International Journal of Indonesian Studies Volume 1, Issue 1 | Page 6

International Journal of Indonesian Studies, Vol 1 2013
THE STUDY
Research questions
There were three main research questions that I explored in this study.
1. How is critical literacy designed and implemented in an Indonesian secondary
school?
2. Does critical literacy pedagogy empower students to become critically literate?
3. What impacts does critical literacy have on students‘ motivation to learn English?
Research design
As the study seeks to provide ways to design and implement a critical literacy approach
in EFL classes, action research is employed as the methodology of this research.
Action research is a methodology that emphasises diagnosis, action and reflection
(McNiff & Whitehead, 2002). It usually starts with identifying problems faced by
participants in the research that require improvement. According to Zuber-Skerritt
(1996), action research is aimed at practical improvement, innovation and a better
understanding from the practitioners involved with their own practice. As a tool for
change and innovation in education, action research can be used as an appropriate
methodology of research in different areas including in learning strategies, evaluative
procedures, and continuing professional development for teachers and teaching
methods as in replacing a traditional method with a discovery method (Cohen, Manion,
& Morrison, 2007).

Therefore, action research is relevant to this study because it

involves a change and innovation in the practice of English language teaching at the
research site.
The method of action research applied in this study is based on the seminal contribution
of Kemmis and McTaggart (1990) who described cycles of action research: plan, act,
observe and reflect. This will be further explained in the Procedures Section below.
Participants
This study is part of my doctoral research that I conducted in Bandung, West Java
province. My fieldwork started in July – December 2010. I began recruitment by sending
letters to several schools in this region. The school that participated in the study was
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