The application of Personal Construct Theory to critical literacy and language analysis

How do learners construct their understanding of the world and how in turn can we develop an accurate understanding of those constructs? This presentation develops the findings from a recently completed doctoral study which explored the interplay between literature written for children, literature written by children and wider sociocultural constructions of professional identity. Framed by an exploration of sociocultural perceptions of teachers, the research developed a method for analysing personal constructs and identifying cultural influences. As part of the study, the principles of Personal Construct Theory (Kelly, 1956) were applied to literary analysis as well as participant interviews in an original process that highlighted the interplay between the real and the imagined through language. In order to explore how learners construct the teacher as a narrative tool, a comparative analysis of children’s and primary teacher trainees’ perceptions of professional identity was undertaken. A total of 22 year 5 pupils and ten students coming to the end of their teacher training degree participated in the research. Narrative methodologies led to the collection and analysis of a rich dataset which not only reflected common sociocultural depictions of teaching from literature but also indicated the aspirations and expectations from pupils and students alike. This paper describes how the study led to an understanding that teaching critical literacy skills can empower children in recognising the system of constructs within a text through an analysis of the language, encouraging a more thoughtful approach to recognising socio-cultural bias.