Where identification promises the fulfilment of desire, reason cannot compete (Janks, 2002, 10).

Janks’ (2002) article, Critical Literacy: Beyond Reason, serves as the basis for the argument I make here: that the role of self (in relation to identity, place, politics and desire) is, for its part, a vital component for critical literacy practice. While Janks (2002) explores this in relation to the reading of texts and students’ investment in particular topics or kinds of representations, I aim to consider how making space for students’ personal reflections and thoughts might enable them to make the critical turn in placing themselves in, around or outside of the relations of power being explored in the critical literacy classroom. That is, how might students engage with how relations of power, as explored through text and language use, have positioned them, their identities and ideological stances?

The author uses critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1989) to present and analyse how 2nd-year undergraduate Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) students at a prominent university in Johannesburg, South Africa, unpacked issues of gender and sexual diversity through reflective writing in a critical literacy course. The findings suggest the need for sustained critical reflexive writing in the classroom and continued research in critical literacy as both rationalist and affective. The students who participated in this research revealed the ways in which critically reflexive writing might be used to create a space where students place themselves into the content and relations of power being studied, identify and unpack the ways in which discourses of power have informed their own identities over time, and, perhaps, develop the capacity to position themselves in more socially conscious ways (see also Govender, 2018 and 2019).  The data presented here is limited and illustrates only a fraction of how students might use reflective writing to come to terms with controversial topics, place themselves in the systems of power/marginalisation/subordination/subversion being explored, and negotiate the internal contradictions of transformation. Four major themes emerged: (1) how students represent their own gendered and/or sexual identities as social practices, (2) gender as intersectional, (3) gender as perceived as ‘transforming’ or ‘transformed’, and (4) the relationship between gender and sexuality. However, this data also suggests that there is potential for this practice to have a greater role in classroom practice, a deeper effect on learners’ understanding of self and society, and further research on the impact of critical reflexivity in the classroom.

            This is particularly important if the people in critical literacy classrooms are to address controversial relations of power, identity and politics such as those related to gender and sexual diversity. For example, with the recent marriage equality act the was passed in Australia, a deluge of homophobic slogans began to take over media space. This included statements from political and public figures in Australian government “equating homosexuality to bestiality” (Muller, 2017; see original statement in Jones, 2012) as well as protest banners against marriage equality with the words “straight lives matter” (Cooper, 2017; see also Mercer, 2017). Or, in South Africa where the belief that homosexuality is unAfrican still persists in the discourses of the everyday (Bhana, 2013; Jagessar & Msibi, 2015). How, then, when issues are so contentious, do teachers and students explore them in constructive and critical ways? In this article, I propose the need for critical literacy classrooms to allow students and teachers the space to explore power in relation to self: how does one position oneself in relation to privilege and subordination in the process of reimagining society and social justice?

From 2015 to 2017 I ran a critical literacy module for second-year Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) students at a prominent university in Johannesburg, South Africa. This course primarily explored the theories and practices of a critical literacy approach by unpacking the relationship between language, literacy and power for secondary schooling level classrooms using issues related to gender and sexual diversity as the example social issue (see Govender, 2018). This social issue was selected, amongst other prominent social issues in South Africa and globally such as race, class, (dis)ability, and so on, for its persistent sensitivity and controversy associated with gender and sexual diversity (Bhana, 2013). In total, 106 undergraduate students registered for the English 2 course, of which the critical literacy module was one part. What sets this apart from other research in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) is the compulsory nature of the module – all students registered for English 2 were required to complete the module on critical literacy as part of their degree. While participation in the research was voluntary, the module itself was not an elective. Thus the cohort of students was diverse and included participants along a spectrum of investment (Darvin & Norton, 2015). The data set includes the reflexive, autobiographical writing produced by students during a homework task. Of the 106 students, only 6 students who submitted their notebooks for use in the research project completed this task. Robert Hamblin’s (in Morgan, Marais & Wellbeloved, 2009) autobiographical poem on being transgender was analysed and discussed as a model text. Students were then asked to consider writing their own autobiographical piece as a reflection of how they think they were socialised into gender. The vignettes were analysed using CDA (Fairclough, 1989) to reveal patterns across the data as well as how individual students constructed their experiences and explored the intersections between gender identity with other categories, such as class, religion, tradition, language or culture. The module was also premised on nondisclosure of one’s identity (lecturer/researcher or students) in any form and students were allowed to choose whether or not to participate in the task itself. That is, at no point during the module were students asked to identify their own sexual orientations or gender identities (Govender, 2018). Therefore, any claims that students made about their own identities were in keeping with the ethical considerations of the research project and were completely voluntary.

Living in a world full of hatred and rage … where much is beyond reason, that is the territory that I now need to explore. (Janks, 2002, 22). Critical literacy seeks to equip teachers with the capacity to confront and transform discourses in and out of schools. However, to consider education beyond rationality, logic or formulaic reasoning is necessary when using the classroom as a medium to address social issues that are often bound to emotive responses. Issues related to gender and sexual diversity, for instance, can tug at often hegemonic lines of reasoning informed by faith, heterosexism, patriarchy, and histories of symbolic and material violence. In situations such as this, it is very easy for social justice work to be read as a threat to a normativity fighting to remain relevant (Butler, 1993; Connell, 1995). I have used Janks’ (2002) notion of the ‘territory beyond reason’ and various constructions of (critically) reflexive writing (Door, 2014; Spalding & Wilson, 2002; Yancey, 1998) to argue for the inclusion of personal, emotive and authentic engagement with social issues as part of everyday classroom practice for critical literacy teachers and learners. The data presented here illustrates only a fraction of how students might use reflective writing to come to terms with controversial topics, place themselves in the systems of power/marginalisation/subordination/subversion being explored, and negotiate the internal contradictions of transformation. However, this data also suggests that there is potential for this practice to have a greater role in classroom practice, a deeper effect on learners’ understanding of self and society, and further research on the impact of critical reflexivity in the classroom. Perhaps a longer-sustained practice of critically reflexive writing is what is needed, as well as processes of self and peer evaluations or feedback.

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