ABSTRACT
This chapter describes and analyzes Simeen's perspectives and teaching practices as she explores with her fifth grade students global literature from a critical literacy stance, through dialogic means, and with social justice ends. It illuminates both the tensions and possibilities of doing such work with students in an affluent suburban school with little cultural diversity and explains the complexities that emerged when Simeen attempted to reconcile the sometimes competing aims of dialogic teaching and critical literacy. Simeen's teaching of Sadako occurred near the end of the school year. Throughout the year, Simeen had incorporated a range of literature set in countries outside the US and exploring a range of social issues and world events, from child migrant workers to the Vietnam War. Simeen's efforts to teach global literature was informed by intertwined perspectives from dialogic teaching and critical literacy.
