Critical pedagogy in classroom: Reflections of critical literacy practices with primary school 4th graders

This research, which was designed according to a case study, aimed to describe and explore the reflections of critical literacy activities on students' critical literacy skills based on the specific objectives, themes and achievements of the primary school 4th grade Turkish course curriculum. 10 boys and 4 girls from the 4th grade of a primary school formed the study group of the research. Data analysis was carried out with an eclectic coding analysis approach in which basic, affective and exploratory coding methods were used together. According to the findings, students made connections from text to text, from text to their own lives and from text to world on personal and sociopolitical issues such as identity, power and human relations, children's rights, gender, refugee, labor and poverty. The critical literacy strategies and techniques used in the research supported the students to reveal their stereotypes and multiple perspectives. They problematized the dilemma of freedom and love, unlimited self-sacrifice, responses to tyrannical powers, wars and the concept of patriotism, and revealed multiple perspectives. In this research, the students showed that they were able to deal with the issues from the perspectives that were ignored with the alternative texts that the authors put forward for their works. They sought ways for children to achieve their rights by eliminating their poverty and accessing quality education. They objected to authoritarian and unqualified management styles and transformed these managerial types in their alternative texts.