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Reimagining the Traditional Pedagogy of Literacy
by virGinie JacKSon anD KinSey ShrewSbury

abstract
This case study examined the perceptions of a pre-
service teacher during the implementation of critical 
literacy with the integration of digital technology 
into a kindergarten classroom setting. a formative 
experiment (bradley & reinking, 2010) model was 
used to understand the perceptions of the pre-service 
teacher better while implementing critical literacy in a 
kindergarten classroom setting. The teacher-centered, 
continuous mentorship focused on critical literacy, and 
technology integration served as the intervention. 
This case study showed how teachers could fit critical 
literacy through technology integration into the literacy 
block by engaging students in shared or interactive 
reading activities with predetermined critical literacy 
questions as discussion points throughout the story. 
The results of this study also indicated that teaching 
critical literacy appeared to affect elementary grade 
students positively. The pedagogical goal is for 
teachers to modify mandated curriculum so that they 
build learning experiences about students’ lives in 
engaging multiple, multimodal, and multifaceted ways.

Critical literacy is the “new basic,” a necessary life 

skill. our youngest learners are able to start thinking 
critically at an early age. despite popular belief, 
literacy, is not taught in isolation-it involves social and 
political acts that can be used to influence people and 
can lead to social change (Comber & Simpson, 2001). 
readers and consumers are bombarded with text 
daily that usually include underlying messages, and 
stereotypes. This is especially true with technological 
communication in which electronic media often carries 
no accountability, and many texts are unedited, 
heavily biased and are not attributed to any named 
or even credible author(s). because of this, teachers 
should be aware of the text that they are using to teach 
students literacy skills and they should teach students 
to critique texts instead of merely accepting them, as 
early as elementary age.

Critical reading as a manifestation of critical thinking 
has become significant in living a more competitive 
life in the 21st century and beyond. Critical thinking 
involves higher order thinking skills and more complex 
cognitive processes necessary in the 21st century to 
achieve success in life (Greiff, niepel, & Wustenberg, 
2015). This form of reading develops the student’s 



GeorGia Journal of readinG 12 Volume 41, number 2   2018

ability for “problem find” and becoming better observers 
which enables the scales to fall off their eyes.

What is critical thinking?
Critical thinking, as defined by Fisher (2001), is a 
reaction to something we have seen or read and which 
results in examination, intellection, and reflection. 
Through reflection, the reader will decide whether 
to accept or to reject the text as a course of action. 
furthermore, rejection can then lead to pursuit for 
a greater dissemination of additional information at 
the classroom level through discussion and debates. 
This provides students with opportunities to question 
and scrutinize many meanings and insights. mcinulty 
(2013) states that of paramount importance, however, 
is that, if teachers want to develop their students’ 
critical knowledge they must then provide texts from 
which students can extrapolate meaning then expound 
and challenge attitudes and suppositions.

What is critical literacy?
all forms of communication are social and political 
acts that can be used to influence people and can lead 
to social change (Comber & Simpson, 2001). Critical 
literacy occurs when readers inspect the social, 
political and cultural purposes and values of a text. it 
encourages readers to question, explore, or challenge 
the power relationships that exist between authors 
and readers and promotes reflection, transformative 
change and action. it is important to understand that 
critical literacy is not the same as critical thinking. The 
approach that a reader takes on when interacting 
with a text is what differentiates critical thinking from 
critical literacy. When a reader approaches a text 
with a number of biases and strives to apprehend the 
meaning of the text by abandoning his or her prejudice, 
that reader is involved in critical thinking. a reader who, 
on the other hand, starts with the assumption that all 
varieties of text, from print to multimedia, have a goal 
of transmitting knowledge and power are engaged in 
critical literacy practices. Critical literacy aligns with 
the social critical theory, as it characterized by the 
reader asking the following questions while interacting 
with the text: Who wrote the text? Why and for what 
consumers was it written? is there any distortion or 
falsification or even missing voices within the text?

Evolution of 21st century Education
The united States is becoming more diverse. in 2015, 
enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools 
was 66.8% White, 15.3% black, 25.1% Hispanic, 
4.5% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 1.1% American 
Indian/Alaska Native (National Center for Education 
Statistics, 2015). despite this diversity among the 
student body, the teaching profession remains largely 
homogeneous with 83.1% of public school teachers 
were White (national Center for education Statistics, 

2015). accordingly, it is important that teachers are 
prepared to teach children from cultural backgrounds 
different from their own. by applying critical literacy 
in the classroom setting, children and teachers can 
explore and begin to understand and appreciate the 
similarities and differences that they have and share 
these with each other (Clarke & Whitney, 2009). our 
research has shown that even kindergarten students 
are ready to examine multiple perspectives, writers’ 
motivations, and how a text compares to their own 
reality. 

Since the early 1990s, schools, districts, and the federal 
government have invested heavily in instructional 
technology. Teacher and student access to technology 
in schools has improved dramatically. Today, all public 
schools are connected to the internet, with 97% 
connected via high-speed connection. The student-
to-computer ratio dropped from 4.4 in 2003 to 3.8 in 
2005 (Wells & lewis, 2006), and hundreds of schools 
and districts are experimenting with or have put in 
place one-to-one laptop programs that provide each 
student with their own laptop. Today, many students 
are able to type at least 60 wpm in 2nd grade. There 
are students using twitter, facebook, instagram, and 
text messaging instead of emails. These students are 
managing networks of hundreds of people, publishing 
creative work, and even earning a salary in their spare 
time online.

additionally, critical literacy explores media texts, 
such as advertisements. in the world that we are 
living in today, these kinds of texts flood readers 
and consumers daily and usually include underlying 
messages, prejudices, and stereotypes. This is 
due to the fact that electronic media does not carry 
accountability, is heavily biased, and is not attributed 
to any named or even credible author(s). because of 
this, teaching students to critique texts and not merely 
accept them uncritically as early as elementary age is 
paramount.

Since education is about adapting to a changing 
world, how and what we teach has to change as well. 
Today’s pen and paper has changed and will continue 
to change. Therefore, we must keep pace and stay 
relevant to keep students engaged.

21st century education must be student centered 
and personalized. These educational experiences 
must provide students with opportunities to apply 
knowledge. 21st century students will use a multitude 
of technology to access content, demonstrate mastery, 
publish their work, maintain a portfolio of their skills 
and interact with the world.

While there is a great deal of research on the positive 



GeorGia Journal of readinG 13 Volume 41, number 2   2018

effects of implementing critical literacy in the classroom 
setting with secondary education students, there is not 
a lot of research available on the impact of using this 
strategy in elementary grades and the perception of 
teachers while using this practice with younger grade 
students. furthermore, there is very little research 
on the effects of using technology to enhance the 
critical literacy skills of elementary age students in 
order to prepare them for the 21st century. This study 
will add to the body of research in the context of the 
implementation of critical literacy through technology 
integration in the elementary setting, by encouraging 
teachers to modify mandated curriculum so that they 
build learning experiences about students’ lives in 
engaging multiple, multimodal, and multifaceted ways.

the 21st-century literacies
The international literacy association (ila, 2017) and 
the national Council of Teachers of english (nCTe, 
2009) published position statements on new and 21st-
century literacies that provided a foundation for our 
work. The NCTE defined 21st-century literacies as the 
following abilities for teachers and students: 

1. Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of 
technology. 
2. build intentional cross-cultural connections 
and relationships with others to pose and 
solve problems collaboratively and strengthen 
independent thought. 
3. design and share information for global 
communities to meet a variety of purposes.
4. manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple 
streams of simultaneous information. 
5. Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate 
multimedia texts. 
6. attend to the ethical responsibilities required by 
these complex environments

ILA’s (2017) position statement complements this 
definition by focusing on paradigmatic shifts in 
pedagogy and curriculum development to help 
understand the following: 

1. digital tool use requires new social practices, 
skills, strategies, and dispositions for the tools’ 
effective use. 
2. New literacies are rapidly changing as defining 
technologies change. 
3. new literacies are multiple, multimodal, and 
multifaceted; thus, they benefit from multiple lenses 
seeking to understand how to support our students 
in a digital age better.

furthermore, this position supports research on 
connecting pedagogical practices to meaningful 
life experiences (Hammond, 2014). research 
shows a correlation between connecting students’ 
lives and cultural norms to classroom learning and 

achievement (Hammond, 2014). Contrary to the 
research that supports the need for meaningful 
connections, schools continue to use the traditional 
one size fits all pedagogical approach to teaching 
and learning. Historically, learners from different 
cultural backgrounds and experiences have not been 
acknowledged in the schooling process and resulted 
in differential outcomes (banks, 1987, 2001; delpit, 
1993; Sleeter, 1987). This resulted in the disconnect 
and disengagement experienced by these students 
(Gay, 2010), which is why culturally responsive 
teaching is necessary.

Critical literacy is culturally responsive teaching and is 
characterized as a pedagogical approach that builds 
on what students already know while encouraging 
them to embrace their culture and develop a love of 
learning. This pedagogical approach helps students 
to understand that there is more than one way of 
knowing. it is an approach that empowers students, 
intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by 
using cultural referents to impact knowledge, skills, 
and attitudes. There are a variety of terms used for 
teaching that connects students’ lives and experiences 
with curricular materials and daily instructional 
practices, some of which are culturally sustaining 
(Paris, 2011), culturally relevant (ladson-billings, 
1995), culturally responsive (Gay, 2002), critical 
literacy (freire & macedo, 1987), and social justice 
(lipman, 2004). These approaches are common due 
to the critical paradigm that they operate in order to 
support student achievement, affirmation, and success 
through the utilization of children’s backgrounds and 
experiences. The increasing diversity in schools 
and national changes in the demographic makeup 
of citizens dictate that teachers develop a better 
understanding of critical literacy practices in order to 
be culturally responsive in the classroom setting. it is 
important that teachers engage in explicit preparation 
that emphasizes the importance of honoring children’s 
culture and critically examining their own positionality 
in order to increase student learning opportunities 
(emdin, 2016). The research on culturally responsive 
teaching, while limited to mostly small case studies, 
shows promise for increased academic outcomes for 
children (Paris & alim, 2017).

Lipman’s (2004) framework for social justice is a 
useful heuristic for teachers to reflect on ideologies 
that undergird the school curriculum, question how 
decisions are made and who benefits, and attend to 
factors that lead to systemic inequities in schools. 
Lipman’s model frames social justice as the pursuit of 
equity, agency, cultural relevance, and critical literacy. 

The publication of A Nation at Risk (1983) has 
prompted national movements towards modifying 



GeorGia Journal of readinG 14 Volume 41, number 2   2018

and heightening expectations for student learning that 
are more aligned with college and career readiness 
because of concerns about united States school 
system’s global competency. These changes are the 
root of rethinking the delivery of instruction and the 
utilization of technology in classrooms as a way to 
meet those rising expectations and standards. “digital 
literacy” is now essential to the success of students in 
the global economy and falls into at least three areas 
(bussert-Webb & Henry 2016)-basic, intermediate, and 
advanced levels. Students on a basic digital literacy 
level is characterized as possessing keyboard skills 
and is able to navigate different apps and software on 
the computer. Students on the intermediate skill level 
is proficient at conducting digital searches on-line 
in order to obtain information or complete research 
assignments assigned by the teacher, and even for 
leisure. Students on an advance digital literacy level 
are able to evaluate the information obtained through 
a critical lens for biases and accuracy. Historically, the 
role of technology and its impact on student learning 
has changed and will continue to change. in the past, 
technology was used to improve work productivity and 
promoted lower level learning through flashcards, drills, 
and visual presentations. The function of computers in 
schools have shifted gradually in order to help students 
develop higher level cognitive based skills (delgado, 
Wardlow, O’Malley, & McKnight, 2015). Jonassen 
(1995) argues that a technology supported learning 
should be used not only as productivity software, 
but also as tools to construct knowledge. a recent 
technology plan released by the federal government 
(u.S. department of education, 2016) states:

Technology can be a powerful tool for transforming 
learning. it can help to form and advance 
relationships between educators and students, 
reinvent our approaches to learning and 
collaboration, shrink long-standing equity and 
accessibility gaps and adapt learning experiences 
to meet the needs of all learners (p.1).

Developing a curriculum that builds on students’ 
funds of knowledge (moll, amanti, neff, & González, 
1992), provides access to digital tools, explores 
social issues, and creates a platform for sharing 
information with others reflects how we merged this 
theory into practice. “Funds of knowledge” is defined 
as the skills and knowledge that have been historically 
and culturally developed to enable an individual or 
household to function within a given culture (moll, 
amanti, neff, Gonzalez, 1992).

This theoretical framework, along with NCTE’s (2009) 
and ILA’s (2017) position statements, support the 
researcher’s commitment toward providing pre-
service teachers with professional development and 
mentorship for reimagining the traditional pedagogy 

of literacy. The pre-service teacher explored how to 
integrate topics such as social justice and diversity 
within the state curriculum while incorporating 
digital technologies such as X-ray Goggles in order 
to provide a learning environment that promotes 
critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration 
while navigating through literature. The pre-service 
teacher’s case could provide insight into how a 21st-
century literacies perspective could support literacy 
practices in elementary classrooms while attending 
to elements of social justice through the integration of 
technology.

Purpose
The purpose of this case study was to gain a better 
understanding of the perceptions of a pre-service 
teacher as she implements critical literacy practices 
into kindergarten classroom settings. The researcher 
would like to add to the literature base on the benefits 
and challenges pre-service teachers encounter when 
planning and implementing critical literacy through the 
integration of digital technology. The following are the 
research questions:

1. What do pre-service teachers anticipate they 
would encounter when implementing critical 
literacy through the incorporation of technology in 
their current and future classrooms?  
2. What are the perceptions of pre-service teachers 
on how teaching critical literacy appears to be 
affecting their students? 
3. What are the benefits and challenges of 
implementing critical literacy practices with the 
incorporation of technology in a classroom? 
4. How do teachers integrate critical literacy piece 
into school curricula?  
The anticipated findings would be that the pre-
service teacher reports how she integrates critical 
literacy and technology into the elementary school 
curriculum and the projects she was able to 
implement.

Methodology
The researcher used a formative experiment 
model (bradley & reinking, 2010) to understand 
the perceptions of a pre-service teacher better as 
she implements critical literacy in a kindergarten 
classroom setting. for this study, the teacher-centered, 
continuous mentorship focused on critical literacy, and 
technology integration served as the intervention. The 
pedagogical goal was for teachers to modify mandated 
curriculum so that they build learning experiences 
about students’ lives in engaging ways (i.e., multiple, 
multimodal, and multifaceted).

This study took place in a school district located in 
northeast Georgia. The participant of the study was 
a pre-service teacher who is currently placed in a 



GeorGia Journal of readinG 15 Volume 41, number 2   2018

kindergarten classroom for her year-long clinical 
experience. as part of this project, the researcher 
mentored the pre-service teacher as she implemented 
critical literacy read-alouds to her kindergarten 
students and implemented a digital technology project 
with them. for the digital technology project, the pre-
service teacher was trained by the researcher to use 
the X-ray Goggles computer application. X-ray 
Goggles is a computer coding application provided 
by mozilla firefox. it allows users to see the building 
blocks that websites on-line are made of. once 
downloaded onto the computer, this application can 
be activated to inspect the coding behind webpages 
and affords users the opportunity to code in alternate 
versions of the webpage. for this research study, the 
pre-service teacher used the X-ray Goggles as part 
of her critical literacy lessons by engaging students 
in the process of computer coding of online fairy tale 
stories in order to provide alternate viewpoints or 
missing perspectives.

The researcher, currently serving as a literacy faculty 
member at the university the pre-service teacher 
attends, provided the pre-service teacher with an 
online pre-questionnaire about her own perceptions 
of teaching critical literacy through the integration 
of technology to kindergarten students. during 
the beginning of the semester and throughout the 
implementation of this study, the researcher mentored, 
provided resources, and observed the pre-service 
teacher implement the new strategies learned during 
the literacy block of the day with her kindergarten 
students. at the end of each lesson, the pre-service 
teacher would meet with the researcher to answer 
some reflective questions regarding the lessons 
implemented.

one of the lessons implement by the pre-service 
teacher was through a read-aloud of a book titled, 
Freedom Summer, by Wiles (2005). This story is about 
two boys who are friends, one White and one african 
american, and live in mississippi during the 1960s. 
during this era, segregation laws were prevalent, 
keeping them from being able to play together in 
the public pool because african americans were not 
allowed. The story ends with the boys being excited 
on the day the Civil rights act is enacted because 
they are now able to go to the public pool together 
and dive for nickels. In order to build the students’ 
background knowledge on fair versus unfair, the 
pre-service teacher engaged her students in making 
personal connections using a smartboard. The pre-
service teacher asked students to come sit on the rug 
with her. While they were all facing the smartboard, 
she explained that there is an important decision they 
must make today. She showed them a column labeled 
red and the column labeled blue on the smartboard 

with each student’s name underneath the t-chart. The 
students were told to come up and move their individual 
names to the column that was labeled with the color 
they liked more, red or blue. When the students were 
finished, the pre-service teacher told them that the 
blue side was going to get extra recess because that 
was her favorite color. She also told the class that the 
red column would not get any extra recess.

in the beginning of the lesson, she asked the students 
to make some observations about the illustration on 
the front cover. They, then, discussed who the author 
and illustrator are. When the pre-service teacher 
began to read, she made observations about how the 
first couple of pages were making her feel. She also 
thought aloud about who was talking in the pages of 
the book. Then, as she continued reading, the pre-
service teacher asked the students the following 
questions: 

1. “Who is not talking?” 
2. “How would you tell the story?” 
3. “How does this book make you feel?”
4. “if you could change the ending, how would you 
change it?” 

at the end of this lesson, she engaged her students 
in a writing activity focused on something they would 
change in the story.

another critical literacy lesson implemented through 
the integration of technology by the pre-service 
teacher happened during a read-aloud of The True 
Story of The Three Little Pigs by Scieszka (1989) (see 
appendix a). This is the story of the three little pigs 

told from the perspective of the wolf. The beginning 
of the story starts with the wolf baking a cake for his 
grandmother’s birthday and runs out of sugar. He 
decides to go to his neighbors to ask for some sugar. 
While at each of their doors, he sneezes because of a 
cold that he has and accidentally blows down the first 
two houses. at the end of the story, the wolf is arrested 
when he arrives at the third little pig’s house sneezing 
because of what the community perceives him to be, 
and his grandmother does not get a birthday cake. To 
activate students’ prior knowledge of common stories, 
the pre-service teacher asked how many students 



GeorGia Journal of readinG 16 Volume 41, number 2   2018

had read the story The Three Little Pigs. She, then, 
discussed the summary of the story and key elements 
of the story, including all of the key elements of the 
story. The students were scaffolded to think about 
whose perspective is missing in that classic and 
what that character may say or think about during the 
events in the story. This led into introducing the book 
titled, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.

as the pre-service teacher read The True Story of the 
Three Little Pigs to students, she stopped to question 
them throughout the story. She asked them the 
following questions: 

1. “How are you feeling about the wolf right now?” 
2. “Does he seem to be mean and scary?”
3. “What are some words and descriptions they 
have used to describe the wolf?”
4. “What about the pigs?”
5. “How does this story make you think about what 
has happened compared to the three little pigs?”

There were other applicable questions that required 
students to think of the story critically.

To summarize their discussion about different 
perspectives, the pre-service teacher leads a 
whole-group X-ray Goggles activity, the computer 
application that allows users to see the building blocks 
that make up websites on the internet and inspect the 
code behind any webpage. in this lesson, it was used 
to code and remix the text and pictures on the story 
rapunzel to offer a different perspective. The pre-
service teacher had a fairytale summary of rapunzel 
pulled up on the smartboard. The students and the 
pre-service teacher, then, worked together to identify 
another character in the story whose voice was 
missing and, then, rewrote the story from the different 
character’s perspective by coding through X-Ray 
Goggles. at the end of the study, a post questionnaire 
was completed by the pre-service teacher.

The researcher collected information from a pre- and 
post questionnaire (see appendix b and C), collected 
and observed the pre-service teacher implement 
lesson plans, and conducted individual coaching 
interviews about her experiences.

results
The results in the pre- and post questionnaire completed 
by the pre-service teacher indicated that, upon 
beginning the study, she anticipated that the students 
would react very well to critical literacy through the 
incorporation of technology in her current classroom. 
The pre-service teacher had been exposed to critical 
literacy theory and methods in a literacy course 
taken a few semesters before the implementation of 
this study. She practiced utilizing this strategy with 

the students she tutored during the field experience 
component of the literacy course. during this research 
study, she received mentorship along with additional 
resources from the researcher, in order to implement 
critical literacy through the integration of technology 
with her kindergarten students.

Prior to the study, the pre-service teacher felt very 
confident in her ability to incorporate technology 
into critical literacy lessons because of her level of 
proficiency with the utilization of technology. It was not 
until she began implementing this strategy that she 
also realized that technology incorporation would be a 
difficult process. The pre-service teacher stated,

I thought it might be difficult because I was unsure 
of how to incorporate technology in new and 
effective ways. but, i encountered success in 
engaging students with the technology. although 
the X-ray Goggles worked while i was practicing, 
but not during the lesson, the students still thought 
they were awesome and they were encouraged to 
participate.

When asked in the pre-questionnaire if there were any 
topics she thought were inappropriate to discuss with 
her students, she responded, “Yes, of course.” Her 
response after the study changed to the following: 

Students are in no way too young to have 
critical conversations. i used to think that critical 
literacy had to be intense and overwhelming and 
sometimes sad. But, I know now that it doesn’t 
always have to be that. it can be more light-hearted 
conversations about perspective. overall, i learned 
that it is necessary and totally doable! i think my 
background certainly used to affect my book 
selections and classroom discussions because 
it’s easy and comforting to read the same books 
you were read and discuss what you’ve heard and 
seen all your life. but now, i feel that i can better 
represent other backgrounds through discussions 
and books, and even challenge myself to think 
critically in the process.

one of the lessons implemented by the pre-service 
teacher was through a read-aloud of a book titled, 
Freedom Summer, by Wiles (2005) through the 
incorporation of smartboard technology which was 
used to build student’s background knowledge of fair 
versus unfair. The pre-service teacher engaged the 
students in a discussion of the difference between fair 
and unfair by displaying a t-chart and on the smart 
board (see appendix a), and questions that promoted 
critical literacy development while reading the story 
aloud to the students.

at the end of this lesson, she engaged her students 
in a writing activity focused on something they would 



GeorGia Journal of readinG 17 Volume 41, number 2   2018

change in the story. The students were instructed to 
write about an event to change, who is talking that 
could change, and so forth. 
 
The following are some of the writing responses 
shared by her students (all pseudonyms):

ava: “This is a picture of me helping my friend; she 
had a scratch, but it was bleeding.”

laura: “We were swimming in the pool. They were 
playing marco Polo, and they were splashing, and 
then they went home.”
 
Landon: “They went to get ice cream together.”

emma: “They were both going to dive in the pool. 
And the nickel’s right there.”

at the end of the lesson, the pre-service teacher 
reflected and completed a one-on-one interview about 
her observations. The following are some themes that 
were pulled from reflections and interviews.

Her observations on her kindergarten students’ ability 
to have critical conversations:

“They were able to talk about how unfair it was and 
explain a different ending better than i anticipated. 
They were reacting intently while i was reading, 
more than expected. That was really encouraging 
because they were reacting to what was going on, 
even if I wasn’t asking a question. So, that ensured 
me that they really grasped the unfairness.”

book choice: “This book was introduced to me at a 
multicultural literature conference that i attended, and 
i loved it. i can make it developmentally appropriate 
and have them grapple with those ideas.”

What went well or what she would change related to 
the incorporation of technology:
“i think the students did really well with this lesson. 
They were attentive during the story and engaged 
while writing and drawing an alternate ending. The 
activating activity, using the SmarT board really 
made them think and made them sad. So, i think it 
was an appropriate activity before reading the book. 
i should have thought of a better way to have the 
students move their name because that got very 
chaotic. i loved hearing them share what they wrote 
and drew. It was so sweet!”

advantages for implementing digital technology into 
her critical literacy lessons: “It’s more engaging for 
students. it shows them that it can be used for other 
things other than watching TV and playing.”

another critical literacy lesson implemented through 

the integration of technology by the pre-service 
teacher happened during a read-aloud of The True 
Story of the Three Little Pigs by Scieszka (1989). To 
activate students’ prior knowledge of common stories, 
the pre-service teacher engaged the students in a 
discussion about The Three Little Pigs. The students 
were scaffolded to think about whose perspective is 
missing in that classic and what that character may 
say or think about during the events in the story which 
led into introducing the book titled, The True Story of 
the Three Little Pigs.

as the pre-eservice 
teacher read The True 
Story of the Three Little 
Pigs to students, she 
stopped to question them 
throughout the story. 
She asked them critical 
literacy questions about 
the wolf’s feelings, the 
wolf’s appearance and 
whether he seemed mean 
and scary, adjectives and 
descriptors commonly 
used to describe the wolf.

To summarize their discussion about different 
perspectives, the pre-service teacher leads a whole-
group X-ray Goggles activity which is a computer 
application that allows users to see the building blocks 
that make up websites on the internet and inspect the 
code behind any webpage. in this lesson, it was used 
to code and remix the text and pictures on the fairytale 
Rapunzel. 

The pre-service teacher had a fairytale summary of 
Rapunzel pulled up on the smartboard. The students 
and the pre-service teacher, then, worked together 
to identify another character in the story whose voice 
was missing and, then, rewrote the story from the 
different character’s perspective by coding through 
X-ray Goggles.

At the end of the lesson, she reflected and completed 
a one-on-one interview with the researcher about her 
observations. The following are some themes that 
were pulled from reflections and interviews.

Her reflection was,
This lesson seemed to be very engaging and 
effective for the students! Although they were hyper 
and excited for break, they were responding during 
both the book and the X-Ray Goggle discussion. 
They understood and discussed why the wolf 
maybe wasn’t the bad guy and that it just mattered 
who was telling the story. Then, they applied this 
to the witch in the Rapunzel story, even though  



GeorGia Journal of readinG 18 Volume 41, number 2   2018

the goggles weren’t working correctly.

Student’s response to questions explicitly addressing 
critical social issues outside the context of the stories, 
“They didn’t want to believe it at first. They thought that 
I was trying to confuse them. They didn’t understand 
the concept of perspective until we got into the story.”

Student’s response based on lesson topic: 
“once i began reading the story and asking them 
questions about what was  happening, they 
started to understand that maybe the wolf wasn’t 
the bad guy and maybe that they hadn’t thought 
about how the wolf felt or what he was doing 
although some of them still thought the wolf was 
big and bad.”

book Choice: “This book was recommended to me by 
one of the researchers and i love the book and it is 
developmentally appropriate.”

Student’s ability to have critical conversations: 
“Students are not really their yet, but could be if this 
was a common occurrence. Since the concept of 
critical literacy was just introduced, there was a lot 
of support and scaffolding necessary. However, they 
were able to think critically when asked important 
questions about the book and perspectives.”

Technology choice for this lesson: “I’ve used it in 
previous lessons and really enjoyed it. it was really 
effective.”

What went well or what she would change related to 
the incorporation of technology? “i think the story itself 
and the conversations during the story well. 

The X-Ray Goggles didn’t go well because they began 
to glitch, but the conversations did.”

barriers for implementing digital technology into her 
critical literacy lesson: “The X-ray Goggles worked 
right before the lesson, but didn’t work during. Also, 
having every student use the SmarT board at the 
same time requires a well thought out plan of action.”

discussion 
This case study examined the perceptions of a pre-
service teacher during the implementation of critical 
literacy with the integration of digital technology 
into a kindergarten classroom setting. a formative 
experiment (bradley & reinking, 2010) model was 
used to understand the perceptions of the pre-service 
teacher better while implementing critical literacy 
through the integration of digital technology. during 
the course of this study, the researcher provided 
mentorship and resources to the pre-service teacher. 

This teacher-centered continuous mentorship focused 
on critical literacy, and technology integration, served 
as the intervention.

once the pre-service teacher was well versed in the 
meaningful context and pedagogical goals of critical 
literacy, she implemented the critical literacy through 
the integration of technology with her kindergarten 
students. The lessons were planned with guidance 
from the researcher; they were also observed by the 
researcher.

The researcher and the pre-service teacher found 
that students, even as young as kindergartners, are 
able to think and speak critically. The kindergarten 
students also enjoy using technology, especially in 
a meaningful context. The pre-service teacher found 
that critical literacy does not have to be another add-
on to the daily schedule; it can easily be integrated 
into the literacy block and can be implemented with 
high quality children’s literature. Although the pre-
service teacher had her doubts about squeezing 
yet another thing into her instruction, she found that 
implementing critical literacy was an enlightening way 
to engage students in meaningful literacy experiences 
through questioning and critical conversations. The 
researcher and pre-service teacher also found that 
kindergarten students were positively interacting 
with the website during the X-ray Goggles activity, 
learning that everything that is on the internet doesn’t 
have to be taken as an absolute. This revealed that 
the technology integration provided a very broad and 
meaningful experience for students, as predicted.

These findings should, certainly, give educators insight 
into teaching students to think, read, and discuss 
critically. educators should be encouraged to empower 
their students; to help them realize that they are more 
than just face value consumers of text and media, but 
active participants in it. Thinking and reading critically 
should not be left for the post-secondary students, it 
should begin as soon as students can see, hear, and 
interact with the text they are exposed to.

a limitation of this study is that one class was studied, 
rather than a multitude of differing classes. Having 
multiple grade levels, socio-economic statuses, and 
teaching styles, would allow the researcher to compare 
and analyze the results of each, observing whether 
the findings would reign true for each group. However, 
this provides an opportunity for future research studies 
utilizing the same research model and methods.

conclusion
our knowledge of the world is constructed through the 
lens of our individual life experiences. in this sense, 
every classroom is multicultural, and the life stories of 



GeorGia Journal of readinG 19 Volume 41, number 2   2018

our students are all different. Children feel emotionally 
secure when they find themselves and those they 
love positively represented in curriculum materials. 
When teachers are culturally responsive, they create 
learning environments that reflect each child’s home 
culture respectfully while inviting children to accept 
and explore cultures that are unfamiliar to them. by 
teaching critical literacy through the integration of 
technology with the use of high-quality, multicultural 
literacy materials as part of regular classroom 
activities during the reading block, teachers model 
interest in and acceptance of differences. Technology 
is a valuable educational tool that should be used as 
a way to create new and meaningful connections to 
lesson content, expand students’ understanding of 
lived experiences of others, and help to promote the 
development critical literacy skills that will create an 
inclusive learning environment.

The results of this study indicated that teaching 
critical literacy appeared to affect students positively. 
The students were able to engage in the critical 
thought processes necessary to analyze character 
perspectives, make connections, and draw from their 
own experiences while engaging in critical literacy 
activities. although some challenges were presented 
while implementing technology into the critical literacy 
lessons, the students were extremely engaged and had 
an avenue to express higher level of understanding by 
creating products that identified and solved the critical 
issues presented in the text that they were engaged 
in by going against the status quo or by giving a voice 
to a character whose perspective was not included. 
This case study showed how teachers could fit critical 
literacy through technology integration into the literacy 
block by engaging students in shared or interactive 
reading activities with predetermined, critical literacy 
questions as discussion points throughout the story. 
Students could use the technology as a way to respond 
to the discussion points discussed throughout the 
critical literacy lesson and as an avenue for becoming 
change agents. an example is how the students in this 
study were able to rewrite a story that their teacher 
read in the perspective of a different character by using 
a computer-coding application (i.e., X-ray Goggles).

This research study seeks to add to the literature base 
on the benefits and challenges pre-service teachers 
encounter when planning and implementing critical 
literacy through the integration of digital technology 
during the literacy block. This case study provides 
insight into how a 21st-century literacies perspective 
could support literacy practices in elementary 
classrooms while attending to elements of social 
justice through the integration of technology.
 

references
banks, J. a. (1987). Educating citizens in a multicultural 

society. new York, nY: Teachers College Press.

banks, J. a. (2001). Educating citizens in a multicultural 
society (2nd ed.). new York, nY: Teachers College 
Press.

bradley, a. b., & reinking, d. (2010). enhancing 
research and practice in early childhood through 
formative and design experiments. Early Child 
Development and Care, 175, 1-15.

Bussert-Webb, K., & Henry, L. (2016). Latino/a 
children’s digital literacy access and online reading 
skills. Journal of literacy and Technology, 17(3) 2-40. 
Retrieved from http://www.literacyandtechnology.
org/uploads/1/3/6/8/136889/jlt_v16_3_webb_henry.
pdf

Clark, l., & Whitney, e. (2009). Walking in their 
shoes: using multiple-perspective texts as a bridge 
to critical literacy. The Reading Teacher, 62(6),  
530-534.

delpit, l. (1993). The silenced dialogue: Power and 
pedagogy in educating other people’s children in 
beyond silenced voices: Class, race, and gender in 
united States schools. Harvard Education Review, 
58, 280-298.

emdin, C. (2016). For White folks who teach in the 
hood . . . and the rest of y’all too: Reality pedagogy 
and urban education. boston, ma: beacon Press.

freire, P., & macedo, d. (1987). Literacy: Reading the 
word and the world. South Hadley, ma: bergin & 
Garvey.

Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive 
teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2), 106-
116.

Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: 
Theory, research, and practice (multicultural 
education Series, no. 8). new York, nY: Teachers 
College Press.

Greiff, S., niepel, C., & Wustenberg, C. (2015). 21st 
century skill: international advancements and recent 
developments. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 18,  
1– 3. doi:10.1016/j.tsc.2015.04.007

Hammond, Z. (2014). Culturally responsive teaching 
and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement 
and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse 
learners. Thousand oaks, Ca: Corwin Press.



GeorGia Journal of readinG 20 Volume 41, number 2   2018

international literacy association. (2017). Position 
statements. Retrieved from  h t t p s : / / w w w .
literacyworldwide.org/get-resources/position-
statements

Jonassen, d.H. (1995). Computers as cognitive tools: 
learning with technology, not from technology. 
Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 6(2),  
40-73.

ladson-billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of 
culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational 
Research Journal, 32, 465-491.

lipman, P. (2004). High stakes education: Inequality, 
globalization, and urban school reform. new York, 
NY: Routledge/Falmer.

moll, l. C., amanti, C., neff, d., & González, n. (1992). 
funds of knowledge for teaching: using a qualitative 
approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory 

 Into Practice, 31, 132-141.

national Council of Teachers of english. (2009). Position 
statement. Retrieved from http://www2.ncte.org/ 
statement/2009legisplatform

national Center for education Statistics. (2015) 
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/edge/TableViewer/
acsProfile/2015

national Commision on excellence in education. 
(1983). A nation at risk: The imperatige for 
educational reform: A report to the Nation and the 
Secretary of Education, United States Department 
of Education. Washington, dC: The Commision: 
(Supt. of docs., u.S. G.P.o. distributor).

Paris, d. (2011). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A 
needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. 
Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93-97.

Paris, d., & alim, H. (2017). Culturally sustaining 
pedagogies. new York, nY: Teachers College Press. 

Sciezka, J. (1989). The true story of the three little 
pigs. new York, nY: Viking Kestrel.

aPPENdiX a
Sample lesson Plan

Teacher Candidate: ______________    Student(s): Whole Group     
Session date:___________________   Grade level: Kindergarten

● standard(s): 
elaGSeKSl1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with 
peers and adults in small and larger groups.

elaGSeKSl6: Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

● objectives/Goals: 
The students will identify and discuss different perspectives that can be examined in common stories. 

● assessment(s): 
Students’ verbal responses during reading and hacking online fairytale to change perspective. 

activation:
To activate students’ prior knowledge of common stories, the teacher will ask how many students have read The Three 
Little Pigs. The teacher will then discuss with students what the story is about and who it is written by. The teacher 
will scaffold students to think about whose perspective is missing, and what that character may say or think about the 
events in the story. This will lead into introducing The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.

teach:
The teacher will read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs to students, stopping to question them throughout. The 
teacher will ask them “how are you feeling about the wolf right now?”, “does he seem to be mean and scary?”, “what 
are some words and descriptions they have used to describe the wolf?”, “what about the pigs?”, “how does this story 
make you think about what has happened compared to The Three Little Pigs?”, and other applicable questions that 
require students to think of the story critically.



GeorGia Journal of readinG 21 Volume 41, number 2   2018

aPPENdiX B
Pre-Questionnaire

Question
What do you anticipate that you will encounter when 
implementing critical literacy through the incorporation of 
technology in your current and future classroom?

are there any topics you think are inappropriate to talk 
about with young students?

How do you feel about young students questioning 
their world? What is your role in helping students work 
towards changing their world?

What strategy would you use to teach multiculturalism, 
diversity, or social issues to young children?

How do you think that your background, race, gender, 
class, culture affect book selections and classroom 
discussions?

How do you think the incorporation of digital technology 
will affect student engagement and learning in the 
context of critical literacy?

What would you like to see happen as a result of your 
participation in this study?

answer
i anticipate that students will react very well to it and 
that it will be effective! i also anticipate a strong learning 
curve for me, as the implementer.

There are topics that are inappropriate to talk about with 
young students.

i love when students question their world because it 
makes them critical thinkers and encourages them to 
rise above standards they don’t agree with. My role is to 
teach them to question respectfully and to help them not 
only question but also analyze and interpret answers/
findings.

i would use a variety of resources that students can 
analyze and interpret on their own. i would scaffold their 
thinking and encourage them to form their own opinions 
based on the knowledge they are acquiring.

I think that it can definitely sway book selections and 
classroom discussions to reflect my own background. It 
is very important that it doesn’t reflect my background 
though, and that they reflect each students’ (and some of 
their backgrounds may be very similar to mine).

Students love technology and are more technologically 
fluent than ever. So, it certainly engages students 
more than more traditional instruction i believe. using 
technology in literacy is not only engaging, but also 
practical, considering the amount of literacy that is in the 
form of blogs, articles, e-mails, and so forth.

i would love to see critical literacy effectively used in 
the classroom. and, of course i want to be able to use 
technology to effectively implement critical literacy!

Sleeter, C. (1987). an analysis of multicultural 
education in the united states. Harvard Educational 
Review, 57, 421-444. 

u.S. department of education, institute of education 
Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse. (2016, 
november). adolescent literacy intervention report: 
READ 180 Retrieved from http://whatworks.ed.gov

Wells, J., & lewis, l. (2006). internet access in 
u.S. public schools and classrooms: 1994–2005 

(nCeS 2007-020). u.S. department of education. 
Washington, dC: national Center for education 
Statistics. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/
pubs2007/2007020.pdf

Wiles, d. (2005). Freedom summer. new York, nY: 
aladdin Paperbacks.

Wilson, K. (2016). Critical reading, critical thinking: 
delicate scaffolding in english for academic 
purposes. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 22, 256–
265. doi:10.1016/j.tsc.2016.10.002



GeorGia Journal of readinG 22 Volume 41, number 2   2018

aPPENdiX c
Post-Questionnaire

Questions
What did you encounter when implementing critical 
literacy through the incorporation of technology in your 
current classroom?

What do you think about literacy as being a social 
practice for teaching young students?

How do you feel about young students questioning their 
world?

What is your role in helping students work towards 
changing their world?

What strategy would you use to teach multiculturalism, 
diversity, or social issues to young children?

How do you think that your background, race, gender, 
class, culture affect book selections and classroom 
discussions?

did the incorporation of digital technology affect student 
engagement and learning in the context of critical 
literacy? if so, how?

What would your read-alouds look like without the use of 
critical literacy?

How will your participation in this study influence your 
literacy practices in the classroom setting?

How has your knowledge of critical literacy evolved from 
the beginning of this study?

answers
Incorporating technology was at first difficult. This was 
because i was unsure of how to incorporate it in new 
and effective ways. but, i also encountered success in 
engaging students with the technology. although the 
x-ray goggles worked while i was practicing, but not 
during the lesson, the students still thought they were 
awesome and they were encouraged to participate.

i think it can and is extremely effective and is a great way 
to teach social justice.

i believe it is great that students learn to question their 
world and change perspective. it shapes them into 
critical thinkers and good citizens.

my role is to expose them to differing perspectives and 
social issues, and guide their thinking and questioning. 
This will then promote the critical thinking they will need 
to change the world.

i would certainly use critical literacy to teach these issues 
because stories are something they enjoy and can get 
a lot from. It’s also a great way to transition into having 
them respond to the issues through speech and writing.

i think my background certainly used to affect my book 
selections and classroom discussions because it’s easy 
and comforting to read the same books you were read 
and discuss what you’ve heard and seen all your life. But 
now i feel that i can better represent other backgrounds 
through discussions and books, and even challenge 
myself to think critically in the process.

Yes, I certainly think so. In my first lesson students were 
excited to come move their name on the smart board. 
in the second lesson, the x-ray goggles got students 
excited to change the story.

They would most likely just be seasonal books or books 
related to a current letter of the week or standard.

This study has certainly encouraged me to broaden my 
book selections and classroom discussions.

it has taught me that students are in no way too young 
to have critical conversations. i used to think that 
critical literacy had to be intense and overwhelming 
and sometimes sad. But, I know now that it doesn’t 
always have to be that. it can be more light-hearted 
conversations about perspective. overall, i learned that it 
is necessary and totally doable!




