Critical Literacy and Deep Reading in Teacher Education through the Novel The Boy at the Back of the Class

Abstract

This article presents a pedagogical experience carried out with student teachers in the first year of the BA in Primary Education at the University of Alicante. The chapter book The Boy at the Back of the Class (2018) by Onjali Q. Raúf served as a unifying thread through the semester to develop critical literacy through deep reading, which involves the in-depth exploration of literary texts approached from different aspects and perspectives in the classroom. Choosing the right text (at the right time) that can appeal to different sensibilities and reading levels is key (Bland, 2019). In this sense, The Boy at the Back of the Class, is presented as an ideal intercultural literary work both for its linguistic content about the classroom and school, as well as for its meaning, with themes in tune with the SDGs such as the refugee crisis, bullying, language barriers and affectivity as a driver for communication. The results of the research carried out  have proven the experience is adequate to fostering deep reading for in-depth learning, as the results of the questionnaires and the testimony of the students involved in the case study demonstrate.