Critical literacy out of the comfort zone : Productive textual tantrums

The authors of this chapter collaborated across two continents, two philosophical stances, and numerous electronic devices over a period of 18 months to examine how hidden pressures and traditions in academic research affect us at a deep level and threaten to undercut core principles of critical literacy research and instruction. Specifically, we were drawn to scrutinize how our attitudes, understandings, and motivations as researchers are themselves features of an economic system that functions within and replicates the very inequalities we aspire to disrupt. Analyzing texts of varying origins (e.g., a children’s book on climate change and a study that explored the experiences of contingent researchers in the UK and Australia)—while simultaneously applying what we knew from Dorothy Smith’s institutional ethnographies of text-reader social interactions and Michel Foucault’s work on relations of power—pointed to knowledge production rife with promises for moving critical literacy out of the comfort zone. Implications of that move for pedagogy, research, and academic responsibility are discussed in advance of offering recommendations for future research and praxis