Engaging Preschoolers with Critical Literacy Through Counter-Storytelling: A Qualitative Case Study

Despite the importance of traditional children’s literature in children’s literacy learning, little is still known about how fairytales can be effectively used for pedagogical purposes to facilitate young children’s critical participation in early literacy instruction. The main purpose of this article is to explore the intersection of literature-based instruction, multimodality, and early critical literacy pedagogies by examining how young children negotiate, represent, and (re)create their voices through engaging in counter-storytelling. The study was conducted at a kindergarten classroom located in a metropolitan city in South Korea. Using a qualitative case study method, multimodal data were collected for 5 months through classroom observations, one-to-one interviews with the parents and the teacher, observational field notes, and children’s artifacts. Findings suggest that it is important for teachers to value young children’s voices as storytellers and create a fluid and dynamic literacy atmosphere where young children explore their voice in exciting, intriguing, and multimodal ways. It also indicates that teachers need to encourage children to think critically and creatively through developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate curricular activities.