What does critical literacy mean in today’s classrooms? According to Miami University researchers Kelli A. Rushek, Katherine E. Batchelor, Julia Beaumont, Ava Shaffer, and Delaney Barrett, it’s about teaching students to question how everyday media—from social apps to sticker trends—shapes identity and power. Their 2024 study, “VSCO Stickers Unpeeled: Engaging Critical and Multiliteracies Pedagogy with Preservice English Teachers” (published in the Journal of Language & Literacy Education), explored how preservice English teachers learned to use critical literacy skills to analyze VSCO stickers—a popular form of visual self-expression among teens.

The study found that these future teachers developed a deeper awareness of how consumer culture and media messages construct ideas of girlhood and womanhood. By examining what images and voices were missing from sticker packs, they confronted stereotypes, gender bias, and the power of marketing in shaping identity. The researchers used a critical feminist pedagogy framework to help participants see how even “simple” visual texts reflect systems of privilege and exclusion.

This work highlights why critical literacy is essential: it empowers students and teachers alike to read the world as a text—to see how language, images, and products carry social meanings. For educators wondering how to incorporate critical literacy into the classroom, this study offers a model of using familiar, engaging media to spark conversations about gender, culture, and representation.

Faculty authors: Kelli A. Rushek, Katherine E. Batchelor (Miami University)
Student co-authors: Julia Beaumont, Ava Shaffer, Delaney Barrett
Keywords: critical literacy, critical literacy skills, feminist pedagogy, multiliteracies, pop culture in education, teacher preparation, media literacy
Publication details: Journal of Language & Literacy Education, Vol. 20, Issue 1 (Spring 2024).

Read on ResearchGate