Thinker, Learner, and Practitioner: Using an Insider’s Lens to Explore Critical, Cultural, and Global Consciousness Through Multicultural Literature

Authors

  • Dany Dias

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20360/langandlit29623

Keywords:

critical literacy, classroom practices, teacher research, multicultural literature, social justice education, global citizenship, pedagogy, critical consciousness, cultural consciousness, global consciousness

Abstract

Literacy research highlights a need to explore the way literacy is used in the classroom and how current practices engage students with aspects of humanity and social justice. This doctoral research took place as a classroom inquiry that examined the potential for multicultural literature to expand adolescent learners’ worldviews and shape their perceptions as global citizens. From a constant stance of reflexivity, this teacher researcher recalls a dynamic eighth-grade language arts classroom as they engaged with multicultural books and real-life events, before and during a pandemic. This paper focuses on select themes and subthemes emerging from pedagogical practices used in the classroom throughout the study. Notions of time, space, place, and identity detail an intentional and purposeful pedagogy as learners interacted with literacy within and beyond their classroom community.

Author Biography

Dany Dias

Dr. Dany Dias is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at St. Francis Xavier University, in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. She oversees the French Education program and teaches Sociology of Education and Inclusive Practices. Prior to becoming a teacher educator, she taught in K-12 French language schools in Eastern Ontario. Her research interests include social justice education, classroom literacy practices, and French culture and linguistic identity in Francophone minority communities.

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Published

2022-06-30

How to Cite

Dias, D. (2022). Thinker, Learner, and Practitioner: Using an Insider’s Lens to Explore Critical, Cultural, and Global Consciousness Through Multicultural Literature. Language and Literacy, 24(1), 41–59. https://doi.org/10.20360/langandlit29623

Issue

Vol. 24 No. 1 (2022): Literacy Entanglements and Relationality, Time, Place, Space and Identity

Section

Article

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