A volume in Contemporary Research in Education
Series Editor Terry A. Osborn, Fordham University
Functional literacy, cultural literacy, and progressive literacy are just a few
of the many terms one can invoke when attempting to define literacy. From a
critical perspective, for a democratic society to exist, a critical literacy is of crucial
importance. Critical literacy aims to empower individuals and transform society. It
is grounded in critical theory and, like critical pedagogy, investigates ways in which
social, cultural, racial, sexual, and economic inequalities are reproduced. By
investigating the ideological, political, and social structures that perpetuate such
inequalities, it hopes to raise consciousness and move towards creating a more
socially just society.
This book examines the approaches set forth by Atwell, Calkins, and Rief in their books, In the Middle
(1998); The Art of Teaching Writing (1994); and Seeking Diversity (1992), respectively. This book is of
relevance to teacher educators and English Language Arts teachers. It enables one to become familiar with the
main components of the Readers'/Writers' workshop and develop an awareness of how literacy may be
conceptualized and reconceptualized through this approach. Teacher educators will find this text useful for
raising preservice teachers' awareness of the ideologies that inform literacy education and in developing their
understanding for how students are positioned socially, culturally, politically and economically by such
ideologies. English Language Arts teachers will find this book informative in understanding how they can be
positioned by teacher texts to teach towards certain ideologies of literacy. Finally, it allows teacher educators
and English Language Arts teachers to consider what kind of literacy
education is provided for through the Readers'/Writers' workshop, and
whether space may be negotiated within the Readers'/Writers' workshop, for
the teaching of critical literacy.
