Critical literacy finds a "place": Writing and social action in a low-income Australian grade 2/3 classroom

In a study of socioeconomically disadvantaged children's acquisition of sch ool literacies, a university research team investigated how a group of teac hers negotiated critical literacies and explored notions of social power wi th elementary children in a suburban school located in an area of high pove rty. Here rye focus on a grade 2/3 classroom where the teacher and children became involved in a local urban renewal project and on how in the process the children wrote about plate and power. Using the students' concerns abo ut their neighborhood, the teacher engaged her class in a critical literacy project that not only involved a complex set of literate practices but als o taught the children about power and the possibilities for local civic act ion. In particular, we discuss examples of children's drawing and writing a bout their neighborhoods and their lives. We explore how children's writing and drawing might be key elements in developing "critical literacies" in e lementary school settings. We consider how such classroom writing can be a mediator of emotions, intellectual and academic learning, social practice, and political activism.