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Grace Ruthe
"Critical literacy, by contrast, aims to draw attention to implicit ideologies of texts and textual practices by examining issues of power, normativity, and representation, as well as facilitating opportunities for equity-oriented sociopolitical action,” (Borsheim-Black, Macaluso, Petrone, 123).
"Critical Literacy Pedagogy" by Carlin Borsheim-Black, Michael Macaluso and Robert Petrone
Reading canonized literature the way we have been can perpetuate ideals that continue to oppress marginalized groups. By continuing to read classic literature with these ideals in mind, classrooms continue to promote ideas of certain groups having privilege and dominance over others. Critical literacy pedagogy wants to take these canonized and popular texts and examine them in the context of inequality and inequity. In this way, we can utilize these texts, along with social theory, to allow students to interpret these texts in socially relevant ways and push back on the traditional teachings of these canonical texts. By changing the lens we look through while examining literature in secondary classrooms, we can shift towards having a much more culturally relevant classroom. This also means we do not have to throw these texts out of all curriculums, as it may not be possible. But, again, changing our perspective can lead better the way we teach literature in secondary classrooms.
Culturally Relevant Teaching in the Language Arts Classroom
Author Sean Ruday’s interview about his own English teaching experiences and his idea of “good teaching” shows he reaches a culturally relevant classroom. He discusses how what is most important to him is not only that the material he is teaching is academically rigorous, but it is relevant to the lives and identities of the students he is teaching. Ruday also discusses his book Culturally Relevant Teaching in the English Language Arts Classroom: A Guide for Teachers and the tips for students and teachers alike in order to make the classroom a place for growth that includes relevant and impactful teaching. As future educators, we need to focus on making sure our students are seen within the classrooms. This includes making sure they are seen and represented within the literature and novels read in class. Finding literature that is culturally relevant and representative of all types of students we teach is extremely important to a successful classroom.
“I learned a lot about what good teaching is through working with such a diverse population, getting to know them and thinking about what education practices worked and which didn’t,” (Ruday, 0:52).
“Especially in such an environment, preparing pre-service teachers to understand, navigate and critically analyze the intersections between literature and contemporary questions of race, gender, class, and sexuality must itself be a key objective of the early modern classroom,” (Butler, Boyd 226).
"Chapter 21 Cultivating Critical Content Knowledge: Early Modern Literature, Pre-service Teachers, and New Methodologies for Social Justice" by Todd Butler and Ashley Boyd
This article focuses on preparing teachers for a more culturally diverse classroom and making sure lessons are culturally relevant and beneficial to all groups of students. Socially conscious teachers should be engaging in social justice knowledge, social justice pedagogical knowledge, and social justice content knowledge. This combined allows teachers to be prepared and knowledgeable about all cultures and backgrounds in their classrooms as well as how to promote lessons and ideas that are relevant to the world students are living in. English teachers, in particular, should be working with texts in order to produce culturally relevant ideologies and lessons in the classroom and should encourage students to look past the classic readings of novels or poems. They should also be willing to stand up against traditional teachings of canonized texts and should branch out to texts that are more culturally relevant to the groups of students in their classrooms. This connects back to the theory of critical literacy pedagogy. The article talks about English teachers specifically, but also addresses all future educators, so it's beneficial for us as future educators to keep in mind.
"The Trouble is English: Reframing English Studies in Secondary Schools" by Lydia Brauer and Caroline T. Clark
English in secondary schools needs to be reframed and changed in order to allow students and teachers alike to look at literature through the lens of power dynamics and social constructs. English education needs to be more focused on looking at texts in a relevant manner and allowing students to recognize that seeing literature through a different perspective can allow for a bigger conversation about society and societal norms. Broadening the lens or perspective we take looking at literature can lead to a much more culturally relevant classroom and can allow for the value of texts to be seen more clearly than looking at literature the traditional way. Avoiding the discussion about the origin of these canonized texts and how the ideals and themes are fueled by the ideas of people who hold power over marginalized groups only perpetuate these ideals for future generations. Being aware and allowing students to be aware only aids them in their journey in their education.
“Our aim is to encourage ourselves and others in the area of English education to both names various textual framing and to consider how such positions–never neutral–emerge from sociocultural networks of power,” (Brauer, Clark 306).
“Students may struggle to understand the how and the why of inequity and may wonder how they can help. As educators, it's so important to help students understand social justice issues.” (Williams)
"Social Justice Ideas for Middle-High School English" from the Secondary English Coffee Shop Blog
Incorporating social justice themes and ideals within the classroom makes for a much more valuable and influential experience for students. This can be done by changing the lens through which we look at texts or pieces of literature, bringing literature into your classroom that is a representative of your students or their community, asking an outsider for their opinions on a topic if you do not experience it for yourself, and just being an active participant in society and an active listener with your students. It is easy to do this with English since it seems like literature is never-ending and authors produce new and relevant works that can be utilized within the classroom, so it is really about directing your values on the pieces of literature that you are teaching. This blog really highlights the real life experience of teachers who want to make their classroom a safe-space and leave their students with added value to their education. As future educators, it is important for us to look at these real-life experience of teachers attempting to build a culturally relevant classroom as we can better prepare ourselves for our own journeys in the classroom.
Putting These Techniques to Use: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Borsheim-Black, Macaluso, Petrone use Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men to show critical literacy pedagogy and culturally relevant teaching done in the classroom. They offer the idea of reading “against” canonized texts in order to “emphasize that decisions about literature selection are not politically neutral; they are made based on myriad factors,” (Borsheim-Black, Macaluso, Petrone 127). Reading against these texts can also offer a more valuable and relevant view of literature overall. Here are some questions the authors want future teachers to ask when looking at traditionally canonized pieces, in this example Of Mice and Men, in the classroom:
Why was this Steinbeck novel picked over others?
Why not read Jews Without Money by Michael Gold or Uncle Tom’s Children by Richard Wright, which were published during the same time period?
Why not look at a person of color’s experience during the Great Depression? Something written by Hughes? Or other Mexican, Native, or Asian American authors?
How does Of Mice and Men display heteronormativity or display straight people as “normal” compared to others who identify as gay, bisexual, transgender, etc.?
Why not really look into literature that displays characters in lower classes or poverty during the Great Depression?
Why not look at different perspectives of marginalized groups’ opinions of the “American Dream” and how that differs from those in power? (Borsheim-Black, Macaluso, Petrone 127-29).
The authors state that Of Mice and Men was “written by a White, straight, middle-class, English-speaking, able-bodied author,” and his perspective of the Great Depression and “American Dream,” and that this fact alone should push us to question why this text? (Borsheim-Black, Macaluso, Petrone, 129). As future educators, we should always note versions of these questions to present to our students when we teach canonized literature in our classrooms in order to develop a more socially conscious and culturally relevant classroom.
Works Cited:
Borsheim-Black, Carlin, et al. “Critical Literature Pedagogy: TEACHING CANONICAL LITERATURE FOR CRITICAL LITERACY.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 58, no. 2, 2014, pp. 123–33. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24034704. Accessed 8 Dec. 2022.
Brauer, Lydia, and Caroline T. Clark. “The Trouble Is English: Reframing English Studies in Secondary Schools.” English Education, vol. 40, no. 4, 2008, pp. 293–313. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40173289. Accessed 8 Dec. 2022.
Butler, Todd, and Ashley Boyd. “Cultivating Critical Content Knowledge: Early Modern Literature, Pre-Service Teachers, and New Methodologies for Social Justice.” Teaching Social Justice Through Shakespeare: Why Renaissance Literature Matters Now, edited by Hillary Eklund and Wendy Beth Hyman, Edinburgh University Press, 2019, pp. 225–34. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctvrs912p.26. Accessed 8 Dec. 2022.
“Culturally Relevant Teaching in the Language Arts Classroom.” YouTube, Taylor & Francis Books, 19 Feb. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_uWsGt_0Zs.
Williams, Addie. “Social Justice Ideas for Middle-High School English.” The Secondary English Coffee Shop, 1 Jan. 2019, secondaryenglishcoffeeshop.blogspot.com/2021/11/social-justice-ideas-for-middle-high.html.
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