Once Upon a Time…Once Upon a Time…

Using Using Fairy Fairy

Tales to Tales to Teach Teach Critical Critical LiteracyLiteracy

What is our role as teachers?

“I began to liken my role as teacher to that of a bridge over which my students could cross in their progression from readers who accepted text as it was to readers who questioned text on a regular basis”

(Bourke, 2008)

Why question texts?

“We are situated in and constructed by the discourses to which we have access, and these discourses allow us to

organize, understand,

and explain our experience…

Why question texts?

“… In any culture, at any given time, we are positioned within competing discourses as we constantly form and reform our subjectivities…”

Why question texts?

“…We can only take up reading positions that exist within our discursive histories.”

(Parsons, 2004)

The way children see themselves in books affects their identity formation

(Hurley, 2005)

The perception that text is authoritative…suppresses the reader’s license to challenge… assumptions, beliefs, ideologies

(Bourke, 2008)

Why question fairy tales?

Fairy tales serve two purposes

1. To unite a society

by preserving culture

and cultural

traditions

Fairy tales serve two purposes

2. To promote and perpetuate ideologies of • Religion• Justice• Ethics• Individual

responsibility• Societal

responsibility• Gender• Power

How do fairy tales do so?

SymbolsPredictabilityArchetypesConcern with power

The Role of Fairy Tales

Fairy tales rely on easily identified

The Role of Fairy Tales

Fairy tales rely on easily identified plots

The Role of Fairy Tales

Fairy tales rely on easily identified plots

•The quest•Voyage and return•Comedy•Tragedy•Rebirth•Overcoming the monster•Rags to riches

The Role of Fairy Tales

Fairy tales rely on easily identified symbols

The Role of Fairy Tales

Fairy tales rely on easily identified symbols

The Role of Fairy Tales

Fairy tales rely on easily identified symbols, especially color

EVIL GOOD

The Role of Fairy Tales

Fairy tales rely on easily identified gender roles, for girls

The Role of Fairy Tales

Fairy tales rely on easily identified gender roles, for boys

The Role of Fairy Tales

Fairy tales rely on easily identified power differentials

The Role of Fairy tales

Thus, they provide an accessible text

to students to begin using the tools of critical literacy to question texts

and the dominant culture.

Why teach critical analysis?

“[Critical analysis] helps readers to unpack power relationships” which can “change not only how they approach literature but also how they perceive the world around them”

(Kelley, 2007), (Bourke, 2008)

Four Steps to Critical Analysis

1. Examine the characters’ actions in regard to how power is exercised

Four Steps to Critical Analysis

2. Identify which characters benefit from or are disadvantaged by the power that is exercised

1. Examine the characters’ actions in regard to how power is exercised

Four Steps to Critical Analysis

3. Examine how the benefits and disadvantages occur

1. Examine the characters’ actions in regard to how power is exercised

2. Identify which characters benefit from or are disadvantaged by the power that is exercised

Four Steps to Critical Analysis

4. Ask what the implications are for society

2. Identify which characters benefit from or are disadvantaged by the power that is exercised

1. Examine the characters’ actions in regard to how power is exercised

3. Examine how the benefits and disadvantages occur

The Power Continuum

Domination: power over someone or something

Domination

The Power Continuum

Collusion: internalized oppression that is either conscious or unconscious

Domination Collusion

The Power Continuum

Resistance: the conscious effort to challenge oppressive practices

Domination Collusion Resistance

The Power Continuum

Agency: power with someone or something rather than power over or power to: collective action

Domination Resistance AgencyCollusion

As students examine the continuum of power in fairy tales, they move along the continuum of power to agency, a collective action.

Why does agency matter?

“The underpinning of the power of agency is a firm conviction about social justice and the action of working toward power with. Social justice inspires the power of agency and to use agency is to make a positive difference in the world.”

(Kelley, 2007)

Implication

“If critical literacy could expose such insidious ideologies from the pages of such a supposedly benign genre, it might also provide my students the opportunity to recognize and deconstruct the similarly covert narratives of mainstream society.”

(Bourke, 2008)

“The students, no longer docile listeners—are now critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher…”

(Freire, 2000)

…and so they live happily ever after.

ReferencesBourke, R.T. (2008). First graders and fairy tales: One teacher’s action research of critical

literacy. The Reading Teacher 62(4), 304-312. DOI 10.1598/RT62.4.3

Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. NY, New York: Continuum.

Hurley, D.L. (2005). Seeing white: Children of color and the Disney fairy tale princess. The

Journal of Negro Education, 74(3), 221-232. Retrieved from DOI 10.1598/RT62.4.3

Kelley, J.E. (2007). Power relationships in Rumpelstiltskin: A textual comparison of a traditional

and a reconstructed fairy tale. Children’s Literature in Education, 39(1), 31-41. DOI

10.1007/s10583-006-9039-8

Parsons, L.T. (2004). Ella evolving: Cinderella stories and the construction of gender-

appropriate behavior. Children’s Literature in Education, 35(2), 135-154. DOI 0045-

6713/04/0600-0135/0