Exploring critical literacy of elementary school teacher education students through semantic studies

Nanda Veruna Enun Kharisma; Yunita Miftahul Jannah

doi:10.55942/pssj.v5i9.644

Authors

Nanda Veruna Enun Kharisma Universitas Negeri Surabaya https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3475-5169
Yunita Miftahul Jannah Universitas Katolik Parahyangan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7911-6908

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55942/pssj.v5i9.644

Keywords:

critical literacy, semantic study, text meaning, elementary school teacher education

Abstract

Developing critical literacy is crucial for elementary school teacher education students to understand texts beyond their literal meanings. This study aimed to describe students' critical literacy skills in interpreting texts from a semantic perspective. Using a descriptive qualitative approach, data were collected from text analysis assignments and class presentations of 30 students and analyzed using the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña. The findings indicate that students performed well in identifying denotative meanings, demonstrated moderate ability in interpreting connotative meanings and synonymy/antonymy relationships, but struggled with hyponymy/polysemy relationships and ideological or contextual reflection. These results suggest that students are more adept at understanding literal meanings than at interpreting implicit or contextual meanings. This study highlights the importance of explicitly integrating semantic studies into teacher education programs to strengthen prospective teachers' critical literacy, particularly in analyzing complex meaning relationships and the ideological dimensions of texts.

Author Biographies

Nanda Veruna Enun Kharisma, Universitas Negeri Surabaya

Nanda Veruna Enun Kharisma, M.Pd., is a lecturer at State University of Surabaya. She earned her bachelor's degree from Yogyakarta State University in the Elementary School Teacher Education program. She then earned her master's degree from the same university, majoring in Elementary School Education. She currently teaches in the Elementary School Teacher Education program at the Unesa Faculty of Education. She specializes in elementary education and literacy.

Yunita Miftahul Jannah, Universitas Katolik Parahyangan

Yunita Miftahul Jannah, M.Pd., is a lecturer at Parahyangan Catholic University. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Primary School Teacher Education at the State University of Malang and later earned her master’s degree in Basic Education from Yogyakarta State University. She is currently teaching in the Primary School Teacher Education program at the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Parahyangan Catholic University. Her academic interests center on basic education as well as literacy and numeracy development.

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