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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Historical contexts of trauma have created a complex relationship with African Americans and farming. Further, the lack of urban participation within the food system has resulted in little knowledge of how food is produced or understanding of environmental impacts of food and fiber production. The only participation has been the consumption of food. This study indicated the importance of exposing normalized food system inequalities and fostering critical consciousness to challenge systems of oppression. Further, this study alludes to returning to the food system and reimagining taking control of the food system through a reconnection to the land as a form of resistance, protest, and liberation from oppressive systems. The school system is failing to teach about the inequalities of the food system and how youth can participate in the food system. To address disparities in education, education should be more relevant to the student population. In order to make progress toward connecting the food system and urban minority youth, new methods should be implemented to engage and connect. After-school and non-formal spaces are innovative educational opportunities to address these problems. This study was guided by critical pedagogy that challenges the current social order and culturally relevant pedagogy's cultural relevance. To break away from the oppressive banking system, students must acquire a critical awareness of the systems of oppression and confront reality critically by recognizing its causes, which will require breaking away from oppressive guidelines and the freedom of autonomy and responsibility. To assess minority youth conceptions of the food system through a hip-hop based learning curriculum, the researcher selected a group of seven students from an after-school program in Roanoke, Virginia, to participate in the workshop. The qualitative case study consisted of one workshop a week for two weeks, followed by an initial focus group. Two workshop groups were conducted after and were followed by a concluding focus group. Data sources included researcher field notes and focus group transcripts. Transcripts were analyzed using two cycles with field notes utilized for triangulation of findings. In the first coding cycle, descriptive coding paired with emotion coding was used. The second cycle of coding consisted of axial coding and then codes were consolidated by matching like codes grouped by similar categories. Finally, the researcher developed themes based on the research literature, research questions, and conceptual framework. Findings of this study include the importance of exposing normalized food system inequalities and fostering critical consciousness to challenge systems of oppression. Further, this study expressed that youth are engaged in hip-hop culture and creating culturally relevant spaces for youth allows for participation and connection that other after-school programs cannot provide. Participants presented a change in conception and developed an emerging critical viewpoint to the once-normalized systems of food access. Lastly, participants expressed interest in developing the local community and improving healthy food access. / Master of Science in Life Sciences / Creating educational spaces that support the cultural context of youth is a growing concern. Disconnection from the traditional classroom has led education researchers and practitioners to explore ways to connect minority students to the learning environment. The concern of the modern education system and its deficit in supporting minority populations has called for implementing new strategies. Outside of the classroom, non-traditional spaces have become spaces of creativity. Historical disconnection and historical trauma from agriculture has resulted in the population of minorities becoming passive recipients of an unequal food system. In order to assess the importance of exposing normalized food system inequalities and fostering critical consciousness within minority youth, a culturally relevant program was used to explore minority youth conceptions of the food system and explore their change in conceptions. Youth participated in a four-week, hip-hop-based workshop to explore the food system. This workshop challenged their perceived understanding of their local food system and the hidden inequalities within it. The findings of this study indicated the importance of exposing normalized food system inequalities and fostering critical consciousness within minority youth. Participants presented a change in their conception of the food system. Further, participants expressed emerging socio-political awareness of food access. This research study contributes to the work of culturally relevant education, the development of youth critical consciousness, awareness, and community development.

Yes / International Relations (IR) has increasingly paid attention to critical pedagogy. Feminist, post-colonial and poststructuralist IR scholarship, in particular, have long been advancing the discus-sions about how to create a pluralist and democratic classroom where ‘the others’ of politics can be heard by the students, who can critically reflect upon complex power relations in global politics. Despite its normative position, Critical Security Studies (CSS) has so far refrained from join-ing this pedagogical conversation. Deriving from the literatures of postcolonial and feminist pedagogical practices, it is argued that an IR scholar in the area of CSS can contribute to the pro-duction of a critical political subject in the 'uncomfortable classroom', who reflects on violent practices of security. Three pedagogical methods will be introduced: engaging with the students’ lifeworlds, revealing the positionality of security knowledge claims, and opening up the class-room to the choices about how the youth’s agency can be performed beyond the classroom. The argument is illustrated through the case of forced migration with specific reference to IR and Pol-itics students’ perceptions of Syrian refugees in Turkey. The article advances the discussions in critical IR pedagogy and encourages CSS scholarship to focus on teaching in accordance with its normative position. / The research was partly supported by HM Government funding to MK Dhami.

The connection between educational technology and critical pedagogy has not been greatly explored. This yearlong research study was conducted with pre-service teachers as they progressed through a teacher licensure program. Data collection included the use of focus groups, individual interviews and participant journals. In addition, this study explored the personal and technology identity of the participants. The results led to a greater understanding of how pre-service teachers view the connection between educational technology and critical pedagogy. / 10000-01-01

This article describes how an anti-racist curriculum constructed on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Latino Critical Pedagogy (LatCrit) helped Mexican and Chicano middle school students enrolled in an alternative education program to alter their attitudes toward the use of English, and to change their forms of self-identification resulting in the development of a Chicano consciousness. In the beginning of this fourteen-month study, 9.6% of the students identified with the Chicano label. However, at the end of the study, 77% of the class selected the Chicano label for self-identification. Moreover, this investigation bridges the theoretical concepts of Critical Pedagogy to everyday practice in a middle school classroom. In short, the tenets of this theoretical framework were applied in the design and the implementation of the curriculum.