What is Critical Lenses

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the orientations Jamaican preservice teachers characteristically bring to the diverse youth literature that they read and to examine instructional approaches designed to help student develop a postcolonial orientation that will yield richer insights into their future students. The chapter presents a thematic analysis of extended response survey questions distributed to 86 Jamaican preservice teachers. The results revealed that these preservice teachers primarily sought literature for its ease, enjoyment, escapism, and personal growth, though a minority of students did indicate interest in broader issues of structural inequalities. Unfortunately, such emphases are inadequate to address issues of diversity. Consequently, the chapter proposes three instructional strategies to foster a postcolonial orientation: semantic differential scales, direct instruction in postcolonialism, and the TACT-MR model of writing instruction to develop students' critical empathy.