Examining Adolescents’ Critical Meaning Making of Appalachia-Centered Texts: A Case Study of Teaching and Learning in Rural AppalachiaHumphrey, Corey (2024) Examining Adolescents’ Critical Meaning Making of Appalachia-Centered Texts: A Case Study of Teaching and Learning in Rural Appalachia. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)
AbstractSocial science and humanities researchers have long considered Appalachia a dynamic site for research. Within literacy education, scholars have called for continued critical literacy research within Appalachia, and to study the ways students’ learning contexts can be designed to simultaneously support their comprehension, engagements with questions of power, and Appalachian identities. This study investigates a case of critical literacy teaching and learning with 11 youth within a summer literacy program in rural Appalachia. My research questions were: 1) How did adolescents within a rural Appalachian summer program make meaning with a range of texts about Appalachia? To what extent and how did the adolescents draw upon forms of cultural knowledge as a resource? and 2) To what extent and how did a two-week instructional unit support students’ critical literacy learning and development? To pursue these questions, I designed and taught a ten-day critical literacy unit. I collected classroom audio and student artifacts and conducted semi-structured interviews and think alouds using Appalachian poetry. I used descriptive, inductive, and pattern coding to uncover patterns in student meaning making across the classroom and think aloud contexts. I found that participants made meaning with a range of texts about Appalachia by coordinating an array of comprehension, interpretation, and critical moves. Additionally, students used cultural knowledge to support their meaning making. Students frequently used Appalachian I also found that students seemed to increase their figurative and critical reasoning over the course of the unit. There was variation in learning, with some students showing signs of internalization of critical literacy. Together, the findings of this study suggest that adolescents draw from cultural knowledge along with other resources as they make meaning with and learn to make meaning with texts. Appalachian cultural knowledge seemed to especially support students’ interpretive and critical reasoning. I suggest that more attention be paid to students’ unique cultural knowledges and that these knowledges be included in literacy curricula targeting adolescent students. Share
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