Becoming Critical Researchers: Literacy and Empowerment for Urban Youth / Edition 1

by Ernest Morrell, Shirley R. Steinberg, Joe L. Kincheloe

Overview

Becoming Critical Researchers analyzes the findings of a two-year ethnographic study of the apprenticeship of urban youth as critical researchers of popular culture. Drawing on new literacy studies, critical pedagogy, and sociocultural learning theory, this book documents the changes in student participation within a critical research-focused community of practice. These changes include the acquisition and development of academic and critical literacies and the resulting translations of these literacies into increased academic performance, greater access to college, and commitment to social action. This book inserts critical and postmodern theory into the conception and evaluation of classroom practice and its findings suggest that programs centering on the lived experiences of teens can indeed achieve the goals of critical education, while also promoting academic achievement in urban schools.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820461991
Publisher:	Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
Publication date:	08/20/2004
Series:	Counterpoints: Studies in Criticality , #227
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

The Author: Ernest Morrell is Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. He holds a doctoral fellowship through the American Educational Research Association that sponsors his continued investigation of urban teachers’ and students’ uses of critical research. Morrell received his doctorate in language, literacy, and culture from the University of California, Berkeley.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
Part I	Introduction, Theory, Method, and Context
Chapter 1	Introduction	3
Chapter 2	Theory	13
Chapter 3	Method	41
Chapter 4	Context	55
Part II	Ethnography
Chapter 5	Summer Seminar 1999: Becoming Legitimate Peripheral Participants	69
Chapter 6	1999-2000: Engagements with Critical Research and Popular Culture	86
Chapter 7	Summer Seminar 2000: Becoming Critical Researchers	103
Chapter 8	2000-2001: Toward Full Participation	116
Chapter 9	The Diverse Urban High School as a Site of Conflict Between Forces Seeking to Promote and Disrupt Social Reproduction: Implications for Radical School Reform	128
Part III	Lessons and Implications
Chapter 10	Conclusion	145
	Bibliography	155
	Index	163