The Role Of Critical Research In Literacy Education

By Author: Jordon
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Critical research methodologies can play an important role in literacy research. A place where we have the most to learn as a field is in the possible translations and applications of critical theory and critical pedagogy to classroom literacy practice. We generate a great deal of theory in literacy education about how students learn, how they learn to read and write, and what teachers can do to help students who have not been given sufficient opportunities to acquire the academic literacy that they need. All practice, of course, revolves around theory, even when we are not necessarily able to explain our actions in a theoretical way. However, when we are not able to fully theorize our actions, we may also miss the contradictions between what we intend and what actually occurs.

Critical research holds the potential to provide the missing link in the theory-to-practice research chain. Educators, through critical research, are positioned to develop studies of attempts to translate critical pedagogy into K--12 literacy practice. They are also able to develop studies that focus on the relative impacts of various educational ...
... interventions, especially those interventions that are focused on a model of pedagogy that privileges attention to critique and to social justice as much as it does the development of sanctioned academic skills. In a research and policy Discount Merrell Shoes climate where all of the attention is focused on measurable academic outcomes, it becomes that much more imperative for critical research to help demonstrate the relevance of radical pedagogies not only for those who hold official power, but also for those members of communities who fully expect that schooling will provide their children with the tools they need to participate professionally, socially, and politically. It is important for those who engage in critical work to understand that skeptics exist on all sides; not only do we confront institutions of power that may not be interested in having students exist as free thinking intellectuals but also we have parents and community members who want to understand how the work of critical educators is actually beneficial for their children.

Classroom practitioners, their students, and the researchers who work in classrooms with them are uniquely positioned to develop projects that show how a humanizing literacy education can develop important literacy skills as it promotes social critique and social action. When insiders are involved in data Merrell Shoes collection and analysis, for instance, it changes the nature of the research enterprise in ways that I argue are important and actually beneficial. Insiders who are intimately familiar with the learning context and the research participants are far less likely to become lost in translation, so to speak.