'Getting along in the world': Exploring future teachers' responses to children's literature through a framework of critical literacy

Rooted in the work of the Frankfurt School and Paulo Freire, critical literacy transcends conventional notions of reading and writing---encouraging readers to adopt a questioning stance and to work toward changing themselves and their worlds. It also has foundations in the sociocultural theory of language, challenging readers to think about the relationship between language and power. However, contemporary educational environments, as well as popular opinion, do not generally encourage or tolerate overt questioning and criticism. Considering the propensity of educational institutions to perpetuate the status quo, we need to better understand how future teachers respond to and interpret children's literature. Specifically, whether they are potential practitioners of critical literacy or essentially unreflective readers, suggesting a predilection toward preserving existing dominant ideologies. Therefore, future elementary school teachers' written responses to children's literature (as well as individual interviews with seven students) were investigated in order to describe their current thinking about literature, using the following research questions: How do future teachers read and interpret children's literature? What do future teachers choose to focus on when they respond in writing to children's literature? As evidenced in their writing, to what degree do future teachers recognize stereotypes and underlying images in children's literature? Do they think about children's literature in a critical way that might lead to self-reflection? To what degree do future teachers adopt a stance of critical literacy?;Results suggested that these future teachers believed critical literacy was important---immediately after learning about it in class. However, the majority of participants' responses before and after in-class discussions and writings about critical literacy did not exhibit evidence of a questioning stance. Rather, participants tended to draw on two overlapping cultural models (basic assumptions that are viewed as normal and natural): the cultural model of education and the cultural model of a "normal" family. Consequently, this study highlights the need for future teachers to be provided with opportunities for serious reflection, which includes questioning one's ingrained perspectives (a difficult task), as well as further examination regarding the ways in which we teach students to read---both texts and their worlds.