Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy

Publication Date

2026

Abstract

Amid ongoing attacks on teachers and their professionalism, we studied three middle school ELA teachers who exercised their agency to transform their classrooms and curricula through social justice pedagogy (SJP). Using Pantić's (2017) model, we examined their sense of purpose, competence, autonomy, and reflexivity in confronting barriers. This multiple-case study drew on interviews, focus group transcripts, artifacts, and responses to our analysis of their reported beliefs regarding their agency about dialogic talk in literature discussions as part of SJP. We found that teachers' agency, dialogic talk, literature discussions, and SJP were deeply interwoven. Teachers valued dialogic talk in literature discussions as a means of learning, democratic discourse, and social change. Their teaching contexts shaped their transformations, and talk, especially about literature, emerged as a central thread linking student identity, agency, and social justice.

Funding Source

This article was published open access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Wiley.

Comments

First published in Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (2026): https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.70074

DOI

10.1002/jaal.70074

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