Once Upon a Time…
Using
Fairy Tales
to Teach
Critical
Literacy
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)
Why question fairy tales?
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)
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?
Symbols
Predictability
Archetypes
Concern 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
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
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
3. Examine how the benefits and
disadvantages occur
Four Steps to Critical Analysis
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
3. Examine how the benefits and
disadvantages occur
4. Ask what the implications are for
society
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
Collusion
Resistance
Agency
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.
References
Bourke, 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