NARRATING A SELF-STUDY: AN EMPATHETIC APPROACH TO TEACHING HUMAN BEINGS THE POWER OF LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to improve my own teaching practice that aims to build on the strengths of the diverse backgrounds of all students in my Grade 8 English Language Arts & Reading classroom at a middle school in Texas, focusing on empathetic approaches. As a secondary ELAR teacher, I am ethically navigating culturally-responsive and effective instructional practices, which are defined as: ◦ using students’ individual cultural backgrounds to support their reading/writing instruction ◦ incorporating current sociopolitical events and/or issues to engage students and promote reading/writing growth/development ◦ hosting small-group democratic discussions initiated by required skills—including units of argument, (in)effective rhetorical techniques, and synthesizing information.

In post-COVID-19 America, the communities behind students—in particular, historically-oppressed minority students—continue to struggle with how to better support their students who have fallen into the learning “gap”, having lost several grade levels worth of reading and writing comprehension. In the midst of this, sociopolitical issues continue to swell across the country—from mass shootings in K-12 public schools to protests stemming from white-on-black atrocities. The reality is that the American education system has not changed since the early 1950s, specifically with regards to educational standards that underlie instructional methods.

Therefore, the plan is to be able to research my own teaching practices to answer the following question: How does the frame of critical literacy pedagogy equip teachers to facilitate learning with a more instructionally equitable approach to fostering diverse students’ academic growth? Students’ academic quality and successes/failures rely heavily on the systemic and sociopolitical influences (as aforementioned), as well as their classroom environment. My research aims to draw on foundational and current research in critical and culturally responsive pedagogies to examine the relationship between the ethical duties English Language Arts & Reading (ELAR) teachers are bound to foster, as well as the culturally-sustaining pedagogical practices that have the ability to acknowledge and nurture these identities and accomplishments of ELAR students.