OF AN UPPER MIDDLE CLASS

This dissertation is a teacher researcher qualitative study that explores the work of critical literacy in an upper middle class public high school. As a participant and an observer, I studied how a confluence of authority, privilege, curriculum, and pedagogy created context and shaped the meaning and quality of our collective literacy learning experiences. Using the tools of teacher research through narrative inquiry, my study traces school authority figures ’ reproduction of dominant ideologies, my struggles as a social justice educator to break through those definitions of “normal ” with a privileged student population, and the hope that resulted when my student