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This paper aims to explore alternative literacy instruction with incarcerated youth, add to the body of existing literature documenting the literacy of those incarcerated and investigate the construction of book clubs through a critical lens.

This qualitative case study answered the following research questions: What can a critical book club reveal about the literacy lives of these incarcerated youth? What can we learn from incarcerated youth through a critical book club? Data were collected through participant observation and in-depth interviews and analyzed using a critical literacy framework.

Findings indicate students used text connections to critically reflect on selves and schools. They questioned issues of power, particularly the power of literacy in their own lives as well as the power of schools, teachers and curriculum. The paper concludes with the authors’ critical reflection on both the findings and process which results in implications for future book clubs in settings with incarcerated youth.

As educators, administrators and community members living in the “age of incarceration” (Hill, 2013), there is a social responsibility to design curriculum and pedagogy that expands instruction in correctional facilities.

The need for expanded literacy instruction in juvenile detention centers has been widely documented and supported; however, conventional methods of teaching literacy are not always successful for youth who may not have had positive experiences with traditional schooling. This study expands and explores literacy instruction with incarcerated youth through book clubs, an alternative literacy structure which challenges traditional curricula, pedagogical practices and culturally irrelevant texts which often contribute to the alienation and disempowerment of many students. Book clubs can facilitate new understandings through a critical lens.

The purpose of the paper is to provide a detailed account of pre-service teachers’ viewpoints on the use of tableaux as pedagogy to analyse short stories in secondary schools based on their exposure to the use of tableaux and their active participation in the process of tableau creation.

The study adopted a qualitative approach and a phenomenological design as it provides a detailed account of PGCE English Methodology pre-service teachers’ views on the use of tableaux to teach a short story. The data collection method used was written narratives based on the participants’ detailed accounts of their learning during the process of tableau creation and their viewpoints on the use of such an approach in the teaching of literature within secondary school contexts. The “rich, thick data” extracted from the written narratives were analysed thematically.

The findings indicated that although pre-service teachers were initially sceptical towards the use of tableaux as a strategy to teach a short story, as they grew in their understanding of the practices involved their insights into the themes, motifs and characters’ emotional, personal and psychological states of being were enhanced.

Research in the use of tableaux as a strategy for pre-service teachers to critically analyse and engage with short stories is a novel approach to teaching and limited research has been conducted in the field.