy in Korea: A two-part case study. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies: An International Journal, 2(2), 113–136.
Short, K., Harste, J., & Burke, C. (1996). Creating classrooms for authors and inquirers (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Souto-Manning, M. (2009). Negotiating culturally responsive pedagogy through multicultural children’s literature: Towards critical democratic literacy practices in a first grade classroom. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 9(1), 50–74.
Street, B. (2005). Literacies across educational contexts: Mediating learning and teaching. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing.
Van Sluys, K., Lewison, M., & Flint, A. S. (2006). Researching critical literacy: A critical study of analysis of classroom discourse. Journal of Literacy Research, 38(2), 197–233.
Vygotsky, L. S., (M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Walsh, C. (1996). Making a difference: Social vision, pedagogy, and real life. In C. Walsh (Ed.), Education reform and social change: Multicultural voices, struggles, and visions (pp. 223–239). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Willis, A. (1995). Reading the world of school literacy: Contextualizing the experience of a young African American male. Harvard Educational Review, 85(1), 30–49.
Wilson, L. (2002). Reading to live. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hayik, R. (2015). My Critical Literacy Journey in a Middle Eastern EFL Classroom: Insights and Challenges. In: Yoon, B., Sharif, R. (eds) Critical Literacy Practice. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-567-9_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-567-9_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-287-566-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-287-567-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)