Powerful stories, powerful conversations: Using *literature to teach for social justice

Creating opportunities for students to cultivate the skills they need to participate justly in an increasingly complex, pluralistic world is a considerable challenge for teachers. Informed by critical pedagogy and reader response theories, this doctoral research examines how three grade 7 and 8 English language arts teachers used literature study to foster student exploration and discussion of social justice issues.;Data were analysed using grounded theory methodology. Findings suggested that the three teachers felt somewhat constrained by institutional (curriculum coverage pressures) and personal (concerns about reprisals) factors, but were primarily concerned with balancing their commitment to exploring social justice issues openly in their classrooms with the safety and comfort of their students.;The teachers viewed literature study as a powerful vehicle for social justice education because it invited both emotional and cognitive engagement with themes and offered multiple entry points to engage diverse learners. Students at all three sites appeared most engaged with texts and topics that were relevant to their own experiences, and when given opportunities to explore multiple interpretations. However, marked differences were observed among the three classrooms in the number of students who participated in discussions, the range of perspectives included, and the level of criticality with which topics were explored. These differences stemmed from the interplay of the teachers' text and topic selections and the pedagogical approaches they used to foster student exploration and talk.;Classroom observations and interviews with the three teachers were conducted at three different elementary school sites in southwestern Ontario in 2005. Two of the teachers used novel study and one used a set of thematically related poems to explore themes such as personal and social responsibility and power inequity. Given the complexity and potential risks of addressing social justice issues in the classroom, this research examined the factors that facilitated and impeded this challenging pedagogical work, and how they created opportunities for dialogic exploration of potentially conflictual issues.