Teaching communities: working to effect social change through critical literacies and place-conscious pedagogies

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of place-consciousness in teaching through critical literacies pedagogies and how place-consciousness shapes a teacher’s decision-making in critical literacy practices. This classroom-based ethnographic study was carried out at a school in the Northeastern United States. One language teacher was observed and interviewed in her school over a period of one year. Throughout the study period, data from semi-structured interviews, fieldnotes, observation notes, informal conversations, and artifacts were coded and interpreted. Based on the findings, this paper suggests that critical literacies pedagogies and place-based education are complementary and inseparable. The findings of the study further reveals that a teacher’s conceptualization of space and place and how the teacher responds to the place have significant ramifications for integrating critical literacies pedagogies into curriculum. No theory of critical literacies can be considered complete without a theory of place-based education but how space and place are conceptualized are of great underlying significance.