1. education
2. english as a second language

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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
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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.
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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:
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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
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(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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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Christopher Columbus told them to believe. They even celebrated the Europeans’ extortion.
After analyzing these racial stereotypes, the following conversation took place.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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).
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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the female group’s discussion, they said.
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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.
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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
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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’
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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.
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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. The mixed method research
design will strongly broaden the scope of future studies.
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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: seonmin30@hotmail.com
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: ymsuh012@naver.com
Received in December 1, 2014
Reviewed in January 15, 2015
Revised version received in February 15, 2015