Anne Simpson

Barbara Comber

Negotiating Critical Literacies in Classroomsbrings together accounts of educators who have sought to make a difference in the lives of their students through literacy education--from university classrooms in the United States, England, and South Africa, to policy and curriculum development in Singapore and Australia. Each chapter represents the results of extended research on classroom practice. The authors in this collection write as teachers. The literacy classrooms they explore range from the early years of schooling, to primary and secondary education, through to community and university sites. Although the volume is organized around different levels of education, clearly overlapping themes emerge across the chapters, including identity formation and textual practices, politicizing curriculum and textbook production, and changing the power relations in classroom talk around text. An overarching theme of this collection is the belief that there is no one generic, universal critical literacy--in theory or in practice. Rather, the authors reveal how a range of theories can serve as productive starting points for educators working on social justice agendas through the literacy curriculum, and, equally important, how particular critical literacy theories or pedagogies must be worked out in specific locations. In each of these accounts, educators explain how they have taken a body of theory and worked with and on it in classrooms. Their rich portrayals and narratives of classroom realities illustrate the unanticipated effects of pedagogies that emerge in specific contexts. Experiences from the classrooms have led them to revise theories that are central to critical literacy, including constructs such as "empowerment," "resistance," and "multiple readings." This collection documents what occurs when educators confront the difficult ethical and political issues that evolve in particular classroom situations. Negotiating Critical Literacies in Classroomsis appropriate as a text for courses in language and literacy education, and will be of broad interest to educational researchers, practitioners, and theorists. The practical classroom focus makes this book accessible and of interest to a wide range of teachers and an excellent resource for professional development. The international scope will appeal to a global educational readership.

Negotiating Critical Literacies in Classrooms

Tells the story of a family on their annual summer vacation to the cottage in Maine. Over the years, they have become geographically scattered and emotionally estranged from each other, but every year they come together for this journey. This year, however, the gathering holds a new and different promise.

Canterbury Beach

A gripping, poignant novel about a Nigerian teenager and a Canadian journalist about the power of words. A’isha Nasir is a Nigerian teenager who has been charged with adultery. She is sentenced to death by stoning—a sentence to be carried out after her daughter is weaned. Sophie MacNeil is an ambitious, though inexperienced, Canadian journalist living in Nigeria. Speechless is the story of how their lives become intertwined in a fast-paced tale of justice, witness, and courage. Sophie MacNeil is working in Lagos as a contract reporter for the Daily Leader. Desperate to do serious work, she convinces the editor of the newspaper to let her cover A’isha’s story. After meeting with A’isha, she writes an impassioned article about the way women suffer under shariah law. Her story is regarded as inflammatory, written by an outsider. The Kaduna office of the Daily Leader is firebombed and rioting quickly slips into sectarian violence. Turned back at the border as she tries to flee, Sophie comes to terms with the naiveté with which she approached the story. Still, A’isha had spoken to her. And she had a duty to listen. Speechless offers a thoughtful and complex view of how stories are told. Who should tell a story? What happens when one speaks on behalf of another? At once compelling and lyrical, this novel presents a nuanced cast of characters trying to navigate the power of their words, their responsibility for them, and how they affect others in matters of life and death.

Anne Simpson

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