Becoming a Critical Literacy Educator: A Self- Study of Unlearning and Relearning

Date
2015-09
Authors
Fladager, Kira Tessa
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Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina
Abstract

The purpose of this research is to explore how critical literacy can be used as part of an anti-oppressive pedagogical approach. This paper will use self-study as the research methodology along with poststructural theory to analyze the roots of my understanding of critical literacy and how my positioning as a white, Christian, female, middle-class educator pushes against a critical orientation. Throughout the study, I will identify places of tension and resistance that come from resignifying my identity as an anti-oppressive educator within an education system rooted in rational, positivist ideologies and dominant practices. The research conducted focuses on dominant ideologies such as multiculturalism, race, and Christianity that have been influential in the construction of my identity as a white, Christian, female, middle-class educator. I will use self-study to retell my personal and academic history in an unfamiliar way that identifies and deconstructs the normative centre in Western society and my role within this. This paper will continue to analyze the impact of hegemonic discourses and dominant ideologies by looking at my teaching practice and reflecting on one of my attempts at critical literacy. I will deconstruct my teaching of the novel The Breadwinner (2000) by Deborah Ellis and how my lack of understanding about privilege and dominant norms maintained and reinforced oppression. I will use the research and theory presented in this paper to reimagine and transform my teaching of this novel as evidence of my growth of understanding of critical literacy and anti-oppressive pedagogy.

Description
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Education in Curriculum & Instruction, University of Regina. v, 92 p.
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