Chapter 7: Becoming Critical Readers: Analyzing Authorship in Texts

In this activity, teacher candidates use Werner’s (2000) eight cultural studies concepts to examine commonly used social studies curricular objects, particularly textbooks, in order to practice modes of questioning that invite critical readings of texts.

So many of the textbooks we use, films we show, and documents we engage are presented to students as author-less. Every text we read and use, however, has an ideological stance, and engages particular issues in some ways and ignores others. A foundational claim embedded in this task is that teacher candidates become familiar with the idea that all texts are produced, authored, and are arguments that make claims about the world rather than simple statements of fact.