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Agents of Change
Using Critical Literacy to Promote Social Action
Shanda B. Bandi, M.Ed.
University of Oklahoma
November 21, 2006
My Personal Journey Towards Social Action Teaching
I have always searched for answers, for knowledge. By nature, I
am a curious person. As multiple quests for truth in my teaching
and learning endeavors came to abrupt halts when I was confronted with
more questions than answers, I knew there had to be something more to
me, to my life, to my career as a teacher than trying to find the
“right way, the correct answer.” See, the problem with looking
for answers is that we look to a person thought to be the guardian of
all knowledge and we want them to spoon feed us “what to do” so that we
can just do it and get it over with. It becomes a thoughtless,
voiceless, meaningless experience. Often we don’t think that
there can be multiple ways of looking at the question and we don’t
realize that the “answer” is dependent upon the perspective of its
author. My new quest is for wisdom and comfort in the endless
journey of questions and curiosities.
One of the biggest questions I had growing up was, “what is the purpose
of studying history?” If it’s in the past and if I can’t take
action to make a difference now, then what difference does it make to
me? I needed a purpose for reading, for writing, for learning and
my purpose had to be linked to a meaningful action I could take.
Because of my need to take purposeful action in my life and world,
history was not my favorite subject in school because it seemed so
one-dimensional and useless; it was a closed book. I could
memorize names and dates and even write convincing essays in regard to
historical events. However, I was always distanced from history
and not as motivated to learn it’s content because I could not make a
personal connection to it. My social studies education in
elementary school, middle school, and even to some degree in high
school was one of citizenship transmission in which teachers directly
transmitted what someone had deemed to be ideal values to the me (the
student) to create a “loyal believer” in a particular set of
truths. I made my ship replica to “celebrate” Columbus Day and I
faithfully wrote my “I Have A Dream” speech each year in honor of
Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday (the one time each year we discussed
this monumental historical figure). However, facts, dates, and
people were transmitted to me in meaningless ways, disconnecting the
lessons of the past from my potential actions in the future.
After choosing a career in education, I was concerned about how I could
be an effective social studies teacher if I was not interested in the
topic myself. During my undergraduate education, my whole view of
social studies education changed for good and for the better. I
was introduced to the idea that social studies education should explore
an area of the human mind that the current transmission style couldn’t
reach, probing deeper than the recall of facts to contact the very
essence of my character. The theory used was a critical literacy
approach to promote social action. When presented with this
format of instruction, I was instantly engaged.
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