| This is a qualitative instrumental case study that explores the intersections of critical theory, critical pedagogy, and critical literacy. Additionally, it describes the pedagogy of an English graduate assistant, Stella Lane, who taught a freshman-sophomore literature course at a large Midwestern Research I university. This dissertation examines Stella's pedagogy and the complexity and complications associated with critical teaching. Using narrative snapshots to present the data, this dissertation provides readers with intimate views of Stella's pedagogy and sheds light on what critical literacy looks like in action while highlighting the transformative aspects of that engagement.;My goals in this investigation speak to what Maxine Greene (1986) maintains is the purpose of research. She writes: "The main concern is to clarify the language used in describing or explaining the practice of teaching, to penetrate the arguments used in justifying what is done, to make visible what is presumed the formulation of purposes and aims" (p.479). Through my observations and analyses I found an English teacher-scholar who utilizes critical theoretical lenses and inductive and collaborative instructional strategies that are focused, deliberate, and most importantly critical, dialogic, and democratic, in accordance with the propositions contained in the literature on critical theory, critical pedagogy and critical literacy. Stella's teaching persona, her thinking about her practice, and her actual classroom performance support these three ideologies.;Paradoxically, I found that the very nature of what brings these three systems together creates complicated and contentious situations that may in the very least hinder/retard the intended outcomes of a critical textual examination and/or work toward the opposite end of the interpretative spectrum to enhance a multitude of possible meanings from such an examination. These complications are accounted for in this study as they spontaneously occur in Stella's Introduction to Fiction classes. |
