Research in the Teaching of English Aug 2025

That Which We Have Left Behind: Developing Critical Sociohistorical Literacies in English Education

Lauren Leigh Kelly Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Abstract

Based on the notion that one’s critical consciousness development is rooted in understanding how the moments and narratives of our collective past construct our realities, this article brings together theories of critical literacy, critical memory, and critical sociohistorical consciousness to offer a literacy framework that can foster students’ radical imagination. By examining data from an ethnographic study of students’ critical consciousness development in a social justice-oriented urban high school, the author examines how a critical sociohistorical literacy approach to teaching classroom literature presents a site for interrogating and disrupting structures of inequity as well as a pathway for young people to cultivate innovative, literary perspectives in pursuit of social change. The framework and examples offered in this work highlight practical approaches for English educators seeking to support critical consciousness development in classrooms as well as the need for youth to develop critical sociohistorical literacies as a component of social activism and future building.

Journal
Research in the Teaching of English
Published
2025-08-01
DOI
10.58680/rte202560145
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Topics
teacher development qualitative research literacy studies race and writing
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