Article Critique: Diversity and Disciplinary Literacy
Brooke Sigman
School of Education, Liberty University
Article Critique: Diversity and Disciplinary Literacy
Teachers should convey their students from their current location to their destination to
meet their individual needs. Examining Preservice Teachers' Perceptions of Planning for Culturally
Relevant Disciplinary Literacy is the title of the study I selected for this critique. Valerie Taylor,
Kristen Gregory, and Jamie Colwell. Reading and comprehending the material is a necessary skill
for any academic topic. Regardless of the subject—science, math, English, or social studies—
reading and comprehension call for distinct skills. Throughout this critique, you will find an
overview, a description of its potential applications in the classroom, and a general assessment of
it.
Summary
This academic paper by Colwell, Gregory, and Taylor focuses on culturally appropriate
disciplinary literacy instruction and contains a qualitative multiple-case study. The four academic
disciplines that were represented in the study were art, history, physical education, and English.
The purpose of this case study was to understand how culturally relevant teaching strategies may
complement disciplinary literacy areas and their requirements. In this instance, a 16-week study
focused on preservice teachers enrolled in a topic area literacy course. Four preservice teachers'
planning and perceptions of preparing for culturally and socially appropriate disciplinary literacy
instruction in secondary disciplines were investigated in this qualitative multiple case research,
according to the publication. Art, English, history, and physical education (P.E.)/health were the
four subjects represented (Colwell et al., 2020).
Considering the many examples the researchers’ individual experiences were analyzed to
identify parallels and discrepancies. This study to sought to understand how a second literacy
course and its prerequisite’s function, and the paper placed a strong emphasis on culturally
relevant disciplinary literacy The study was conducted in the mid-Atlantic region of the United
States at a large, metropolitan public research institution. This was required since it required a
specific degree of discipline competence to guarantee that the results were trustworthy and
backed up by strong evidence. An author instructed preservice teachers in a course on literature
technique=s. Nonetheless, this course’s main goal was to give prospective educators a foundation
in literacy perspectives and how to apply literacy strategies to content-area instruction.
Classroom Applications
In this case, the course had 15 female preservice teachers and 3 male preservice teachers.
To participate in the case study, eleven preservice teachers—two of whom were physical
education teachers, one of whom was an art teacher, four of whom were English teachers, four of
whom were history teachers, and one of whom was female—signed an Institutional Review
Board. Four of these eleven people were selected to represent one person in each of the four
subject areas. The participant in the art activity was selected following this assignment. "This
process resulted in our final pool of participants (see Table 1)," the article said. Ariel (fine art),
Casey (English), Nadi (history), and Hallie (P.E.) were the four PSTs who acted as cases. (2020).
Ariel first questioned the role of reading in the arts. However, she was adamant that art
required civilization. She ultimately found that the idea of disciplinary literacy complemented her
art courses at university, and she used a lot of what she had learnt to her 4E project (2020). Casey
had made the connection between disciplinary literacy and the actions and instruction that were
emphasized in her theme. However, she occasionally struggled to properly adjust to using the
CRDL lens when teaching English to all her students. The article claims that despite her difficulties,
she tried to take socially relevant concerns like gender issues into account when making her plans
(2020).
Nadi believed that teachers should "assist students in directly comprehending the effects
of media on history and society" and that studying this topic independently was more successful
than studying it as a byproduct of learning about a historical event. Nadi concluded that she could
effectively instruct CDRL after comparing her own educational experiences. She concluded that it
would improve students' social skills, subject-matter literacy, and disciplinary literacy. "Nadi's
concern highlights apprehension regarding content coverage and standardized test preparation,
which directly challenged her consideration of using CRDL," the report claims (2020).
Finally, Hallie made a connection between CDRL and the necessity of creating a classroom
that is more wholesome and culturally sensitive. The primary factors influencing Hallie's CDRL
integration were her family life, the links between homes and schools, and the personal living
arrangements of the students. She began by thinking about how her students' backgrounds
influenced their sleeping patterns and daily routines. This raised the possibility that their diet and
degree of activity could affect their physical health. "Hallie seemed to eventually embrace CRDL
and how it might be supported in P.E." (2020) is the article's conclusion. The paper also discussed
how her CRDl preparation did not meet Ladson-Billings' (2014) goals of developing critical
consciousness, building cultural competency, and gauging student achievement using culturally
appropriate criteria.
Overall
In addition to being quite entertaining, this essay offers helpful information. The strongest
aspects of this essay were the actual study and the wide range of topic categories covered.
However, I think that if both male and female instructors had been included in the final pool—for
example, two female teachers and two male teachers—the study might have been more
representative. I believe that this would have provided CDRL with a more comprehensive
perspective. By having each participant try the identical CDRL integration—a controlled
instruction supplied by the researchers—and contrasting it with the ones they independently
developed, I would have also increased the study's thoroughness. The text was easy to read and
understand despite this. The information was trustworthy and useful for teaching.
References
Colwell, J., Gregory, K., & Taylor, V. (2020). Examining Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions of
Planning for Culturally Relevant Disciplinary Literacy. Journal of Teacher Education,
002248712091385. https://doi.org/10.1177/00224871209
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