ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on The Red Pencil as an example of one girl's tenacity during the Darfur war and examines how she, a Survivor, uses writing to transform her life. The chapter is informed by interpretive strategies of critical content analysis to locate instances of social injustice in texts and educational practices within specific cultural contexts through the use of third world feminist theories on discourses of gender as practiced within global communities. By reflecting on the curriculum decisions authors make daily and the literary texts they select for literacy programs, this basic critical process can reveal whether a teacher's pedagogical practices considers children's divergent experiences. To establish trustworthiness in this study, the author attempted to 'balance between description and interpretation', and situate the analysis within specific theoretical frameworks. Critical content analysis is an appropriate qualitative research method for this type of study. Children's literature about conflicts in Africa seems to thrive in the twenty-first century.
