Critical constraints in the classroom: Assessing how teachers approach media literacy in middle and secondary schools

Many have advocated critical media literacy as a way to bridge American youth's digital skill set with the demands of citizenship in a country with an uncertain economic and political future. Empowering these students is vital, even as financial and cultural investment in education is dwindling. This thesis addresses the extent to which teachers employ critical strategies to address students' increasingly mediated worlds. By uncovering the narratives of public school English and social studies teachers in middle and secondary schools, the research provides evidence of many constraints that teachers have in implementing critical readings of media and some of the ways that teachers indeed practice critical pedagogy in their interactivity with media in the classroom. Findings suggest that teachers are motivated to discuss media critically in class but may not have some of the impetus to do so based on their prior knowledge.