Reading Our Place, Writing for Change: Using Critical Literacy as a Pathway to Integrate Sustainability Literacy into Elementary Language Arts

Abstract

Addressing sustainability challenges requires individuals to use language to share ideas, raise awareness, and advocate for change; however, reading and writing skills are often overlooked in sustainability education, and teaching about climate and environmental issues is frequently confined to science or treated as an add-on topic. This study examined the impact of an integrated language arts and sustainability literacy curriculum unit on upper-elementary students’ systems thinking and critical literacy development. The intervention was implemented in seven upper-elementary classrooms in Canada. Using a qualitatively driven design with quantitative components, the study investigated how an educational intervention using an integrated model unit designed using the Language Arts and Sustainability Education Framework and Understanding by Design influenced student learning. The study demonstrated that the integrated model unit supported students’ growth in both critical and sustainability literacy skills. It also revealed that the unit motivated and (re)engaged learners with diverse needs, including those with chronic absenteeism. Overall, the results suggest that critical literacy practices, when aligned with the sustainability components outlined in the framework, can play a meaningful role in developing students’ sustainability literacy and underscore the impact of intentionally designed curriculum in achieving both literacy and sustainability-related goals. Recommendations include (1) developing more integrated curricular resources using the proposed framework, (2) providing teachers with professional development, and (3) embedding sustainability literacy and critical literacy in provincial curricula and learning standards.