Critical Language Pedagogy: Interrogating Language, Dialects, and Power in Teacher Education - Paperback

by Sj Miller (Editor), Leslie David Burns (Editor), Amanda J. Godley (Author)

Critical Language Pedagogy: Interrogating Language, Dialects, and Power in Teacher Education demonstrates how critical approaches to language and dialects are an essential part of social justice work in literacy education. The text details the largest and most comprehensive study ever conducted on teachers' language beliefs and learning about dialects, power, and identity. It describes the experiences of over 300 pre- and in-service teachers from across the United States who participated in a course on how to enact Critical Language Pedagogy in their English classrooms.

Through detailed analyses and descriptions, the authors demonstrate how the course changed teachers' beliefs about language, literacy, and their students. The book also presents information about the effectiveness of the mini-course, variations in the responses of teachers from different regions of the United States, and the varying language beliefs of teachers of color and White teachers. The authors present the entire mini-course so that readers can incorporate it into their own classes, making the book practical as well as informative for teachers, teacher educators, and educational researchers.

Critical Language Pedagogy: Interrogating Language, Dialects, and Power in Teacher Education provides a much-needed theoretical explanation of Critical Language Pedagogy and, just as importantly, a detailed description of teacher learning and a Critical Language Pedagogy curriculum that readers can use in K-12, college, and teacher education classrooms.

Author Biography

AMANDA J. GODLEY, Ph.D., is Professor of English Education and Language, Literacy and Culture at the University of Pittsburgh. A former English teacher, she researches issues of equity and literacy learning in high school English classrooms.

JEFFREY REASER, Ph.D., is Professor of English at North Carolina State University where he directs the secondary English education program and serves as Associate Director of the Language and Life Project. His work includes the award-winning book Talkin' Tar Heel and Dialects at School.