Dissertation (Ph.D.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2010. / Directed by Leila Villaverde; submitted to the Dept. of Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jul. 7, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 223).

Thesis (M.A.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2006. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Kirk Branch. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-87).

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2003. / Includes bibliography.

The purpose of this research study was to explore the possibilities of critical pedagogy and critical literacy in an English language course at a higher education institution in the Sultanate of Oman. Its aim was to propose an alternative curriculum for an English language pathway module by introducing socially-contextualized generative themes, position questioning and post-methodological teaching and learning strategies which would lead to an increased engagement with multiple perspectives hence an increased level of critical awareness. Moreover, the study sought to provide a platform for students’ voice where their views and choices were not only taken into consideration but had a direct impact on the direction of the critical intervention. The present study did not try to advocate for a new pedagogical framework that is prescriptive in nature but rather emphasize the ephemeral and hence dynamic nature classroom methodology. The study took place at a private higher education institution in the capital city of the Sultanate of Oman. The site of the intervention was a lower level English language vocabulary and reading focused module that served as support for English language majors. The participants were two teachers who had taught the module in the past as well as a group of students who had enrolled in the module at the time of the intervention. The group of student participants was entirely composed of females who possessed various levels of English language proficiency and originated from various parts of Oman. Data were collected during three intervention stages, following an action research design, through multiple methods: interviews, focus-groups, tests, questionnaires, observations. The research diary kept during the intervention represented another data source and an important instrument of recording instances of reflection on action. Participant confidentiality and anonymity was maintained throughout the data collection and analysis. The collected data was analysed following the principles of thematic analysis but also keeping in mind the democratic character of action research. Thus, a comparison of the researchers’ interpretations of the analysis with the experiences of the participants as well as the opinions of the external observers was undertaken. Several major themes emerged from the data at the different stages of the intervention: students’ needs and abilities, the need for a reformed curriculum, assessment of the students’ level of critical literacy, positioning and identifying multiple perspectives, students’ views on the critical intervention and their development of critical awareness as well as challenges and caveats at the intervention stage, students’ resistance versus emotional attachment to the module. In terms of readiness for a critical intervention, students and teacher participants held different views, as teachers associated readiness with a high level of critical thinking and language proficiency whereas students associated it with interest and emotional attachment. The majority of student experiences during the critical intervention were clustered around a shift in perspective which did not only evidence their increased sense of awareness of the world and its various social issues but also an increased display of empathy and compassion. Students also avowed an increased improvement in all four language skills as a result of this experience. Student silence had an impact on the reshaping of the intervention hence proved an opportunity for reflection and change. The key findings of the study suggest that, although considered a high-risk endeavour, critical pedagogy offers ample opportunities for English language education as students’ attitudes to it were generally positive. Students wish to take an active role in authoring the course of their learning and will make apparent their choices even through opposition, resistance and silence. Furthermore, critical pedagogy needs to be understood in the context of possibility as it is not a prescripitive set of rules or strategies nor automatically democratic and free from imposition. It is constantly informed and transformed by its authors’ and its participants’ contributions. The study has thus brought an overall understanding of the possibilities of critical pedagogical endeavours as well as the possibilities of critical action research to illuminate the phenomena of critical literacy and participant voice.

Library instruction continues to evolve. Regardless of the myriad and conflicting opinions academic librarians have about the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy, the debates and the document itself have engendered greater discourse surrounding how and why librarians teach. The Framework provides an additional push toward designing instruction with big ideas rather than a skills-based curriculum. However, we still must contend with constraints imposed upon us by higher education taking on business models and enforcing a skills agenda. To enact the pedagogy of the Framework in contrast to changes in higher education presents a challenge. We should consider ways in which the Framework can help us push back against these neoliberal agendas in our pedagogy and reinvent our roles as librarian educators.

A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in Digital Arts to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2018 / This research report presents a critical thematic analysis of Andrew Miller’s science fiction (SF) novel Dub Steps with the intention of demonstrating that the book’s central themes are interrelated and evoke various tensions between the ideological projects of western liberal humanism and critical posthumanism. Furthermore, this study examines how the novel’s setting of Johannesburg articulates with its themes and complicates the unfolding drama of the liberal humanist subject in crisis, especially in connection to South Africa’s troubled history of colonialism and apartheid. Representations of race – specifically blackness and whiteness – are at stake in the interactions between Johannesburg and the central themes of Dub Steps, and the historical and material politics of race in South Africa are brought to bear upon the novel’s depiction of a posthuman future. This study finds that Dub Steps may be read as a posthuman SF fantasy in which the vestiges of colonialism and apartheid are finally undone and socio-economic inequalities persisting in the post-apartheid sphere are finally rebalanced. However, it is also the view of this research report that the progressive potential of the novel is undermined by its technophobic ethos and a reversion to harmful stereotypes about black people in its vision of a new world order / MT 2019

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The critical understanding of Theatre in Education (TIE) presented in this thesis focuses on ‘TIE into Schools’ and its effect. The author takes the view that students’ subjectivity was influenced by the dominant mores of elements of society, such as family and school, and less often, by individual, autonomous decision. Case studies of practices that are identified with the tenets of TIE were carried out using approaches based on the principles and methods of a critical pedagogy approach. How could the TIE approach be seen as a critical pedagogy? This question is examined predominantly through the lens of Paulo Freire and Henry A. Giroux’s thoughts on education and teachers. In addition to an understanding of the tenets of TIE and the tenets of critical pedagogy, this thesis presents a criticism of its discursive approach and also a criticism from the researcher as a participant observer. This narrative approach helps explore the human side of the experience thus keeping real life issues to the fore. Fieldwork episodes of TIE practice in three different levels of schools, the Taipei He-te Primary School, 10 different senior high schools and the National Taiwan University are presented in the context of the students’ differing ages in an attempt to understand more about the methods and tenets of TIE. ‘Partnership’ is a key concept and driving force, creating mutual cooperation between the community of the school, the parents and the theatre groups. The expected outcomes of this thesis include the clarification notions of TIE, and the adoption of a subjective approach by the students in relation to the process of interactivity, leading from affection to cognition, then action. This thesis concludes that TIE is a critical pedagogy and praxis, which develops skills and attitudes in which action can be taken by the individual in fitting in the world. It improves the individual’s ability to rethink his/her beliefs and attitudes, to empathise with groups of people and individuals with whom she/he previously may not have come into social contact with and allows previously taboo subjects to be discussed openly.

This multi-year critical ethnographic study examined the development and use of oral languages, and academic, digital, and critical literacies among high school debaters who participated in the Ivy League Debate Institute (ILDI), an intense academic apprenticeship for low-income Black and Brown youth attending public high schools in a large northeastern city. The study documented and analyzed a high school intervention that sought to foster powerful readers, writers, speakers, and engaged citizens through critical debate education that embraces new literacies, critical theory, empirical research, community-based literacies, and Hip-Hop culture. In addition to documenting the language and literacy practices of the majority of students participating in the apprenticeship during an eight week summer workshop, the research also followed a subset of ILDI students over the course of three years as they participated in after school trainings, weekend debate tournaments, public presentations, and researched and practiced at summer debate institutes. Drawing upon African American literacies and rhetoric(s) and sociocultural and critical education theories, this research investigated the role of critical debate in the development of participants’ academic literacies, civic engagement, and identities. A sociocultural lens that views learning as changing participation over time in communities of practice (Lave, 1991) was used to analyze a wide range of data: field notes and researcher memos from after school meetings and events; video recordings of meetings, public presentations and debate tournaments; online correspondence; student generated speeches, academic essays and research notes; and semi-structured interviews with participants elucidating on the role of the debate apprenticeship in the development of academic and critical literacies. The study reveals the role of the critical debate apprenticeship in supporting students to become more dexterous users of multiple literacies, languages, and discourses, and to leverage these resources in academic and civic spaces for self- and social justice advocacy. The study expands what counts as academic discourse and literacy development to create more room for cultivating both literacies of access and social justice. Combining student-led instruction in evidence-based advocacy skills and print-based and new literacies with oral language and Hip-Hop can support participants in employing diverse cultural and linguistic practices and academic, new, and critical literacies to develop well-reasoned and persuasive texts that speak to social injustices, offering new possibilities for literacy education in high schools, first-year college classrooms, preservice teacher training, and in out-of-school spaces.