123 English Teaching, Vol. 70, No. 1, Spring 2015 DOI: 10.15858/engtea.70.1.201503.123 Becoming Critical Readers of Graphic Novels: Bringing Graphic Novels Into Korean Elementary Literacy Lessons Seonmin Huh* (Woosong University) Young-Mee Suh (Incheon National University) Huh, Seonmin, & Suh, Young-Mee. (2015). Becoming critical readers of graphic novels: Bringing graphic novels into Korean elementary literacy lessons. English Teaching, 70(1), 123-149. The purpose of this study is to show how Korean English learners develop a critical lens to analyze graphic novels without much reflection. English as a second language studies have showed the effectiveness of using graphic novels. However, not much research has addressed teaching a critical approach to English reading at the elementary levels in English as a foreign language setting. This study describes how nine elementary school students were engaged in critical literacy practices when they read graphic novels. Their interactions during a 14-week literacy engagement with the researchers were transcribed and analyzed. Students were able to challenge the dominant ideology of the texts, sharing examples that did not fit with the beliefs presented and that represent missing perspectives. These were common reading practices that they engaged in as a means of confronting the dominant cultural representations. Some interactions demonstrated that students suggested alternative worldviews to interpret the texts, so that more democratic and broader considerations of multiple perspectives were represented. This critical literacy activity related to their empathetic connections to cultural minorities. Key words: critical literacy, critical pedagogy, graphic novels 1. INTRODUCTION Elementary readers of English are bombarded by various types of texts and popular * Seonmin Huh: First author; Young-Mee Suh: Corresponding author 124 Seonmin Huh & Young-Mee Suh media through different channels these days. Many researchers have claimed the importance of bringing in reading materials from popular culture and mass media (Alvermann & Xu, 2003; Dyson, 2003). Marsh (2006) also pointed out that we can no longer limit our literacy education to “printed texts” and needed to expand reading education to include popular culture. This idea of bringing in popular culture was interpreted as appreciating students’ life experiences outside of school and everyday “funds of knowledge” (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gozalez, 1992). In English as a Second Language (hereafter, ESL) contexts, there has been some research on including popular media and culture, such as analyzing commercials, TV shows, or reading graphic novels at the preschool and elementary levels (Norton, 2005; Norton & Vanderheyden, 2004). These not only showed students’ growth in English reading abilities, but also illustrated ESL learners’ process of becoming a part of the English-speaking community. However, the approaches and issues with popular culture in ESL contexts would be expected to differ from the ways English as a Foreign Language (hereafter, EFL) learners would learn to read through these unconventional reading materials. EFL contexts like Korea, however, have not actively moved in the direction of incorporating popular culture, while they have started to emphasize extensive reading of different texts, potentially addressing components of popular culture (Krashen, 1993; Norton, 2005). We need more information on how reading materials from popular culture can be taught to Korean EFL learners and what the process of learning to read through authentic materials would be like. For these reasons, this paper attempts to explore the use of graphic novels as an important form of popular culture in EFL elementary reading education. Making use of the authentic popular genre of graphic novels for language learning will have strong academic and pedagogical significance for elementary reading education. Second, we also need to consider an alternative mode of reading for graphic novels. EFL reading education traditionally emphasizes thorough decoding and accurate comprehension of the authors’ intended meanings. In other words, intensive reading has been valued in EFL reading education. This teaching method is very effective especially when all the reading texts have been subject to rigorous standards and all the contents of the reading texts include well-structured and ethical values. At the same time, intensive reading tends to encourage readers to accept what the authors invite them to think and believe about the contents; students are rarely asked to question the authors and only focus on understanding what the texts say. When students are asked to read graphic novels or other types of popular media, they should be selectively absorbing the contents of the texts. This means that students should be able to critique what they read and take charge of their interpretations of the reading materials in a more responsible and ethical manner. In this sense, coming up with alternative ways to read is imperative. Becoming Critical Readers of Graphic Novels: Bringing Graphic Novels Into ... 125 The notion of critical literacy (Janks, 2010; Lankshear & McLaren, 1993; Lewison, Leland, & Harste, 2007; Norton & Toohey, 2004; Vasquez, 2000, to name a few) suggests this type of selective reading and critical analysis of different representations of the world in graphic novels or other reading texts. Within this framework, readers question the authors and clarify commonplace ideas about different cultures and societies. Recognizing the importance of critical literacy, research on critical literacy practices in EFL contexts is starting to grow (Huang, 2011; Kwon, 2011; Suh & Huh, 2014; Yang, 2007). However, the literature on teaching to read graphic novels from critical literacy perspectives especially at elementary levels is scare. Therefore, this research explored the notion of critical literacy practices in an EFL reading class where students read several graphic novels and discussed them with a teacher. In sum, the purpose of this study is to investigate how students develop as critical readers of English when elementary EFL learners are invited to read graphic novels from a critical literacy framework. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Graphic Novels as a Form of Popular Culture There are several definitions of graphic novels that reflect their complexity. Baird and Jackson (2007) note that “a successful graphic novel starts with a stellar story told with words and pictures that augment the story, providing insight that text alone cannot do” (p. 5). While Krashen (2005) named graphic novels as “new media” (p. 1), Mooney (2002) separated cartoons from graphic novels, arguing that graphic novels have longer story lines and do not usually come in series, as cartoons typically do. Gallo and Weiner (2004) also came up with a meaningful explanation of graphic novels as follows: … a well-done graphic novel offers the immediacy of the prose reading experience, with the pictures and the words working simultaneously, making a graphic novel not only something one reads but something one sees as well, like reading and watching a movie at the same time. (p. 115) The relationship/connection between “words and pictures,” “a stellar story” (Baird & Jackson, 2007), and the “media” component (Krashen, 2005) is commonly included across different definitions. Gallo and Weiner (2004) added how graphic novels are a type of media that combines print and image. Griffith (2010) finally provided a more sophisticated definition of graphic novel: 126 Seonmin Huh & Young-Mee Suh Graphic novels include elements of both print and visual in the creation of characters that move through the narrative within sequential art panels that show the action and characterization and help establish tone and mood. (p. 182) Synthesizing these definitions, this study limits graphic novels to texts that describe interesting or humorous situations with visual images of main characters and other descriptive personalities, combined with words. All the reading texts selected in this study followed this synthesized definition. Many scholars have discussed the advantages of graphic novels for educational purposes (see also Krashen, 1993; Norton, 2005). Graphic novels have become a tool for English Language Learners (hereafter, ELLs) to become a part of the ESL community and a means to accustom themselves to a new linguistic culture (Duff, 2002; McKay & Wong, 1996; Miller, 2003; Norton, 2000; Tosi & Leung, 1999). That is, students have been accepted by a new language community among their peers because of their knowledge of popular graphic novels. Graphic novels provide rich contents for them to be able to communicate with native English-speaking counterparts, and the interactions between ELLs and native English speakers increase significantly through graphic novels. In Norton and Vanderheyden (2004), we learned that Archie, a graphic novel, functioned as a tremendous cultural bridge for Asians, including Korean, learners’ knowledge gains about Western values and their friendship building with their native English-speaking counterparts. Most of the positive findings on the use of graphic novels for English education were found in ESL contexts. We need more information about how English graphic novels will have similar educational effects in EFL contexts. Also, the research mentioned was mainly based on data from interviews and did not actually consider graphic novels as major resources for learning English in educational contexts. Therefore, the present study introduced graphic novels as reading materials and sought to understand how graphic novels could broaden the educational possibilities for EFL learners. 2.2. Critical Literacy in EFL Contexts To be a critical reader of graphic novels, conceptualizing literacy as decoding and reading comprehension is not enough. Critical literacy encourages us to think of reading and writing as critical reflection and selective take on the texts. Freire (1987) insisted that reading should be about articulating particular cultural beliefs or values that serve particular groups’ cultural and social privileges. Readers should be able to critique those biased representations, a process defined as “reading the world,” as opposed to “reading the words.” Christensen (2000, 2009) and Shannon (1991) also described critical literacy as an ability to question the privileged positions in different texts. Luke and Freebody Becoming Critical Readers of Graphic Novels: Bringing Graphic Novels Into ... 127 (1997) more specifically talked about being able to critically read different texts as “speak back” (Park, 2012, p. 629) to the writers, or constant questioning of “who wrote the text, for whom, and in what context; whose interests might the text serve.” Furthermore, Kamler (2001) thought understanding whose experiences, values or perspectives were appreciated and represented through reading the texts was an important component of critical literacy. Considering EFL literacy education in terms of three dimensions—the operational, the cultural, and the critical (Green, 1988)—critical literacy concentrates on the critical dimension (See also, Barton, Hamilton, & Ivanic, 2000; Moll, 1994; Vygotsky, 1978). According to Green (1988), the operational dimension views literacy as skill development in the English language. Luke and Freebody (1999) termed this type of education “codebreaking.” The cultural dimension is interested in learners’ meaning-making and their ways of understanding the texts, called “text-using” by Luke and Freebody. The critical dimension is about developing critical literacy, literacy for critical reflection and challenge. Green explained the nature of critical literacy as “the means to reflect critically on what is being learned and taught in classrooms and take an active role in the production of knowledge and meaning” (p. 163). Luke and Freebody added that critical literacy is about analyzing “how, why, and in whose interests particular texts might work” (Luke & Freebody, 1997, p. 218). All reading texts serve particular ideologies that might not represent all the possible perspectives, and readers need to learn how to read the texts in non-biased manners and selectively take the information or ideas provided. Critical literacy in this sense is crucial when students are asked to read graphic novels that did not go through strict reflection. Damico (2005) claimed that Green’s three dimensions of literacy need to be balanced in a well-organized manner as follows: Green’s (1988) three-dimension model offers a comprehensive understanding of literacy. The learning of specific skills (operational dimension) occurs as readers negotiate and create meanings with engaging content (cultural dimension) and examine the ways they are creating these meanings with critical stances toward texts (critical dimension). (p. 645) In Korean contexts, there is ample research on the operational and cultural dimensions of literacy research at the early childhood and elementary levels. However, critical literacy has not been implemented in actual educational settings in Korean contexts. We do not have enough information about how to implement critical literacy and develop critical literacy for Korean EFL learners. The existing literature deals with how the concept of critical literacy has been portrayed in university English textbooks and theoretical papers on critical pedagogy (Kim, 2006; Kwon, 2011; Park, 2010; Yang, 2007) without illustrating how learners would engage in developing critical literacy. 128 Seonmin Huh & Young-Mee Suh Suh and Huh (2014) recently applied a critical literacy perspective to their university reading classes and reported both positive and negative reactions to critical literacy from the students. They reported that although students’ active decoding and use of reading strategies were positive, they felt extremely uncomfortable challenging the texts with authority and felt it was burdensome both to comprehend and critique the reading texts at the same time. These findings, however, were reported in university settings and they did not actually read unconventional materials like graphic novels. Shin and Crookes’ (2005) study was one of the rare research studies that engaged middle schoolers in critical literacy development. This study reported that by engaging students in critical literacy, students were able to use English for genuine communication and meaning-negotiation, as they were asked to share what they thought and how they interpreted the texts. However, this study did not document how students demonstrated their ability to exercise critical literacy practices. In response to this gap in the literature, the researchers implemented critical literacy in an unconventional reading class in which graphic novels were read by elementary school students. The process of becoming a critical reader of graphic novels was documented in order to understand how critical literacy in EFL contexts can serve as a very effective tool for educating English readers. 2.3. Developing Critical Readers of Graphic Novels What can be learned about teaching and learning practices for critical literacy, especially when teachers bring in graphic novels as teaching materials? Rodesiler (2010) suggested the MAPS (Mode, Audience, Purpose, and Situation) protocol (Swenson & Mitchell, 2006). According to this model, students explore how the texts have a particular target audience and encourage readers to believe what they say. This thinking process clarifies the intentions of reading texts and their impact on the readers themselves. To understand the authors’ purposes or intentions, meta-language, or those “explicit concepts and theories which explain underlying processes” (Kalantzis & Cope, 2000, p. 240) needs to be explicitly taught. To situate this idea more into graphic novels, the New London Group (1996) suggested how the connections between images and letters promote certain values or cultural knowledge and marginalize or negatively portray certain perspectives. Through this process of exercising critical literacy, “Media...are actively involved in processes of constructing or representing ‘reality’ rather than simply transmitting or reflecting it” (p. 20). In the field of critical media literacy, Kellner and Share (2007) argued that “power and information are always linked” (p. 62). Especially in popular media or cultural materials, stories, images and target audience are all intermingled with ideological messages and power relationships. Critical media literacy pedagogy helps readers to question what was naturally assumed and to unpack the voices reflected and not reflected in these messages. Becoming Critical Readers of Graphic Novels: Bringing Graphic Novels Into ... 129 This process raises students’ critical awareness of alternative or other ways of thinking and representing, which naturally lead to embracing diverse ways of thinking about particular issues (Leu & Zawilinski, 2007). As a whole, critical literacy for graphic novels as a type of popular culture is about reading to analyze particular ideologies promoted in reading texts and to envision more democratic ways of representing different perspectives without privileging certain cultural groups’ values or beliefs (Semali, 2003). In the same line of thought, Sefton-Green (2006) insisted that readers become active and independent thinkers as consumers of popular culture, and that readers should develop their capacity to create ‘counter narratives’ with more consciousness for what is missing or marginalized in different reading texts. This study implemented this idea into a reading class and reported students’ development of critical literacy strategies while reading graphic novels. The overarching research problem aims to illustrate the process of Korean elementary school students learning to read graphic novels from the angle of critical literacy. More specifically: 1. How do Korean elementary school students demonstrate their abilities to question and to challenge the dominant ideologies presented in the target graphic novels? 2. How do these readers of graphic novels analyze cultural stereotypes and power relationships portrayed in graphic novels? 3. METHODOLOGY 3.1. Research Design This study follows a critical qualitative research design (Kincheloe & McLaren, 2005, 2008). The researchers wanted to understand how students reacted to the curriculum in natural educational contexts and to thoroughly document the learning experiences of these students. Also, teacher research design (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993) guided this research, as one researcher played the role of teacher, developing her literacy curriculum with her coauthor. Since this topic was rarely researched, thorough observation and illustration of teaching and learning situations through qualitative and teacher research design were appropriate. 130 Seonmin Huh & Young-Mee Suh 3.2. Participants The participants were five male 5th graders and four female 6th graders, studying in an EFL context, at the time this research was conducted. The researchers used purposeful sampling (Martella, Nelson, & Marchand-Martella, 1999) with the following standards: 1) students who had not been exposed to critical literacy and who had a typical grammar and comprehension-oriented reading education; 2) students who had not learned about popular culture or other graphic novels in formal educational settings; and 3) students whose parents were supportive of reading English graphic novels. TABLE 1 Demographic Information Male Student 1 English only kindergarten, private Student 1 English institute, and extensive reading program for 5 years Student 2 Private English institute and extensive Student 2 reading program for 4 years Student 3 English camp for 2 months in the U.S. and English institute and extensive reading program for 4 years Student 4 Study-abroad experience for 3 years in the U. S. and extensive reading program for 6 months Student 5 English camp for 2 months in the Philippines and English tutor for 4 years Student 3 Student 4 Female Private English institute for 4 years with intensive reading focused Private English institute for 4 years with intensive reading focused Private English institute for 4 years with intensive reading focused Private English institute for 3 years with intensive reading focused The male group and the female group were already good friends and had grown up in the same neighborhood. One male student had been abroad for three years and the others had only experienced short-term English camps or trips abroad. Three male students participated in the extensive reading program; however, they only read story books. The female students had been to an English institute for 3-4 years straight, which emphasized vocabulary memorization, grammar, and reading expository texts with comprehension quizzes. All nine participants were considered to be at an intermediate to high level of English based on their average English mid-term and final grades from school exams for two semesters of 2013. 3.3. Data Collection The researchers met the participants for fourteen one-hour reading class sessions. The participants read the assigned graphic novels before coming to class and had discussions Becoming Critical Readers of Graphic Novels: Bringing Graphic Novels Into ... 131 with the researcher, while engaging in different activities about the contents. All the class sessions were observed by the other researcher in this study and field notes were taken. Also, class sessions were video-taped and transcribed for analysis. 3.4. Critical Literacy Curriculum The researchers studied different graphic novels that included different social and cultural issues to be discussed for critical literacy practices. The Diary of Wimpy Kids: Rodrick Rules (Kinney, 2008) was one of the graphic novel series popular among teenagers in Korea. Also, a North American series called Nate (Peirce, 2012) included themes similar to The Dairy of Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth (Kinney, 2008). The first phrase of the curriculum focused on connecting the novels with their own life experiences, and constructing a reading community. The two books, Rodrick Rules and The Ugly Truth, were not included for analysis, because of the shortage of data providing evidence for critical literacy practices. The researchers looked for popular graphic novels set in North America to reflect what could happen in an ESL context and to determine if it could also be taught in EFL contexts. The Archie series (Bloom et al., 2011) were traditional graphic novels about middle school students. The Tintin (Herge, 2010) and Geronimo series (Stilton, 2007) were also available in Korean English bookstores, and the researchers intentionally selected these series because they dealt with the issue of oppression and racial conflict in order to be able to address critical literacy practices. The following table illustrated the curriculum with the numbers of sessions spent per graphic novel with a brief introduction of class activities: All class sessions were taught in an after-school setting, each session lasting one hour. The lessons were conducted in English, but students were free to use Korean. Boys and girls were taught separately because of schedule conflicts. The male group was willing to take risks, using mainly English for their discussion even with many grammar and communicative errors. The female group was extremely uncomfortable with using English, and the researchers had to encourage them to use Korean for better communication and participation. 3.5. Data Analysis The researchers analyzed the data based on an interpretivist approach in the field of qualitative research methods (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). The data collected was recursively and inductively analyzed in order to identify emerging themes to understand students’ means of engaging in critical literacy. Because of the focus of this paper, however, the researchers paid attention to the moments where students exercised critical literacy 132 Seonmin Huh & Young-Mee Suh practices and compiled the transcripts sections in which students exercised critical literacy practices. Table 3 summarizes a brief analysis of the transcripts. TABLE 2 Critical Literacy Curriculum Materials Goals Diary of a Wimpy • To understand students’ Kid Number 2 family/ school lives (Rodrick Rules) • To construct a literary community Diary of a Wimpy • To practice critical social Kid Number 5: practices (to critically The Ugly Truth reflect on social issues portrayed in texts/ making connections to students’ world views) Big Nate Number • To expand on students’ 2: Big Nate personal lives at school / To Makes the Grade articulate their ways of being critical of school culture / To identify cultural differences and similarities between Korea and America The Adventures of • To analyze the main TinTin: TinTin in character’s decisions in America particular situations • To connect to their knowledge about different cultural groups and what the text has us believe about those groups (Stereotypes of different cultural groups) Geronimo • To continue with the above Stilton Graphic on cultural stereotypes and Novel : The what is taken for granted in Discovery of the text America Archie • To analyze gender stereotypes portrayed in the stories and to question the dominant representations of gender Discussion Types Number of Session Two sessions • Comparing/contrasting with their own life experiences (collective poster creation) • Writing your own diary about your school lives (homework) • Understanding power issues Two reflected in the texts about cultures sessions / our everyday practices at school or at home (Oral discussion with short writing/ drawing) • Understanding power issues Two reflected in the texts about cultures sessions / our everyday practices at school • Looking for evidence of Two stereotypes sessions • Creating a summary of the story in drawing • Analyzing the characters and juxtaposing them with American history (Read-aloud and writing activity on the characters) Two sessions • Analyzing magazines for gender Four stereotypes and connecting them to sessions some episodes from Archie (Oral discussion and writing activities on gender) Evidence of students’ critical approaches to reading graphic novels emerged as Table 3 indicates. Two main patterns of critical literacy were: 1) challenging the dominant ideological perspectives (academic standards, racial privileges, and gender); and 2) suggesting alternative or missing perspectives to create a more balanced representation. Becoming Critical Readers of Graphic Novels: Bringing Graphic Novels Into ... 133 TABLE 3 Evidence of Students’ Critical Reading of Graphic Novels Materials Critical Questions Evidence of Critical Reading Big Nate • What makes good students • Challenging what counts as valuable academic Number 2: in school? abilities as one particular perspective, not as an Big Nate • Are there any other talents absolute one to be accepted (all students) Makes the or skills to be included in • Suggesting alternative criteria that seem missing Grade being a good student? from the graphic novel (Only the male group) The Adventures • How are White Caucasians • Unpacking racial stereotypes through inviting of TinTin: and Native Indians treated hidden messages about European descendants and TinTin in in the story? Native Indians (all students) America • Personalizing the issue into their own experiences of racial issues in Korea (only the boys) Geronimo • Is Christopher Columbus a • Questioning the author’s positive representation of Stilton Graphic savior or an inhumane Christopher Columbus (all students) Novel: The explorer? • Articulating racial stereotypes through the lens of Discovery of • How are Native Indians and marginalized groups’ perspectives, which are less America Europeans portrayed? often heard (all the boys) Archie • How do girls and boys act? • Suggesting alternative gender representations as a • What are the expectations of way to challenge the dominant gender roles (all girls and boys? the girls and Male Student 1) The findings will focus on these two themes. 4. FINIDINGS 4.1. Challenging the Dominant Ideological Perspectives: Understanding Marginalization Novels 3, 4, 5 and 6 dealt with the topics of academic standards in school, racial privileges and marginalization, and gender. All these class sessions (14 class sessions) showed moments where students were able to challenge the dominant ideological perspectives. This was interpreted as exercising critical literacy practices, as students moved beyond decoding and reading comprehension and questioned authors’ choices and representations that might marginalize other minorities’ values and perspectives. Only the representative examples were included in this paper. For instance, in Nate, students were asked to identify the characteristics of good students. They learned from the book that teacher considered students who were good at math, science, and English, and who were attentive, and who followed the school rules, as academically competent and desirable. In their initial stance, students accepted these standards as natural and unquestionable, as shown in Male Student 4’s response on lines 1089 and 1090. 134 1080 1081 1082 1083 1084 1085 1086 1087 1088 1089 1090 Seonmin Huh & Young-Mee Suh T: So according to this, if you are good at math, science, and English, you are likely to have good grades. Then you are good students, right? If you are good at it, you are smart! (…) Just like Nate was arguing. I have a good characteristics! I have good talents! Do I have a grade for it? No. He couldn’t get a grade for what he is good at. How do you feel about this? I want to know what you think about this. Male Student 4: Yeah, I think because in schools, T: Uh-huh? Male Student 4: Grade is the most important? And you are doing important things? And good students get a good grade.(…) 1 (Transcript data, January 18th, 2013) However, with the teacher’s guidance, students learned to see how the dominant ideological beliefs about good students focused too much on academic abilities, while other characteristics, such as musical talent, good personalities, and others were actually marginalized, as in Male Student 2’s transcript about challenging academic abilities as an ideological stance. 2891 2892 2893 2894 Male Student 2: I think if a test is important. And but the teacher look at us and teacher see ourselves and so students. Like umm, student doesn’t have a good grade, but if he if he is a kind? Or helps other students? I think he is a good student (…) (Transcript data, January 18th, 2013) Here Male Student 2 suggested being kind to others and willingness to help others as what has been missing from the important criteria of a good student. His move was a direct challenge to the author’s underlying assumption that being a good student was predominantly based upon academic abilities. Challenging the dominant ideology in a similar way, Female Student 1 also mentioned, “I don’t think studying well is enough to evaluate a student as good or not. (…) In fact, the students around him or her know them better than teachers would know or what tests tell about him or her.” (Transcript data, January 18th, 2013). Here, Female Student 1 not only confronted the dominant standards of being a good student, but she also challenged how evaluation was conducted in assessing whether students are good. These moves were interpreted as challenging the 1 All the transcripts were not corrected for any grammar errors to keep the authenticity of the data. Also, Korean expressions were all translated into English by the authors. Becoming Critical Readers of Graphic Novels: Bringing Graphic Novels Into ... 135 dominant view on a social issue as a way to consider marginalized or missing perspectives. On the topic of racial marginalization, students were asked to analyze how Europeans (Novel 5) or white Caucasians (Novel 4) were positively portrayed, while Native Americans were portrayed as rather barbaric, not smart, and uneducated. For example, TinTin, the main character in Novel 4, is a white teenager or pre-teenager and a detective. He is very smart and knows how to take care of risky crimes and dangerous situations with gangsters. Figure 1 is students’ actual writing sample about what they felt about TinTin. The teacher asked them to think of one thing they remember as ‘one memory’ and write about it, after analyzing racial representations in the book, as shown in Figure 1. In Figure 1, Male Students 1 and 4 were very clear that TinTin was very smart and could do anything perfectly, representing him as a very powerful character (a representative writing sample across all the participants). In a particular scene, TinTin was situated in a historical context in which Native Americans were expelled from their lands and the Caucasians tried to make a deal with the Native Americans, treating them as unintelligent and barbaric. The Caucasian characters, however, treated TinTin as a very respectful person, the very opposite of their treatment of the Native Americans. FIGURE 1 Male Student 1 and 4’s Writings on TinTin (Artifact data, January 25th, 2013) The same representations were in Novel 5, where Stilton went back to the same historic moment, representing Caucasians as civilized with luxurious tools and costumes. On the other hand, the Native Americans did not have much clothing and they believed whatever 136 Seonmin Huh & Young-Mee Suh Christopher Columbus told them to believe. They even celebrated the Europeans’ extortion. After analyzing these racial stereotypes, the following conversation took place. 4320 4321 4322 4323 4324 4325 4326 4327 4328 4329 4330 4331 Male Student 4: Well, Europe, they have culture? T: Culture? Male Student 4: Culture. But every country has their own cultures. T: Yes. Male Student 4: So, you have to respect them. T: have to respect each other’s culture. Male Student 1: They are equal. Male Student 2: They should be equal, because they have culture in each country? So, they have to respect? T: Yeah! Male Student 1: I think that native people are different. All of things are different. So, European people have to respect. (…) (Transcript data, February 1st, 2013) In this transcript, these students articulated how it is not fair for the Native Americans to be portrayed in a negative manner and discussed their own cultural practices and the values needed to be equally treated and appreciated. This discussion is a direct challenge to the authors’ descriptions of two cultural groups, based upon the dominant understanding of two cultures. Female Student 1 also eloquently discussed how the authors’ description did not include both groups’ perspectives by emphasizing positive images of Europeans. 3999 4000 4001 4002 4003 4004 4005 Female Student 1: Europeans get more education than native people. They are more middle-class and are unreserved in their manners. But people prefer Europeans to native people. Native people are uneducated, have a barbaric culture, and do not communicate much across other cultures. They tend to have rather liberal, less strict cultural boundaries. But this book does not represent how people prefer Europeans and their barbaric and brutal behaviors (…) (Transcript data, February 1st, 2013) This student recognized how we do not have to accept what we read as the whole truth and understood how certain ideologies were emphasized while others were silenced. By doing so, she seemed to open a space to question the dominant images of Europeans. Male Student 3 became emotional and said, “White people can be stupid!” This is not a derogatory comment, but more about challenging the stereotypical images of White people Becoming Critical Readers of Graphic Novels: Bringing Graphic Novels Into ... 137 as intelligent, smart, and advanced. This is strong evidence of challenging the dominant ideology surrounding racial issues. The last example of challenging the dominant ideologies could be found in Novel 6, Archie. This story strongly stereotyped gender roles and the lessons centered on addressing gender representations. The teacher had the students develop a list of characteristics of boys and girls from Archie and students developed the list for boys as: want to play outside, wild and violent, and like football, while the list for girls included: not good at sports, like to play indoors, don’t know much about the balls, and only concerned about make-up and hair style, as in Figure 2: FIGURE 2 Male Students 1 and 4’s Sample Writings on Gender Representation in Archie Book (Artifact data, February 15th, 2013) Then Male Student 5 said, “Some girls are better than boys at sports!” Male Student 2 also said, “in our class, umm, a girl, one girl in our class, she wins over all the boys even in arm wrestling.” He also thought about Ban Kimun and mentioned, “In this book, boys like to play sports? But I don’t think all the boys like to play sports. Because Ban Kimun didn’t like sports?” In this discourse, we can see how these students were able to challenge gender stereotypes by thinking of different examples that did not fit with the author’s dominant ideologies about appropriate gender roles. Girl group directly opposed these representations of gender in Archie. 138 2190 2191 2192 2193 2194 2195 2196 2197 2198 2199 2200 2201 2202 Seonmin Huh & Young-Mee Suh T: Why would you say no? Female Student 1: Not all women are interested in prettying themselves up. T: That’s a really good point, Student 1. Not every girl is like that. Student 4? Female Student 4: I don’t think women are unable to do sports… T: Right! There are a lot of women athletes! Female Student 2: Men are not all impulsive and there are some calm men as well. T: Yes, yes! Female Student 2: (Some men) can understand women well. Female Student 3: In this book, women practiced hard, and they can possibly do (sports) well (…) (Transcript data, February 8th, 2013) In this discourse, we can see how students talked back to the dominant representation of gender as not inclusive enough to embrace diverse types of gender roles. This is evidence of challenging the dominant gender representations, and thus, evidence of exercising critical literacy (Damico, 2005; Green, 1988). In sum, these examples were all intended to challenge the dominant ideologies that the authors naturalized or unquestionably assumed. Students were able to take critical stances without fully accepting what they read. It furthered Shin and Crookes’ (2005) critical literacy research, in that these students not only negotiated and engaged in genuine communication, but they also demonstrated the ability to challenge what they read. 4.2. Suggesting Alternative Worldviews: Evidence of Balancing Diverse Perspectives Critiquing the dominant ideologies seemed to naturally lead students to suggest alternative worldviews that included missing perspectives. These types of literacy practices were interpreted as more democratic, as they tended to balance diverse perspectives, instead of fully buying into the authors’ beliefs from particular angles. However, these types of literacy practices only occurred in 9 class sessions and some students resisted being critical. This will be analyzed in this section as well as in the Discussion. To start with a way to suggest an alternative worldview, in the discussion on Nate, Male Student 3 introduced a case that the present criteria for being a good student did not function fairly for certain students (lines 1814, 1817, and 1819), and Male Student 4 added that the present ideologies surrounding good students should be adjusted (lines 1826-1828). Becoming Critical Readers of Graphic Novels: Bringing Graphic Novels Into ... 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 139 T: What about you, Student 3? Do you know anyone? Male Student 3: He umm. Umm. He always play with friends? (meaning ‘hang out with friends’) T: Yah? Male Student 3: And he say curse words? T: Oh, really? Male Student 3: (Nodding) umm. (He) annoys people. T: Oh, he annoys people? (…) But does he have a special talent? Male Student 3: Test! T: Test! He is good at taking tests? Oh, then, maybe he shouldn’t be a good student. Because according to the standards of a good student, he is a good student, because of his good grades. How do you feel about that? Do you think it’s fair? Male Student 4: No, because if you are really smart and if you say like a curse word, or like if you are bad, then you can…Umm, everybody hates him? Even if he is smart? T: Yeah, then maybe this list should include good personality. Maybe tests should include some parts about your friendship or your relationship with other people. (…) (Transcript data, January 18th, 2013) This conversation illustrated how Male Student 3’s disruption of the dominant ideology around academic performance had him think of one student who was very appreciated in school because of his academic abilities, while he was not really a good person, annoying others and cursing toward his friends. Using this example, Male Student 4 envisioned an alternative worldview where students should not only be judged by academic performance, but also by their good behaviors and personal relationship with others. These comments started to show evidence of envisioning an alternative worldview where more perspectives were included and expanded to balance diverse lenses through which to view the issue (Kellner & Share, 2007). This is another important exercise of critical literacy. The female group did not show this type of literacy practice. Second, students were engaged extensively in discussions of race, and understood that the Native Americans were usually portrayed as barbaric and unintelligent in their representations, and that Hispanics in TinTin series were mostly gangsters and always tried to commit crimes. The teacher asked them to answer to four questions: 1) Who has more power?; 2) Who are marginalized and weak?; 3) Which perspective is missing about these racial representations?; and 4) How do we know Whites (“Palefaces” in the language of 140 Seonmin Huh & Young-Mee Suh this graphic novel) are powerful and Native Indians are weak? Figure 3 is a representative writing sample from Female Student 2 about TinTin: FIGURE 3 Female Students 2’s Writings on Critical Questions on Racial Stereotypes (Artifact data, January 25th, 2013) In Figure 3, Female Student 2 was clear on the unequal power structure of the different racial groups, and she understood the author did not take into consideration that racial discrimination should not exist. Also, she clarified that the author made intentional decisions representing Whites as powerful with weapons and automobiles and other cultural items that native Indians did not have. Also, their dress code indicated their powerful position, as she analyzed in this writing. This analysis led the male students to discuss racial discrimination in today’s society. Their discussion was not simply challenging the dominant stereotypes, but more intended to imagine an alternative world where racial discrimination would not exist. 1514 1515 1616 1517 1518 1519 1520 1521 1522 1523 1524 Male Student 4: Because red people are born by reds? And black people were born as black? T: Uh-huh. Male Student 4: So you have to respect them? Because they didn’t have any choice! Male Student 2: Because Student 4 said, no choice? And they are same people? Male Student 4: White people can get jobs easier and in school. (…) When in English soccer league? One audience? T: audience? Male Student 4: One audience told Park Jisung something like China. Becoming Critical Readers of Graphic Novels: Bringing Graphic Novels Into ... 1525 1526 1527 1528 1529 1530 1531 141 Out of sight, something like that. Male Student 1: It is really happening now? In America, Indians live here and Americans live there? So it is happening now. (It = racial discrimination; here he refers to Indian Reservations.) Male Student 2: I think in Korea some people think they didn’t saw black people? They hand shake and talk? And some people think it is a little dirty? (…) (Transcript data, January 25th, 2013) Here, while the articulation was not logical, these students were engaged in disclosing the unfairness of racial discrimination, thus co-creating “counter narratives” (Sefton-Green, 2006) that have more moral and ethical values to appreciate racial minorities. This is an implicit indicator of envisioning an alternative worldview without racial discrimination. On the other hand, the female group did not engage in suggesting an alternative worldview, even though they agreed that racial stereotypes could have an unfair impact on minorities. 1680 1681 1682 1683 1684 1685 1686 1687 1688 1689 1690 T: How do you feel about this (racial discrimination)? Female Student 3: Unfair. Female Student 1: Discriminating against people based on skin color is not right. Female Student 2: (We) shouldn’t discriminate against each other! Female Student 1: Africans got dominated because of their lack of power. Female Student 3: The president of America is an African-American and I don’t think discrimination is an issue these days. Female Student 4: I don’t think extreme discrimination exists. Female Student 2: It happened in the past but not now. (…) (Transcript data, January 25th, 2013) While these students seemed to oppose racial discrimination, the second part of their discussion illustrated their lack of connection to the issue, as they failed to construct an alternative worldview from marginalized perspectives. They showed a lack of empathy toward other racial minorities, considering the issue as not existing and no longer serious. This lack of connection might come from students’ lack of taking native Indians’ perspectives or a lack of understanding of the issue as their own. This is contradictory with their reactions to the gender issue. Third, while the female group showed a very critical stance toward gender stereotypes, the male group tended not to apply an alternative worldview to interpret the same issue. In 142 Seonmin Huh & Young-Mee Suh the female group’s discussion, they said. 904 905 906 907 908 909 Female student 2: (In the Archie book) Men like sports and women like make-up and hate sports. And, (in my opinion) people do not have to follow these behavioral patterns. Female student 1: (In this book), men like to play sports, women can’t play sports. I think these are extreme stereotypes. Everyone has their own favorite activities, (…) (Transcript data, February 8th, 2013) They also suggested more diverse ways that gender could be enacted, as Female Student 3 emphasized: “differences are possible.” Female Student 4 mentioned, “It all depends and can be what the writer of Archie describes as typical characteristics of men and women, and it would not be in some other cases.” Female Student 1 also said, “What an individual enjoys is different and they should be able to do what they want to do (regardless of their gender)” in a strong tone. These comments all included strong indicators of critical literacy, in the sense of imagining an alternative worldview where more democratic or broader standards are invited when thinking about gender issues. This is one way to further challenge the authors’ ideologies, as their discourse was more about suggesting alternative perspectives to interpret the issue in a fairer manner. On the other hand, the male group tended not to show any evidence of suggesting an alternative worldview to interpret gender stereotypes as followed. 1009 1010 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015 1016 1017 1018 1019 1020 Male Student 4: Archie likes to play football. In real world, I think it’s true, because most boys like to play sports more than the girls. Male Student 1: Boys like to play football. And I think some boys like to play inside. Male Student 2: In this book, boys like to play sports? But I don’t think all the boys like to play sports? Because Ban Kimun didn’t like sports? Male Student 3: I think it’s true, because my friends like to play soccer. Male Student 5: Boys like sports and play outside. Girls like to play inside and they don’t like play with balls. Umm, I think it’s true, because boys like to play sports and they (girls) like beauty. Like nail art and make-up! (…) (Transcript data, February 15th, 2013) Except for Male Students 1 and 2, all the students did not invite silenced or missing perspectives to have more balanced interpretations about the issue. Instead, they all agreed Becoming Critical Readers of Graphic Novels: Bringing Graphic Novels Into ... 143 with the author on the dominant stereotypes about gender. This is counter-evidence of exercising critical literacy practices. Overall, suggesting alternative worldviews was exercised less than challenging the dominant stereotypes, as it possibly requires more personalization of the issue and situating oneself as marginalized or even oppressed. The discussion of the results will follow next. 5. DISCUSSION First, critical literacy practices seemed to provide strong tools when elementary readers of English were exposed to graphic novels with authentic but less inspected contents for academic use. The participants of this study showed that they were able to confront the dominant ideologies of different social issues and challenge them. Being able to challenge the dominant ideologies was especially critical when students had to selectively choose what to accept and not to accept from the reading texts. We were able to observe how they “spoke back” (Park, 2012) to the texts. For instance, students spoke back to the texts by unpacking the social injustice of commonplace racial stereotypes, gender representations and certain social norms associated with school and academic standards. Also, by challenging the authors’ representations of different social issues, students tended to take more than one perspective—in this case, the perspectives of those with power (people with racial privilege, males) and those who were marginalized or silenced (Native Indians, other racial minorities, women) from the texts. This broadened their perspectives and taught them to embrace other people’s ideas or perspectives in a more mature manner. This approach can contribute to developing English readers with broader perspectives and a deeper ability to analyze missing or implicit cultural beliefs. These types of reading practices should be considered for elementary reading education, especially when graphic novels or other types of cultural materials are implemented. Related to this, critical literacy practices seemed to deepen students’ levels of analysis of graphic novels and the issues included in them. If this class had only addressed decoding and reading comprehension, the teacher would have been satisfied with an accurate understanding of the characters, main events, and story lines. However, as some transcripts have shown in the data analysis, these readers of English were able to take positions on the main social issues, such as gender, race, and academic criteria. Regardless of their degrees of critical reflection, all students took clear positions on the issues; they were also able to think of these issues from the authors’ as well as from missing or silenced perspectives. As a result, they were able to challenge or to suggest an alternative lens to envision these social problems, e.g., a world without racial discrimination and a world with no gender stereotypes. In Shin and Crookes’ (2005) study, they only reported an increase in students’ 144 Seonmin Huh & Young-Mee Suh genuine communication and meaning-negotiation. Furthermore, the participants of this study were able to take strong positions on social issues and invited more than one perspective in their interpretations. These critical literacy practices seemed to situate the readers as more independent and active (Sefton-Green, 2006). Elementary and early childhood reading education tends to focus on making personal connections to the stories, without making any social connections to the texts. However, bringing in a critical literacy approach tends to extend their connections to the social levels, so that these readers can think about an issue not just from their own perspectives, but also from other people’s perspectives (Damico, 2005; Luke & Freebody, 1997). Multiple levels of analysis seem to bring in a very positive and creative approach to elementary reading education. It was also interesting to see how challenging the dominant ideologies were more prevalent than suggesting alternative worldviews. For instance, female readers did not feel empathetic toward racial minorities, while males were less critical about gender issues. Since they were elementary school students, even challenging the dominant ideologies around heavy social issues might not be easy without a teacher’s guidance. However, suggesting alternative worldviews seemed even more difficult for these students, and it was noticeable how their engagement in critical literacy did not progress much when they were not able to suggest alternative worldviews. More specifically, the students (in the discussion of gender issues for the male group and racial discrimination for the female group) tended not to move beyond challenging to actually take other cultural groups’ perspective in order to suggest or envision an alternative worldview with less social marginalization or social injustice. Instead, these students came to agree with the dominant cultural framework that privileges certain groups of people over others. The authors believe that agreeing with dominant beliefs is a personal choice and it is not a problem. On the other hand, agreeing with the dominant cultural framework can also mean not problematizing the beliefs around that framework, which usually takes the perspective of those with power or privilege, because their voices are powerful and often heard, compared to other cultural minorities. Within the notion of critical literacy, this can be problematic, as students should be encouraged to envision a more ethical and socially just world without any type of social marginalization. For this reason, critical literacy classes should take into consideration that suggesting alternative ways of interpreting things or interpreting social issues from alternative worldview, especially those from marginalized backgrounds, is a crucial component in the development of more responsible and ethically sensitive readers of English. Becoming Critical Readers of Graphic Novels: Bringing Graphic Novels Into ... 145 6. CONCLUSION The present paper illustrated how these elementary readers of English were able to challenge the dominant ideological positions in an active manner and could sometimes suggest an alternative worldview that was more geared toward social justice and equality across different cultural groups. Critical literacy becomes more important when students read graphic novels that represent authentic materials without much reflection for educational use. The process of learning how to selectively accept and critique texts is important when using unconventional reading materials in a reading class. Also, elementary EFL students have the potential to become critical readers who can challenge the dominant discourse represented in graphic novels. At the same time, a cautious approach is needed to push beyond challenging and to personalize the issues in order to envision a better world without social marginalization. It takes more intentional and deeper levels of engagement that strongly require teachers’ guidance. This study only focused on the educational moments where students demonstrated their capacity to engage in critical literacy. There were other educational moments that were not the target of the analysis within this paper. Also, even though the teacher played an active and important role in their literacy practices, her pedagogical decisions or efforts were not the focus of the present paper. The teacher’s role in a critical literacy classroom with graphic novels is another topic to be investigated. How these students interact with each other and with the teacher can also contribute to an understanding of the hybrid nature of an elementary reading group, when different social issues are discussed. How these students’ language development can interact with their critical literacy practices could also be an important research topic to be explored in EFL contexts. 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Applicable levels: Elementary Seonmin Huh Dual Degree Department Woosong University 171 Dong-daejeon ro, Dong-gu, Daejeon Woosong Language Institute 602 ho Daejeon, Korea Phone: 070-4609-0131 Cell: 010-4103-3595 Email: [email protected] Young-Mee Suh Department of English Language Education Incheon National University 12, Gaebeol-ro, Sondo-dong, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, Korea Cell: 010-6511-8972 Email: [email protected] Received in December 1, 2014 Reviewed in January 15, 2015 Revised version received in February 15, 2015
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