Abstract
This chapter shares three portraits of practice from the authors' implementation of a critical writing pedagogy in an elementary ELA methods course. Critical writing pedagogies that acknowledge writing as a sociopolitical act, consider power relations and broad social forces, and position youth as social agents are uncommon in both k-12 and teacher education contexts. In sharing rich descriptions of a theoretically-driven literacy methods courses, the chapter explores how pre-service teachers engaged with and responded to three specific aspects of the course: the course launch, the use of critical reading to support writing, and a critical writing workshop. The authors discuss the tensions they experienced in their attempts towards multiple kinds of disruption and conclude with recommendations for future research.
TopBackground
After sharing our definition of social justice education and view of writing and teaching writing, we briefly review literature on writing teacher education. Then, we share our backgrounds and personal commitments to social justice teacher education. Before sharing the portraits of practice, we describe the context of our teacher education program and the focal course.
Defining Social Justice Education
In our teacher education courses, we support writing pedagogies that take a sociopolitical stance, what we call critical writing pedagogies, as a form of social justice work. We define social justice as the radical act of upending our country’s flawed schooling system that dehumanizes and devalues youth in schools, particularly people of color. We prepare ELA teachers to recognize and challenge complex social systems of power and inequality (Schutz, Woodard, Diaz, & Peek, 2019; Cochran-Smith et al., 2016) through literacy instruction that values and sustains multilingual and multicultural children, and supports reading and writing about issues related to power and justice.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Critical Writing Pedagogy: Writing pedagogies that take a sociopolitical stance by focusing on power relations in/through writing.
We Need Diverse Books Initiative: This non-profit organization advocates for changes to the publishing industry to produce and promote literature where all children can see themselves.
Writing Workshop: Writing workshop is a student-centered pedagogy used in many elementary classrooms that engages students in frequent writing on topics of choice; often, it supports students to engage in processes including pre-writing, drafting, revision, editing, and publication.
Critical Concepts for Reading: This term is used by Bomer and Bomer (2001) to describe sociopolitical topics that readers can explore in/through reading (e.g., power; fairness/justice; voice silence).
Translanguaging: Moving fluidly between multiple languages.
Discourses of Writing: This concept is used by Ivanic (2004) to describe discourses, or sets of beliefs and practices, in relation to teaching writing (e.g., skills discourse; creativity discourse; process discourse).